Super U Podcast | 7 Super Tips with Michael Preysman

Michael Preysman is the founder and CEO of Everlane, a direct-to-consumer design brand based in San Francisco, California. Preysman shares tips and insights about what makes his company is extremely successful.

5x #1 Bestselling Author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman has performed in over 55 countries and reached over 50 million people this past decade. He was voted the 2nd Most Likable Author in the World behind Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling.

Need a sneak peek? Below are the main takeaways from the episode.

Super U Podcast | 7 Super Tips with Michael Preysman:

[4:10] Tip #1

“I think when we started Everlane, the big thing that we came out with was we said, Hey, the fashion industry is this sort of totally misunderstood. Nobody knows what their where their products come from, what they cost to make. And it’s unlike any other industry in that way where you just really have no understanding of whether this product is actually a higher quality than that product. And so we came out and we said, Hey, we’re going to tell people everything, we’re going to tell them what it costs to make, we’re going to tell where it’s made, we’re even going to give them the detail of why it cost that much to make. And so that’s been really the foundation of what we started with. And I guess the way we think about it is we say hey, the industry is really got this major problem with it. And that’s like we always think why is that the case? And how do we make it better?”

[5:05] Tip #2

“I think whenever you tread down a new path, you have to be somewhat naive. Because otherwise, you take the path that everyone else is taking. And I and that I think applies to all of us we, we do transparent pricing, which means that you can actually see what every single thing costs us to make, which I’m sure a lot of our competitors look at. I’ve heard that they look at. But it made sense to us and no one’s copied it to date, because they can’t, because their margins are much higher. So it’s, it’s sort of this benefit. And it’s like you asked the question, instead of why you ask the question, why not? And we tend to do that a lot. Why not? Why not just do this way, and see what happens.”

[5:52] Tip #3

“We started with a $15 t-shirt, and now we sell a $365 bag, there are there almost no brands that are able to start that low, and will up the value change. It’s almost unheard of. And we didn’t know if it would work. But it actually works because our value has stayed the same for the customer. So when people think oh, a $15 t-shirt brand can’t sell me a $350 bag, that doesn’t make sense, I’m not going to trust them to make that will they trust the customer trust us because of that markup structure, and they can see that they’re actually still getting valuable.”

[6:31] Tip #4

“We started Everlane, eight years ago, we started with a simple belief. One that I really hold to be true is that through transparency, you can educate consumers to make better decisions. And with that transparency, consumers who will ultimately be our customers will hold you accountable to do the right thing each and every day. We started with pricing transparency. And today customers can see the cost of everything we make materials, duties, labor, and our margin and what they pay. Then after the collapse of Rana Plaza, we decided we really needed to do something and we opened our factories, and customers can see exactly where every product is made. They can see the names, they can see the images, they can see the stories behind them. And through that holds us to be accountable.”

[7:30] Tip #5

“We found that if we keep our good quality, and we do it online, and we don’t run sales, and we really just explain to the consumer, what we’re doing and decrease all the marketing costs don’t work with other people. There’s a lot of fat in the supply chain that existed. We’re cutting it all out and really slimming it down and just keeping it as simple as possible. And that’s worked really well.”

[8:42] Tip #6

“So the two things one transparency, we believe that if we’re transparent with our customer, it holds us to a higher guard. So we’ve worked in a factory before where some of the best brands are producing and we said we can’t work with you, because there are clothes on the floor, there’s people sitting on small chairs bent over all day for eight hours a day like this, it’s just not a pleasant experience. And we do a lot of auditing and we’re there three-four times a year with audits that are happening outside of that and those happen four times a year so we’re pretty stringent on all of this stuff.”

[9:32] Tip #7

“so I think the problem with copycats is honestly they have no soul and that’s it sounds silly to say that but when you don’t have a soul and you don’t have a reason for why you’re doing the things you’re doing, you’re always one step behind and you never really connect with the consumer and I think you know one thing we talked about in the panel as people are looking for a connection with the brand and they’re looking for trust. And so you know there’s a brand out there in Turkey that launched called knave lane, which is actually I think may have must mean ever in charge. And it’s literally a complete replica of our site. Wow, everything I mean code, they stripped all the front end code, everything, but the problem is are always going to be a step behind. And they don’t actually have the reason for being that we have. And so I don’t know that we worry so much about competitors because at the end of the day, we don’t I think our biggest competitors ourselves like us executing on what we’re doing and continuing to push ourselves to tell a better story and create a better product.”

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Connect with Michael Preysman:

Instagram: @preysman

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpreysman

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The Super U Podcast is hosted by #1 bestselling author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman.