Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Retail Refined, our market scale podcast with your host, me, Melissa Gonzales. Today, I'm excited to have True Religion on as my guest in addition to their partner, Corey Mighetti. Joining us from True Religion is Kristen Darcy, who is True Religion's first ever chief marketing officer. She's responsible for all aspects of marketing at the brand, including content creation, creative brand, public relations, influencers, social media partnerships, and philanthropy. She is busy. She began her career on the agency side of the business and has worked with accounts with large organizations such as RGA and Tribal DDB Worldwide. In addition to being the agency side, she's no stranger to the brand side, having worked with a roster of extremely established brands such as Ralph Lauren, Oscar de la Renta, American Eagle Outfitters, Pacific Sunwear. And if her history doesn't talk for itself, her work has been recognized through numerous industry accolades such as Ad Age's best marketers under forty and Ad Age's top digital marketers list and Brand Innovators' top fifty women in brand marketing list. So a lot of accomplishments there. In addition to Kristen, as I mentioned, joining with us today is Corey Meghetti, former NBA star that I'm sure many of you are familiar with in the LA Clippers and from the Golden State Warriors. He is known for his explosive scoring abilities and athleticism that he brought to the NBA for fourteen years. In addition to that, you know, if you looked up Corey today, he finds passion in sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience and mentorship and coaching. Off the court, he has worked with children as a member of the Clippers reading all star program. And if you haven't heard of it, his uh-oh, Meghetti o kids program that brought hundreds of children to the Clippers games for free. So bringing that mindset of community and collaboration to true religion, really excited to dive in today's conversation with both Kristen and Corey, learn a little bit more about how they're authentically bringing sports and more to the brand and to their consumer. So, Kristen and Corey, thank you so much for joining me today. Feel like I gave the most high level introduction possible. So maybe you can tell the audience a little bit about each of you, Kristen, your role with the brand, and, Corey, your partnership. Thank you so much for the introduction, Melissa. And it's funny because I think some people know Corey and I went to high school together in Oak Park, Illinois. And as you were sort of rattling off our backgrounds, I'm thinking, who are these people? Yeah. And and how did they get from, you know, Oak Park to to where we are today? So, thank you again for having us. You know, in terms of, I guess, a little bit more of a background with regard to true religion, I was brought in about a year and a half ago by Michael Buckley, our incredible CEO, and he really has focused on bringing back true religion, I think back to its roots. He joined in twenty nineteen. He sort of overhauled the leadership team, really looked at product, brought in a new incredible designer in Tina Blake in order to grow our women's business and the business overall. And I was his last hire just about a year and a half ago. And his mission was very, very clear to me. It was I believe that this brand is and continue to be a lifestyle brand. He said, I believe that we can be a billion dollars plus in sales. And to do that, we need incredible marketing. We need to acquire millions of new consumers. And he said, I think you're the person to take us to the next level, in addition to the other hires that he had made. So I feel very, very humbled to have worked for some incredible brands. You mentioned them, and could not be more thrilled to be here right now with Michael and my counterparts, at TrueReligion. Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. And, Corey, and you barely touched upon the fact that you guys know each other, but do you wanna tell the audience a little bit about that too? Well, I'm just gonna tell the audience that I definitely helped Kristen with all of her English papers back with missus Mark's class. So we're gonna throw that out there. But, and we have it it's it's amazing to look at Kristen and I, our journey, you know, from Fenwick High School. I believe we went to one of the best high schools in the entire world, to be quite frank. The way they have innovated, not only the students there and even the alumni now, we've tried to continue to share our message and why Fenwick High School was so great to us. And, you know, definitely, Kristen and myself, we are we are product of that. And when I think about the True Religion brand and how this all came about, I mean, you I look at Kristen and what she's done with every single company she's been a part of. But more importantly, the the partnership with True Religion, it was truly based off of, first, our friendship. And the friendship led to, hey, Corey. What do you think about True Religion? And it brought up some of the memories back when I was a kid during that time when we went to went to high school and how True Religion brand was so impactful. And, you know, I set this back at the form the CEO form we talked about about the amazing stitch stitching that they had on their jeans, and everyone wanted to wear True Religion jeans. And and now Kristen is in a great position to continue to expand the brand with her creativity from all the other brands that she was involved in. And for me, you know, honestly, it is an honor to be involved with True Religion, to have a great partnership with that brand, but more importantly, to work with a fellow classmate. You don't see that too often that people that have went to she her her span of her job is taking her to New York. So she's more a New Yorker than just a Chicagoan. Okay. And and now I'm I'm more a Californian than a Chicagoan, but we have, you know, continued to bring this synergy together and to see where we both have come from. And for me playing fourteen years in the NBA and where it's brought me now, not only for us from a mentorship for kids and continue to do clinics. I'm right now in Vancouver as we speak, doing a basketball clinic here. So I enjoy what I do. I know Kristen, she enjoys what she has done, and she's gonna continue to innovate the company of TrueReligion. I love that. I love that. I can feel all love. I love it. Yeah. Thank you for that, Corey. So let's dive in a little bit too because, you know, even through this dialogue right now, you could feel the authenticity in this collaboration that's happening. But True Religion is no stranger to collaboration. So I wanna start with, what is your North Star, Kristen, at True Religion? Like, what drives authenticity in collaborations, and what do you think makes them work? I think, you know, we've always been rooted in sports, music, and culture. And so the authenticity piece comes from our history. We've been around for twenty two years. You know, twenty two years ago, the Black Eyed Peas and Jim Jones were rapping about the brand. Serena and, Venus Williams wore us. And when you look at the timeline of culture, music, and sports, there really has been no shortage of the brand staying persistent in culture throughout that time. So I think, number one, we are authentic because we've always been this way, very, very connected to community and to culture. How do you facilitate that go forward? You know, Corey is a great example of that as being part of Team True. I love agencies. You mentioned some of the agencies I've been with early on in my career, and I definitely believe in their value. What's different about Team True is that we handpick every single person to be a part of the team. And the reason I think that's so different is that we have a genuine one on one relationship with these people. So whether it's Corey, he and I have known each other. I'm I'm not gonna tell you how long because then you'd know what year well, we've known each other forever. And then in addition, I get texts from other people that are on Team True all the time. Hey. I have an idea. I have a product idea. I have a collab idea. Hey. This person, this celebrity wants to talk to the brand. And I don't think you would get that sense of authenticity and genuineness in the connection between the brand and these people on Team True if it was done through a third party. So that's how I think we're able to keep authenticity go forward through Team True. The other way is the faces that we pick on a bigger level for these big campaigns genuinely love and have worn the brand for years. So during the CEO, summit a couple weeks ago, I talked about, Quavo and the tattoo. You know? We picked Quavo to start our holiday campaign last year because we had seen him wearing the brand, and we thought, great. There's a genuine authentic love. It isn't just about getting a paycheck to be in the campaign. So check number one. We then got him on set and couldn't make this up. My team didn't even plant this. It was an entirely true story. He rolled up his sleeve, and on his arm is a tattoo that says True Religion. And he said I Dedicated. He said I love this brand so much in my late teens. My friends and I stole a tattoo gun, and we got True Religion tattoos. And he said, so this is special full circle moment for me because now I'm the face of your campaign. And so we strategically select the right people that, again, you know, have a love for this brand and and the products. I love that. And that is you need both sides to be equally as passionate. I I hear a lot of people talk about whether they're an influencer or celebrity. You know? There's one thing to just do a campaign together, you know, and be in that ad. And then there's another thing to feel like more of there's an integration of the partnership happening so that ideas are flowing from both sides, and that's when it really thrives. So maybe, Corey, you can talk a little bit about that, like, being part of Team True. You know, what makes it different for you, and kind of what maybe you could tease the audience a little bit. Some ideas maybe you would text to Kristen and be like, hey. We need to do this for the brand. Well, I would say one of the things that, you know, Kristen and I, we we had a partnership on one of the companies that I I currently work with as far as making suits and the partnership between True Religion and ALBA. And, actually, I wore that suit at the CEO event. And so they have been in a position where they feel like the collaboration, not just with athletes or or artists or clothing brands. They feel that because those collaborations are more authentic, it allows the brand to really speak to himself. And, you know, when I look at the partnership that I have continued to have with True Religion, I would have never guessed that, you know, I would basically basically become a model, you know, for their clothing, for a brand that, you know, when I was a kid, I always wanted to wear, and I always wanted to have it on. And so for me, it's really authentic to the point of this is what I wanted to do as a kid to be able to wear those their clothing all the time and to be one of their models. And, you know, thank you so much, Kristen, for allowing me to wear the clothes to wear the clothes proudly, to to have my own integrity and character behind what True Religion stands for. And that's where I feel where True Religion, the partnership became with True Religion and Team True. It's not because I have a relationship with Kristen. It's about that I knew this brand. I wanted to be involved in this brand. And a lot of times when you are trying to make these partnerships with not only companies or it it for its people, for me, it was really about a relationship base. And because I had such a great relationship and I knew Christian, I knew what she was about, I knew what she stand for, that even that made me even more wanting to to say, hey. I want to wear your clothing. So that's where I would see more of the collaboration is is from for me personally because it is the relationships that that I have bridged between them and not only with Krishna. I love that. That's great. Time to be a model. So, okay. As well. Yeah. I know. I I'm writing little notes. I'm like, I'm gonna need a picture of that to put in the edit. So, while being so integrated into the culture has been part of the history of true religion, the consumer itself has evolved a lot. Right? And so there's also the homework of how do you stay kind of deep rooted in the understanding of who your customers are and what will resonate best with them and not, you know, not rely on what's tried and true in isolation, build upon that foundation in effective way by making sure you're understanding the the evolution of what the consumer wants, how they wanna be met, where they're engaging. You know? If you can share some of those insights with us too. Definitely. So I was pretty lucky in that when I joined, Michael Buckley, head the CEO, had done a consumer research study. And that consumer research basically talked about why does our shopper buy? What are they influenced by? And, of course, some of the things that popped were, hip hop. They enjoy watching, NBA games, NFL games, etcetera, and they're influenced by people who they like and admire, and that that makes them shop. So I had access to this incredible study, but then we're continuing to dive in to really understand our consumer. So we're constantly looking at insights and and gleaning, you know, brand sentiment in social. We're very closely connected to our customer service department so that we understand the themes that are coming out when customers call, whether that's complaints or accolades and everything in between. And then we also do a survey of our customer base through email. We are rebooting our loyalty program next week, which we're really, really excited about, and also plan to lean into that group of people who are our very best advocates to make sure that there's constantly this two way dialogue happening so that, again, we know how they're feeling about the brand, the product, the collabs, the faces, etcetera. Mhmm. Any surprises? You know, I feel like the up and coming generation is always surprising. So especially as you're you know, Gen z is one thing, alpha's coming behind them, and they have a lot of influence. So any surprises either one of you, you know, as you think about this evolving consumer base? I I would chime in for that. I think what I've seen too is that there's really nothing new under the sun in my opinion because it's the clothing brands that, you know, back when twenty two years ago started, if more clothes were a little bit more baggy. Right? And then you had the the phase where you had more clothing that were tailored. You're starting to see more of that from the old days to now the new gen that we are in now. And the cool thing that I've I've noticed, not just with True Religion, but brands in general, that they are becoming more innovative, not just from the clothing, but they're watching more and more how things are changing. And I see now that even with true religion, they understand that role of the change that is happening. And you can see just in sports in general how the trends are changing from that aspect or if it's in from actors. And you have to be ready and set to make those changes. And I I really believe that true religion is doing it. I'm I had a couple of outfits that I wore and for my modeling, that it it it kinda brought a little bit of the old school with the new school. Mhmm. And, You know, I start to see more of that generation of the older generation. Hey, Corey. Wow. I I didn't know that you can wear those clothes like that again. And and then you have the new school say, hey, man. That's in style. Like, I love what you're wearing. So you could just see that the times are changing and that true religion is doing an amazing job of bridging that gap. It's so funny you bring up the baggy. My daughter is nine. She just had class pictures. I thought I was gonna get her in this, like, little dress outfit. She was like, no, mom, and it was all about baggy. Yeah. Gotta have her baggy jeans and her sweatshirt and, like, be cool. I was like, okay. I'm actually trying to get used I'm actually trying to get used because True Religion sent me, this amazing jumpsuit, and I love wearing sweatsuits. I have on one now. And it's it's it's tailored up top, but then the pants are really baggy. So I'm really trying to wrap my head around, like, the cold bag baggy look, but that's what we wore back in the day. So and you're starting to see more of the kids. And even, you know, if it's twenty twenty two to to twenty eight, they're wearing more of the baggy feel. And so I love that, again, True Religion has saw that from a marketing standpoint to see, okay. Now we need to switch what we're doing and go back to what we started with and, to to see where the kids are wearing more now. And and, honestly, that is a testament to our incredible product and merchant teams who are to trend spot, you know, months and months in advance and then also chase into trends in order to create depth of inventory. For the record, the high school that Corey and I went to that he mentioned, Fenwick, we had to wear uniforms. So there was nothing baggy happening at all. At all. At Fenwick. I wore a short period of my time I was in uniform, so I totally get that. So you mentioned two things. There's, like, on the one side of things, there's a lot of nostalgia and what's old is new again from a fashion standpoint and bringing that in. But from engagement standpoint, that's probably where the innovation is. So how do you think about that, you know, that that balancing act and being innovative and how you're connecting with them? There's an interesting balancing act, right, from a product standpoint. You talked about nostalgia and what's old and what's new again. How are you engaging differently as you're thinking about today's consumer? I I think we're really we're trying to meet them where they are with regard to shopping behavior. So we have now over fifty stores in the fleet. We're opening a couple more, through the rest of the year. Obviously, we have a twenty four seven shop with true religion dot com that we think is just one of the best and fullest representations of the brand from both the content perspective as well as the full library of our inventory. And then I guess separately and and then we also, of course, play in the wholesale channels. So partners like Sun, Tilly's, Urban Outfitters, Macy's, and and so many more, and have great partnerships with with all of those retailers. So there's that piece for sure. Then on sort of the pure engagement side of things, we are constantly looking at our engagement numbers across the board on all of our social channels, as well as time spent frankly on true religion dot com. But on the social channel side of things, when you look at Instagram, the industry average for engagement rate is between one to three percent. Any day of the week, we hover between six to eight. And I become pretty maniacal if we ever dip below that because it's it's what's going on, why is the content not resonating. But the fact is it is. And I think it is based on the strategic way that we select our partners, both Team True and for some of the bigger campaigns. Like, we just launched earlier this week, Jade achieves a collaboration with her. We're calling it from baddie to baddest. It celebrates our latest women's collection that is over the top, cheetah print, fake fur. It is just so, it's incredible. It sort of follows that mob wives theme. And, again, when you start seeing engagement on those posts, you know that you've done you've you've selected the right face. When you look at the Team True folks, we see an incredible amount of engagement there. So on TikTok, we really only started leaning into that just after I joined last year. We have someone that's developing content exclusively for TikTok. So we're pulsing in that content with Team True content. And on the Team True side of things, we're seeing our video completion rates on TikTok go from one to over fifteen percent. So, again, I think it's this careful selection of the right partners that then leads to in incredible engagement. And, you know, what I like to call, when you take a step back, that engagement ultimately leads to brand love and lifetime value. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, the other thing that's interesting is we just hone in on sports. You know, it's not new that there's fandom around sports and around athletes, but there is an evolution that's been happening, and on two on two parts. And we talked about this a little bit about the at the summit. One, the rise of female athletes, but two, also the globalization of US sports. And I think that's been interesting to see. Right? There's there's teams going to play in London. They're playing in Dubai. They're playing. So, can we talk a little bit about that? Like, how do you see that, having an impact on the brand and the opportunity of these partnerships? I think taking a step back, sports, generally speaking, what I find fascinating and and rightly so is these athletes are revered on the field and on the court like Corey, for example. But because there's so much love around them for what they do in in sports, now you're seeing these incredible tunnel walk moments for both NBA and NFL players. And so consumers are looking to them for fashion cues because they're heroes in in their game. So I think that has unlocked a tremendous amount of opportunity both at the pro level and NIL, frankly, in order for brands to create the right relationships so that, you know, as they're walking in to go defeat their competitors, they're dressed head to toe, for example, in in true. I think the globalization aspect is really interesting seeing some of these American sports like football make, kind of bigger, inroads abroad, which then for from a brand perspective says if we select the right people that then start to get a more global following, now all of a sudden, the acquisition of millions of new consumers doesn't just exist in the US, but we can grow other areas of the business, in different continents as well. Yeah. Absolutely. Anything from you on that, Corey? I mean Yeah. From your vantage point. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. I think the globalization of what basketball and sports has has done, it is amazing to watch what the athletes are doing. And and Kristen touched on it, you know, the walk ins that they have really started to really showcase a lot of the players, not only their personality, but their fashion because it's called NBA fashion. And so you get to to see them at their best if it's brands that they are collaborating with or is their own personal brand. And and Kristen touched on it again is that because sports in general, if you look at what NIL, meaning name, image, and likeness, that has really changed the game, it has given people a chance to touch these athletes from a different landscape. That's what social media has done, is giving people the chance to even get more familiar with their with their their favorite players, from a a barrage of ways that they can. And when you look at what happened, it that is happening in sports and fashion, it's allowing the brands, in my opinion, personally, to take a chance on those particular athletes. And that's where I feel like brands have really stepped out of their comfort zone because it wasn't that way twenty to thirty years ago. Now those brands are taking a chance on those athletes, to not only promote their brand, to promote them and promote their brand. And you're seeing that it has really taken off where the collaboration is working hand in hand and to the point of really touching those other countries that wouldn't have the access to not only the players, but also those different brands that they wouldn't see from out of the country. No. Absolutely. It's it is interesting the impact that has on trends and fashion and, from a global standpoint. Well, time goes by really fast, so I appreciate everything that you shared and the two of you taking the time and love the history between the two of you and how you're bringing that to the brand today and sharing that with us. Before we go, I always like to ask I mean, I think we touched upon it by talking about globalization, but both of you are always watching from different lenses, you know, where the consumer is going, where fashion is going. Corey, you're so integrated in community as a mentor and, you know, kind of know the up and coming generation from a different vantage point. What what's something you'd share with the audience, like, future forward? What do you one one or two things you're most excited about? What I'm really excited about, particularly as somebody who started their career as a digital marketer, is there's been so much conversation about optimizing algorithms and sort of treating, treating consumers as consumers and not necessarily as people. And I think the world is falling away from brand versus performance, The latter of which obviously ties back to the digital marketing and the hyper personalization and the constant optimization and algorithms. And I think, you know, what's refreshing is a lot of the conversation in the marketing community now is consumers as people, treating them as such, getting to know them as such, providing real value as a brand, and it's brand and performance versus the versus. I think the most successful brands out there have a purpose. They live and die by that purpose. They continue to invest in brand as we have and will continue to do. Very fortunately, thank you CEO and CFO. And, again, they get to know their consumer. And it's interesting because full circle, Team True is a panel of consumers. Like Corey said, he loved this brand back in the day, wore the brand, is now rediscovering it again. And I think the closer that we can stay to and understand people and their behaviors, the more successful brands will become. So that's what I'm looking forward to in the future. And I would chime into that as to this, the authenticity of those brand and the people in general. I think a lot of people now, they know if it's if it's not real. And so in this generation that I'm starting to see more, because everyone has a a voice because of social media, that voice allows not only the brands and those people in general to make changes that can actually benefit the brand. It really boils down to the relationship between the people that are buying the product and actually the people that are making the product. The more they start to continue to do that, the better the better off that they will be with sales. And that's what you kinda hear more from the kids in a younger generation because they really they do their research. They do their research on the product. They do the research on the people, even what the people maybe what they're standing for and they wanna be behind. It has changed so much that it's not like it used to be like I mentioned early on. So in this new wave on how for far as the globalization and how things are changing, the relationships and the authenticity is the biggest key in my opinion. No. Absolutely. Absolutely. I bring her up again. She's younger. She's alpha, but I walk around, and the things my daughter knows at her age, like, it doesn't even compare to what we knew at that age. I'm like Yeah. They're so informed, keeping us on our toes. But so thank you so much. If you leave us a lot to think about, I think listeners, you know, can see that, some things are table stakes today that they really can't underestimate. Authenticity, I think, is one of those, and love to hear the story about how you're partnering to really bring that to true religion and how true religion is really making sure that they're staying tried and true to that with every collaboration that you do. So, Kristen Darcy and Corey Maghetti, thank you so much for spending time with us today. Really appreciate, your time and your insight. Thank you. Thank you.
