for ONE BONE, a size-inclusive Big & Tall brand
Our guest is Adam Greenberg, one of the co-founders and CMO of ONE BONE, a size inclusive brand for the hard-to-fit man.
He’s a morning show radio host on Virgin Radio in Montreal, Canada, and he used to tour as an MC (TB1) in an EDM DJ duo (1DAFUL). While he was on tour across North America, he had to custom make his own clothing because finding something that looked as good as it fit, was very hard to come by.
Now, the group of partners at ONE BONE are attracting tons of people with a solution; fun, friendly and accessible marketing, and thousands of people who become loyal and passionate ambassadors.
The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
Adam Greenberg
Kurt Elster: Today, on The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, we’re discussing my new favorite t-shirt. Okay, yes. I have another favorite t-shirt I’ve acquired as your host, Kurt Elster.
Ezra Firestone Sound Board Clip: Tech Nasty!
Kurt Elster: And I’m joined today by Adam Greenberg, who’s one of the founders and the CMO of One Bone, which is a size-inclusive brand for the hard-to-fit man. I did not realize I was hard to fit but being barrel chested really makes t-shirts fairly hard to find, and I was recording a panel for I believe it was Shopify with Mr. Adam Greenberg, and I made this joke, and he said, “I’ll send you a shirt and it’ll fit.” And he asked me a couple questions, sent me a couple shirts, and sure enough, they fit extraordinarily well, and they were really premium, and I started looking at the brand. I thought, “This is really nice.”
And then I downloaded their app and I thought, “Well, this is really nice.” And then I discovered that they have a community around this, and so I quickly pulled the thread on the sweater and discovered that there’s a story behind Adam’s One Bone brand, and it’s interesting. It is a size-inclusive brand for the hard-to-fit man, which I think somewhat unusual, even now in 2021. It’s I think the first such brand we’ve had on this show, anyway. So, I’m happy to have this gentleman here to talk us through how in the last three-and-a-half years, he has built a successful business that really sells quite the quality, premium product. Adam, thank you for joining us.
Adam Greenberg: Thank you for having me. Pleasure to re-meet you digitally and yeah, it’s been an amazing journey for myself and my three other partners in One Bone, and we hit the ground running about three-and-a-half years ago, or even before that to sort of set up what the brand will be, what the product will be, et cetera, but the reason why this all started was because they saw me, and by they I mean my partners, Sam, Matt, and Michael. They saw me at an event.
And to backtrack two years prior to that, I started custom making my own t-shirts because I was DJing and touring all of North America in t-shirts that weren’t fitting great, so I literally went to a fabric store, went to a friend’s mom who was a seamstress, and she started custom making my own t-shirts, and when my buddies saw me at this event, they were like, “Where’d you get your t-shirt?” I said, “I made it myself.” And they had extensive experience in the fashion industry. They started out in women’s plus-sized clothing 35 years ago. And it just sort of clicked with them that there was obviously this hole in the market that needed to be filled.
Kurt Elster: So, three-and-a-half years ago you’re performing on stage as a DJ.
Adam Greenberg: Yes.
Kurt Elster: And you wanted a t-shirt that looked good, that fit well, and you couldn’t find one, and so the solution was, “Hey, I bet I could just get my own t-shirt made.” You went, you found a fabric you liked, you found a seamstress in a friend’s mom, so you knew this person. And what was different about the shirt? It was tailored to you?
Adam Greenberg: A, it was tailored to me. B, it was fabric that I found was stronger and more durable, almost like stage clothing, ready for performance, and not necessarily performance in the gym, but performance on stage. Sweating a lot, because giving a ton of energy, and so something that could hold the sweat well, something that just looked good at all times, and most importantly for me was something that I could tell people to put, “Everybody put your hands up in the air,” and my belly, that’s right, pew, pew, pew! My belly and my butt crack wasn’t exposed.
Kurt Elster: That’s the worst.
Adam Greenberg: Yeah, exactly, so I made the t-shirts a lot longer than a normal t-shirt would have been, and it also came from going into a mall, or going into a trendy store, and just literally feeling stuff that I knew I would love to wear, but I was just sort of out of the size range that would be at a normal store in the mall. So, yeah, it led to me creating my own shirt that I was just wearing, and then little did I know or care. I didn’t care to make this a solution for more people. I was just really looking to solve it for myself. And then, like I said, my partners sort of identified the gap in the market and with their experience, made me realize that there are plenty of other guys that are going through this same exact situation.
And my partners being smaller fellas, they expressed the same frustration by going into a mall and trying something on and it didn’t really fit all that well, so we realized it wasn’t just for the big and tall man. We go with the hashtag #bigandall, and it’s size inclusive, and it’s just it’s for the hard-to-fit man like yourself, that I believe you’re wearing a size large, or in our brand, a size minus 1.
Kurt Elster: A size minus 1. I saw that on the tag.
Adam Greenberg: Exactly. So, you know, it’s something that you probably wouldn’t have thought to yourself like, “Oh, I’m wearing t-shirts that aren’t fitting me too hot,” until you try on a t-shirt that actually fits well.
Kurt Elster: Yes. Well, no, I knew t-shirts were a struggle to find one that fits when like you’re barrel chested, six feet tall, so you get the issue where like you reach up and suddenly it’s like they’re either too big or they’re too short, or they’re tight in weird places. It’s always like pick two of the three aspects of this that you want to fit right.
Adam Greenberg: Exactly.
Kurt Elster: Yeah. When you’re outside of average proportions as defined by garment retailers.
Adam Greenberg: Yeah. You always have to sacrifice something, you know? If it fits right in the midsection, then the sleeves are gonna be like huge and baggy. If the sleeves are fitted, then it’s probably tight on your body and a little bit shorter in length. If it’s longer in length, then it’s probably too wide on your… You know, so you’re always trying to mix and match, and find maybe an overshirt to wear over a t-shirt, because maybe you’re a little bit less comfortable with the way it's fitting.
So, we tried to minimize any sacrifice from the look and feel of the t-shirt, which now we see has just had such an improvement on our guys’ confidence and comfort on a daily basis. It’s just it’s been exceptional to see.
Kurt Elster: When I was wearing those One Bone shirts, I was like, “Wow, I feel cool.” I was like it’s a modern fit, it looked good. I was thrilled. And I did not realize that this was like a problem I was experiencing until I went with… put on one of these shirts. Wow, it’s pretty good.
So, you were wearing one of these for a performance. You had these friends who are in the garment industry, and they saw it and went, and they immediately recognized it as not typical, didn’t they? Where they’re like, “Where’d you get that, buddy?”
Adam Greenberg: Exactly. I mean, again, I didn’t realize that my t-shirt was standing out until… You know, I would go, and I would perform, and I would have buddies who were DJs as well that were wearing a t-shirt and asking me, “Hey, where’d you get your t-shirt?” And I said, “I made it myself.” So, it was starting to kind of resonate. It was starting to… I was starting to kind of grasp that I was doing something a bit cooler. But again, it wasn’t until they saw it on me, and it really made it click for me, it was like, “Whoa, they have so much experience in the fashion industry, they saw it right away.”
And I think even at the time, I was probably wearing the t-shirt with a button-up shirt open, but it was a significantly longer cut and it had the scoop on the side, so it was flowing with the dress shirt as opposed to against it, and I guess it just… It was a look that, yeah, sort of stood out.
Kurt Elster: Okay. And so, they saw it, then suddenly they’re your business partners and you are selling these t-shirts on the internet. Where’s the in between there? Had you ever sold? Had you engaged in entrepreneurial endeavors? Obviously, promoting yourself, selling yourself as a performer, musician, DJ, that’s… There are parallels there.
Adam Greenberg: There definitely are parallels. The most significant parallel is that you’re creating something. Whether it’s a t-shirt, whether it’s music, whether it’s a video, whether it’s a watch, a shoe, a slipper, a whatever, you’re creating something that hopefully a collective of people will get behind, and feel good about, and when they consume it, again, whether a song or a t-shirt, makes them feel better about themselves. Makes their day easier.
So, it was that sort of parallel that fit for me with regards to that in between of, “Okay, they saw me and here we are now with the brand.” And the in between for them happened the 30, 35 years prior, with their own trials and tribulations of the fashion industry, and learning all the ropes of production, and manufacturing, and logistic, and quality control, and all of these things that they came to the table ready with, and I came with the community building aspect, and the marketing, and it just… It sort of allowed us to really hit the ground running, where most let’s say startup Shopify stores or entrepreneurs will go through these trials and tribulations as they’re trying to figure it out. From a marketing and community side, you know, I had 10 to 12 years under my belt, and from a production and logistics side, they had about 35 years of experience and mistakes that were made, and huge wins, so when we launched the brand, it wasn’t as though we were going in with first-day problems.
We were ironed out already because we had the 15-years-plus experience, and that sort of allowed us to shape it from the beginning.
Kurt Elster: So, you have not one business partner, you have multiple business partners. How do you feel about it? I have business partners. I’m pro-business partner. But I also had a bad business partner experience and other people have, as well. What are your thoughts and feelings there? Though I suppose you can’t really be like, “No, those guys suck.”
Adam Greenberg: You know, I’m very happy to say that they do not suck.
Kurt Elster: Oh, excellent.
Adam Greenberg: No, listen, we have… I’m basically the long-lost brother because I’m partners with two brothers and a father, so it’s really a family business dynamic. And you know, I’m like the cousin, or the brother, and we’ve been friends for a long time, so I think that works in our favor, and sometimes works… It makes the arguments even more exciting because you have that sort of brotherly connection, whether they are actual brothers or between myself, that we’re just really close friends.
But I think that for us, One Bone wouldn’t have been something that I would have done on my own, because I didn’t care to do it for anyone but myself, and One Bone wouldn’t have been something that they would have done because they didn’t have my side of the table. They could have eventually found it and whatever, but I think it was just a perfect sort of symphony, and between the four of us, we really have this amazing synergy and debates amongst one another, because we have a great variety between let’s call it the dreamers and the reality.
And you know, so their father is really the ground. Michael is basically like the dad in the Wolf of Wall Street. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, but basically keeping us under control and keeping everything from a sustainable factor, and just making sure that we’re making the right business decisions. Obviously, now with three-and-a-half years under our belt, we have learned to fly on our own.
Matt is in charge of production, and he is like the second level of ground. He’s closer to dream, but on a grounded level. I’m right in the middle, and then my partner, Sam, is the absolute dreamer. He is always coming up with ideas. He’s on the moon already and we’re just trying to make it there and catch up with him. And it’s all of our jobs to pull one another up from the ground and pull one another down from the moon, you know? And we create this really good balance.
Kurt Elster: It sounds like what helps to make it work is you have differing but overlapping skillsets and viewpoints. So, you can fill in the gaps for each other, but you’re all speaking the same language, and because there’s a family dynamic that you essentially got roped into here, but it’s open and honest communication. Like you’re just more… I think you’re more likely to be yourself, your honest, real self, with siblings, with family, than probably in a professional aspect.
And that could be good and bad. Depends on the situation. But in this case, things have seemed to have worked out. A lot of serendipity here.
Adam Greenberg: Big time. There’s a good balance, and I think that’s an important thing. I listen to a ton of podcasts, including The Unofficial Shopify Podcasts, on a regular basis. Hit some sort of airhorn or-
Sound Board:
Adam Greenberg: Yeah, exactly. So, I listen to many, many podcasts about businesses, and startups, and people’s entrepreneurial journeys, and I think a huge topic of conversation is finding that right business partner. And for us, serendipity is the correct word. It just happened for us where I think it’s a crucial thing. If you have your skillsets, it's very tough to do it on your own, and not bounce ideas off one another, and not… Also, not be checked on your ideas, you know? If you’re just gonna run with whatever thing comes to mind, you may not be able to create a sustainable business.
So, it’s really… It’s a cool experience for us and it’s growing every day, and we’re learning each other more and more every day, even though we have a great, friendly background. So, it’s really cool. I think I recommend trying to find that perfect person that you could work with, but also look for an opposite. Don’t look for someone that’s just like you, because you don’t need another version of yourself. You need the person to fill your skill gaps, you know?
Kurt Elster: Yes. No, absolutely. I think the hardest part, so you had the idea, and it came out of a pain or problem in your own life. Then you had friends turned business partners who were able to recognize this as a business idea and had the resources to go… I mean, they were garment manufacturers. They were able to go, “Hey, we can make that.” And if we can make that, well, can we sell it? And so, that’s the part you really lucked on, because manufacturing a product is the part that really scares the heck out of me.
Adam Greenberg: Yeah. Same.
Kurt Elster: Yeah, that’s the early… I think early on, especially with a physical good, that’s the really risky thing. And so, for you, you were really able to defang that portion of it. But then the next part is get people to buy it. When the brand first launches, you said, “Hey, we were able to develop this inclusive community.” But you didn’t have a community really before, and the brand is meaningless until you breathe life into it, so when the brand launches, what does that look like? What products does it launch with? How do you get the word out?
Adam Greenberg: So, that’s definitely another chapter of the in between, and before the brand was launched, I’m a radio host here in Montreal, so the fact that I-
Kurt Elster: Well, that helps.
Adam Greenberg: Yeah, it does. But you know, it more so just helped from a validity standpoint. You know, I was reaching out to bigger guys in the big and tall space, anyone that was using the hashtag big and tall, and myself, and Sam, we were reaching out to a lot of people in the beginning, before the brand was launched, just to see if they had these similar pain points. And they did. And the next thing that was followed up is like, “Listen, I’m not sure when this is gonna be happening, but we are working on a brand that I think would solve a lot of these problems for us. When we launch, would it be cool if we sent you a t-shirt for you to try and just get your feedback?”
And everyone, you know, who’s gonna say no to that? So, while my partners were really doing the heavy research in terms of the actual gaps in the market, and what is actually needed, I was more so doing the community outreach and building a little bit of a community before we launched the brand. And then when we launched it, it was mid-June or end of June 2018, and by that time, we had even sent a couple of t-shirts before so that when we launched it, people could already be posting that they got their t-shirts, and they tried it, and it’s amazing, and it just created a little bit of social proof right from the jump.
We launched with I think at that time it was four cuts of a t-shirt, so our scoop, or high-low, our V-neck, and our pocket, which are still staples in the One Bone brand today, as well as a long sleeve, and we just launched in like three or four different colors. And you know, when you launch a brand, it’s not like the floodgates are opened and people are just coming in and buying nonstop. It’s first day, one order. Second day, zero orders. Third day, two orders. Fourth day, zero. You know, and it just builds like that, and that… I think that’s how you have to start. You have to start organic.
In the first 10 months, we didn’t even run a single Facebook ad. We just were organic. We were just reaching out. We were DM warriors. We would message 100 to 200 to 300 people a night. Comment on people’s Instagram posts. Interact with the community. Because more than wanting to sell t-shirts, for myself especially, being a big and tall guy, I was very happy to find a community that I was now a part of and helping really bring to the forefront in terms of representation and in terms of just making every body feel comfortable in what they’re wearing and how they feel on a daily basis.
Kurt Elster: When did that, the size inclusive aspect of it, occur to you?
Adam Greenberg: It occurred in the beginning, but we were like, “You know what? It’s a big and tall brand. The big man is considered first. And let’s focus on that. That’s our niche. That’s where we want to be. That’s who we believe has the biggest problem.” And then in speaking to a few retailers, and again, also the fact that my partners are not plus-size guys, they were like, “Well, we’re making the best shirt from what we think, based on things that we felt and tried, but we can’t even wear it.” And a few retailers that we were in touch with, as well. They’re like, “Listen, your t-shirts are definitely a level above. They feel amazing. They wash incredibly well. They snap back to shape. They’re stretchy, but they sit well on the body, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” They’re telling us all the things that we hopefully knew because that’s what we planned to do. They’re like, “I think the smaller sizes need this t-shirt, as well.”
So, five or six months into launching the brand, we announced that we were size inclusive, and we then realized that there are so many hard-to-fit men that are not just in the six-foot, 300 pound and up club. It’s guys who are five seven, 190, and they also have a hard time finding a t-shirt that fits. So, that’s when it happened is like about five or six months into us launching the brand.
And I think that was important, as well, because we established ourselves as a big and tall brand first that was including all sizes. We weren’t a regular fit brand that is also including the big men. We’re big men first, and then size inclusive after that.
Kurt Elster: So, you have… I’m still missing something on this product launch here.
Adam Greenberg: Tell me.
Kurt Elster: We have… You sent out some samples, so you had some social proof, some prelaunch content. And then you announce it. Is this via social media, newsletter, paid promo?
Adam Greenberg: All social media. I don’t even know if we were doing email marketing in the beginning. We’re really amateurs in the eCom Shopify space. You know, we learned this from the ground up. So, of course we were acquiring people’s emails as people were ordering, but really the push was follow us on Instagram. Send us an email if you have questions about sizing. But the hub was really Instagram. The hub was send us a DM, we want to speak to you, we want to help you with your size and your fit. And until our business really scaled quite a bit, we were speaking to probably 90% of our customers. Now, even still, we’re probably still speaking to about 75% of our customers, which obviously… You know, it’s harder and harder to manage. It’s you gotta figure out how to scale that, as well.
But it was such an important part of the process for us because we really were really just a bunch of bros who made this great t-shirt and what’s ended up happening with this community that we’ve been building is like they know and understand that. I think with the abilities that we’re able to have with regards to Shopify, and eCom, and just having that really personal connection with your customer, is so special and so unique. You all want that feeling of going into your favorite restaurant, and them saying like, “Hey, Kurt. Happy to see you. Welcome back. Should I order the same thing you got last time?”
That sort of Cheers, like everybody knows your name, that’s something unique that we’re able to create now with these online stores and these online communities, is like every single person is not just a credit card in a store. They all have a face. They all have a name. They all have an address. You know, so there’s a lot of trust there that ends up being built with a D2C eCom store and their customers, or literally we call them the One Bone Fam, like it’s really a men, women alike, everyone in between, everyone is welcome, and they feel that. They feel like they’re buying from a best friend as opposed to a no name brand or something that they just buy off the shelf in a store.
Kurt Elster: You’ve mentioned… I’ve heard community I think more times than I’ve heard brand here. Which, I’m sure we could check the transcript later, but do you think you’re building… Do you view yourself as building a brand or building a community?
Adam Greenberg: I think they go hand in hand. I think that to build a brand, you need a community behind it. You know, obviously you could create a community exclusive from being a brand, but at the end of the day, what is a brand? A brand is a name, a product, a marketing message, a customer service treatment, so like all of these things are nothing without our community. They’re nothing without the people who invest in One Bone to make them feel better, and also to make them feel as though they’re connecting with someone, either across the country, or across the continent, or across the world. It’s really our Instagram is heavily focused on UGC, because that’s the content that’s the content that’s most exciting for us, is when we see and are speaking to all these guys, and then they send us a picture of themselves in the shirt. It’s so rewarding.
And now that the brand has taken off to a certain level, and it’s growing every day, guys are super pumped when they’re featured on our Instagram. They’re featured on our Instagram story, or our website, or in an email blast, like it’s a real level of pride because a lot of these guys thought that they would never be considered a model of any sort, and these are the bodies that are getting the most amount of reaction. And we get the comments, and it’s really cool to see, especially as a big man, but in One Bone HQ, when we’re sifting through comments, and we’re sifting through reviews and stuff like that, the amount of women and or men that are super attracted to these men in a One Bone t-shirt is just such a cool feeling.
Because again, growing up as a big kid, you never think that your body is the thing that is like sexy, you know? You never think that, for me, I never thought the girls were looking at me in any way, shape, or form. So, now seeing this big man representation and these women and men reacting and being like, “Okay! I’m just here for the models.” That kind of thing, I think that-
Kurt Elster: It is a lot of fun, isn’t it? It must be gratifying.
Adam Greenberg: Oh my God. It’s gratifying. It’s validating. It’s confidence booster ala max. And it’s really… It’s something special that I didn’t think would ever be a part of the big man’s life, is to feel really good and really sexy in our bodies. But that’s what it’s… You know, and I’m happily married for the past four years, and I was always shocked with my wife, and like, “Really? You find this body sexy?” And now, with seeing what happens with the One Bone community, it’s like, “Oh. Yeah. Well, it makes sense. I'm sexy. I'm 6’3”, 300 pounds, I’m a big guy, but this is starting to be the new sexy.”
And it was the old sexy, but it’s now starting to come to the forefront, which is really cool.
Kurt Elster: It is cool. Yeah. You must be proud.
Adam Greenberg: Definitely.
Kurt Elster: When we talk about… So, it sounds like when we talk about this community, it is you have Instagram. You’re getting UGC, user-generated content. People are providing you with action shots, like here’s me in your product. And they’re happy to do it. And then you hold up the mirror. You’re showing them in stories, in posts, in newsletters, and people react to that, and then you attract more people into that community, and it’s creating… It sounds like it’s creating a feedback loop where you’re just adding to this community of qualified customers and brand ambassadors.
Adam Greenberg: That’s exactly what it is. It’s on a daily basis, we have guys reaching out. How do I become an ambassador for your brand? How do I be a model on your Instagram? How do I be on your website? And I think these are guys who are reaching out without any expectations, without any expectations that they’re going to be responded to, that they’re going to actually end up on our page. And it’s so the opposite. They reach out, “Hey, man. Here’s an ambassador code. Go grab some One Bone stuff for yourself. Simple. Just take a picture of yourself in One Bone and it will somehow, someway end up in the One Bone space, whether it’s in an email, in an Instagram post, in a story.” We do this thing called the Biggest Review of the Week, where we have tons of reviews on our website and we highlight one that is like the most creative, and or funny, and or meaningful, and we read it at One Bone HQ and we celebrate it, and they get rewarded with a certain amount of loyalty points.
It’s really, to say it’s cool, to say it’s awesome is an understatement. To see and hear these guys’ stories, we just read a Biggest Review of the Week a few weeks ago where it’s a guy who reached out to us, and he had a spinal cord injury, and so he was in a wheelchair, and his shape wasn’t necessarily made for a t-shirt that you could buy in a mall. And he sent us a message and he said, “You know, I’ve had such a hard time finding t-shirts. Could you help?”
So, our simple questions, height, weight, regular t-shirt size, and then we’ll spit out the size you are in One Bone. He got the t-shirts. He sent us back this beautiful, heartfelt message, how he finally feels comfortable, he finally… his wife loves the way he looks in them. And he sent us a video of him out of his wheelchair working with a physician or a physiotherapist or whatever, and him standing up, and like holding himself up. I think it was like for 35 seconds. And he’s standing there and he’s rocking one bone, and he’s just complete motivation. It’s this guy, Charles, and it’s just like you watch that, and you see that, and whatever problems you may be going through on a daily basis, they’re never able to be matched up to somebody else’s problems because our problems are the greatest problems. But it just is a major sign of motivation and inspiration for us to see these reviews, and champion them, and then to see him react to the review and be like, “Oh my God, you read it at One Bone.”
It's just such a cool vibe, man.
Kurt Elster: It is cool. And the fact that other people resonate with it too is great. It is what powers it. Now, when you started with this brand three-and-a-half years ago, did you have eCommerce marketing experience?
Adam Greenberg: Marketing, yes, because I was marketing myself as a DJ, and obviously being a radio host, and that kind of thing, I had a lot of great experience with marketing firms, and advertising, and stuff like that, so I had that kind of experience, but it was really self-taught. It was really just the knowing and understanding… You know, even if I backtrack probably about 20 years, I was given the nickname T-Bone, which is obviously a part of the reason why the name One Bone came to be, but at that time I was nicknamed T-Bone and my counselors really at summer camp, they just completely basically branded me and marketed me at camp.
And I was like, “Okay. I understand.” It was to the point where my name was supposed to be on my nametag at camp the next summer and instead of being Adam Greenberg in the name tag, it was T-Bone, you know? Because people at camp didn’t know my real name. And so, I sort of I guess got the understanding there, and so it’s really just through life experience that you know and understand that marketing is really about psychology, and making people feel good, and doing something that you know would want to be consumed. It’s not necessarily about your relationship to let’s say the content or what the ad might be, but it’s how will people perceive your brand and will people feel good consuming it.
Kurt Elster: That’s such a good rule of thumb, and practical, and sane way to look at marketing. I like that a lot. Yeah. It’s not an oversimplification, and it’s… So many people overlook that aspect of it. It’s like are you proud of this? Would you want to consume this content? Yes, no?
Adam Greenberg: Exactly. And the other thing about it is that marketing I think is really just about building a relationship with whoever is on the other side. So, you know, if you’re scrolling through Netflix, or you’re scrolling through any streaming service, and you stumble upon a title that you had never heard of before, and then you click in, and it’s a genre that you like, but you don’t recognize any of the actors, you’re probably not gonna click it, you know? You’re probably not gonna watch it. But if you had heard of the movie title, or if you clicked in and you recognized one of the actors, then it’s a source of familiarity. It’s like the marketing did that job. The marketing of that huge sort of actor or celebrity is pushing you to rent the movie or stream it.
Even more so, if your friend is somebody that you know and trust and believe in the references that they’ll give you, and the recommendations, then if they tell you, “Hey, Kurt. I saw this movie. It doesn’t have any actors that you would recognize in it. It’s hilarious. The title is X. You need to watch it.” The likelihood of you watching that movie is very high and the likelihood of you watching that movie and really enjoying it because your buddy enjoyed it is very high, as well. And that’s sort of the approach that we’ve taken with One Bone, is like we just, A, we want to be your buddy first. If you don’t want to buy the t-shirt, that’s cool. It’s not why we’re really here. We’re here to, like you said, is it about a brand or is it a community? We’re here to get to know you. We’re here to be your buddy and it’s not just to get you to buy a shirt. It’s really because we are curious in people, and their stories, and the struggles that they’ve gone through, and why they’re looking for a different source of comfort and confidence.
And then if we build that relationship with you, and again, from a marketing standpoint, whether it’s through DMs, or they like our logo, or they like our pictures on our website, or they found a Facebook ad and it really resonated with them, then once they feel like they’re a friend, which they actually become our friends, then they’re definitely likely to buy a t-shirt and try it, and more likely to enjoy it, and also more likely to offer feedback and say, “These were the things that I loved about the t-shirt, but also could you do this in the future?” And it’s like, “Yeah, we’re definitely interested in taking all of your feedback because now you’re a buddy.”
Like you said, it’s the marketing concept is like it’s a really big word, especially for the startups, and the entrepreneurs, and the guys and girls who are trying to figure it all out, but it’s really just about being friends with the people who you are looking to serve and solve a potential problem for.
Kurt Elster: I love that sentiment. Does it scale? What’s next for One Bone?
Adam Greenberg: So, I think it does scale. You know, our business is scaling a lot, and it’s very exciting, and the nuts and bolts are tight, and then you keep going to that next level, and they loosen up, and you figure out how to tighten them up again, and so they’re pretty solid. So, I think that the necessary tools are out there to scale that mentality because we’re doing it, you know? Between the email marketing and like you mentioned, we have an app now, and so that has become a huge tool for us. We have text outreach. Our Instagram DMs are always crazy, so there are tools and ways for it to become scalable. We’ve figured out customer service, like just solutions. We’ve figured out automations. We’ve figured out the way to scale the unscalable and do as much of that as possible.
So, yes, it is scalable, and there’s so many tools out there that help it, make it scalable.
Kurt Elster: What are some of your favorite tools right now?
Adam Greenberg: For us, we’re really trying to dive into our reporting as much as humanly possible on the backend, so we’re using Better Reports. I’m not sure if it’s the best. I’m not sure if it’s the worst. But it’s doing what we need it to do. In terms-
Kurt Elster: I like it a lot. It is so powerful and so configurable, that also makes it quite intimidating.
Adam Greenberg: Okay. They also were super helpful in the beginning.
Kurt Elster: Yes.
Adam Greenberg: It’s been a while that I’ve reached out to them, but it really… They did a great job at like, “Okay, what do you need?” And we said, “Oh, well, we need this, and this, and this custom report.” And they spit it out for us like very quickly. So, I haven’t reached out to them in a while, but they were super helpful in the beginning.
Kurt Elster: That was my experience, as well, and that’s how I… Because I initially was like, “I know this can do what I want. I have no idea how to do it.” And I said, “Hey, this is what I’m trying to do.” And I think there’s an automation email they kick off that I replied to and I’m like, “Well, this is what I’m trying to do.” And I didn’t really expect a response and they’re like, “All right, we made that report. It’s saved in there. Go.” And then once I saw it, I’m like, “Okay,” I could work backwards from this. I could figure this out.
Adam Greenberg: Exactly. Like you end up reverse engineering the stuff that they create for you and then you save a bunch of custom… You know, we’ve done sell through, we’ve done a bunch of stuff like that to know and understand what to project in terms of inventory.
Some other tools… I mean, listen, man, like Instagram obviously is a very generic tool at this point, but that’s really where our community was built. We built, and able to engage with the most, so that. And I think tools, offline tools, as well. Just a simple thank you card in every one of our orders, that is a tool that has proven to make more friends out of customers from anything else, because we put a, “Hey, how are you,” and their name on the card, and they’re blown away with that, so that’s an offline tool.
And then everything else, man, just in terms of Shopify, like Shopify is the tool that is allowing I think the people who wouldn’t have necessarily been able to scale a business to really scale a business. You know, even the offerings from a Shopify Capital, which we’ve tested out just to see and understand how it works, but we are fortunate that we haven’t had to use it thus far, but for the people who are trying to figure it out, there’s really… There’s great, alternative ways to find funding nowadays, so those kinds of tools I think are essential to help a business scale.
What’s your favorite tool right now?
Kurt Elster: Good question. Honestly, my current favorite tool, my favorite toy, revisiting Klaviyo automations. I know it’s like it’s been a while since… Periodically, I dive back into it, and like going into the holidays, that’s where I want to maximize customer lifetime value. So, my current favorite toy is setting up the two times automation that I learned from Ezra Firestone, and like he’s told me three or four years in a row, “Hey, set this up.”
Okay, well, this year I finally did it. Person makes a purchase. You wait 48 hours, send an email, and the email says, “Hey, thank you so much for purchasing from us. We appreciate your support. And if there’s anything else you wanted to grab, here’s a coupon code for 15% off that’s only good for 72 hours.” And then I do like the personalized recommendation. “Here’s what’s trending now.” You know, to try and prompt it.
And of course, that works. Of course, that sells. Even if you have like 10 to 15% of people who use it, wow, that really will extend… You add it to the original order and suddenly the value of that customer for the week goes up 50% or more. And it’s a thing you set up… You spend 30 minutes setting up once and then it just keeps paying dividends.
Adam Greenberg: And then it’s done.
Kurt Elster: In the example, it’s like, “Oh, 15% off,” and in Ezra’s case, their brand doesn’t do a lot of discounting, so like keep that in mind and adjust accordingly. But it’s not a tough thing to set up. It works pretty well.
Adam Greenberg: They’re almost second nature to us, and maybe in a podcast like this, it’s about revealing the second nature tools and toys that we’re using, but yeah, Klaviyo, we’ve got tons of flows set up between welcome flows, and abandoned carts, and thank you flows, and stuff like that all set up that… What are the tools you’re using to scale, those are the things that you’re doing, like you said, in a half an hour period, or potentially more depending on your skillset and your ability to do it, but if you take that time and you build out those automations that, A, feel personable and don’t feel like it’s just a computer knocking on your door, it’s that kind of stuff. We’re working with Postscript for SMS that also tons of flows have been built out.
You know, we work with Route, which is like package insurance that has just created far more trust from the jump in terms of just people coming in and ordering for the first time, because they know that they’re not gonna be screwed over and it’s what is this One Bone brand? So, yeah, I guess it’s those generic tools that I guess really make up the day to day. We also love Triple Whale.
Kurt Elster: Triple Whale.
Adam Greenberg: Have you heard about it?
Kurt Elster: Triple Whale, we’re running in a store that… It’s large and has reporting needs, and Triple Whale is really good and has been evolving very quickly. So, like I get an automated report at the end of every week and every month like, “Okay, here’s previous week, previous month, here’s the KPIs you wanted, here’s compared to the previous period.” And it’s just it’s automated. And like I know Better Reports, I can do a similar thing as this, but like for strict just I don’t want to screw around, I want to just plug in nice, automated reporting, Triple Whale, really nice.
Adam Greenberg: Yeah. Really, really nice.
Kurt Elster: Plug quite a few apps here today.
Sound Board:
Adam Greenberg: Yeah, yeah. Hey, let’s go.
Kurt Elster: I’ll send out invoices to the lot of you later.
Adam Greenberg: Please do, and get me the discounts too when you’re getting them, okay?
Kurt Elster: My other favorite toy is having discovered the ABC analysis report in Shopify. It’s an inventory report in which it breaks down your products by Pareto’s Principle. So, it’ll say, “Here’s the 20% of products that are responsible for 80% of your revenue.” And those get letter grade A. And then it’ll be like, “Here’s the 15%, or here’s the products that are responsible for 15% of your revenue.” Letter grade B. And anything that is the 5% or less of your revenue, letter grade C.
Adam Greenberg: And does it break it down like with variants and stuff, as well?
Kurt Elster: You know, I don’t recall. I was looking at it as product title. Probably. Like if it doesn’t mess with edit columns, I bet it’ll do it. Yeah, because it’d be nice to know like color, and size, and like okay, what’s driving revenue here? But I’ve been running that a lot lately for merchandising on the homepage, going to the holidays, like I want to know, “Okay, what’s the stuff,” like the C-grade stuff, that’s all going in clearance. The 50% off. Get out of here. Ultra-deals. Be gone. And the A-grade stuff, that’s what I want to put front and center, because I know, especially on the homepage, like the stuff people are most likely to buy is the things that are most likely to get people to start shopping.
Adam Greenberg: Yeah. Absolutely.
Kurt Elster: And like with a larger catalog, it gets harder.
Adam Greenberg: For sure.
Kurt Elster: If you have 200 items, 500 items, it’s tough to know what you should put out there, versus like you have a very curated catalog. Here’s the product, go.
Adam Greenberg: We do. And you know, we’ve created this structure where we like drop something new basically every two weeks, and I think that’s created a lot of fun excitement for our customers. Is every one of our customers buying something new on our drop? No, but a good amount of them are because we’re at the point now where we’re literally buying as much fabric as we can, and we’ll make it, and it’ll be represented in somewhat of a limited piece that we’re releasing, and so our customers know that if they sleep on something the day it’s dropped, that could be a problem because there might not be one tomorrow or in two weeks when they’re able. So, it’s created this really interesting kind of hype where unless you’re buying Yeezys or something, as a big man we were never really able to get into that sort of hype-driven fashion because we couldn’t buy it. It didn’t fit us.
So, I think that it’s created this cool sort of experience for our customers where they feel really exclusive and they are, because we’re literally making as much as we can, and it’s selling out quite quickly, which again, good problem to have. But yes, it’s-
Kurt Elster: I know that hype beast style of flash sale product launch, limited edition selling, can be frustrating for people if it’s like, “I just want to buy a thing.” But yeah, but at the same time, like for fashion items where there are plenty of alternatives, like I don’t have to buy this particular pair of fuchsia Nikes, I will… I’ll live and there will be other shoes I could buy. So, for that stuff, it’s a lot of fun. I enjoy it. And it’s also one of those things where like it’s great for the business, because you know you’re running a limited run of items, and you can do re-releases, and it’s an easy way to fill the content hole in that you’ve got these continuous relaunches going that you could do.
I really… I love it on both ends of the equation. I love buying stuff and then seeing it sell out. And I love the practicality of it for the merchant.
Adam Greenberg: Yeah. Same. And you know, it’s almost built out this kind of like accessible hype beast sort of mentality, where like at any given point, somebody could go and buy many, many, many pieces of One Bone from any one of our t-shirts, or short sleeve hoodies, or whatever, but when those sort of pieces drop every two weeks, it’s a bit of a mystery. Like is this gonna be gone in an hour? Or is it gonna be a thing that is around for a little while? So, it’s accessible hype beast, as we like to call it.
Kurt Elster: That’s cool. No, I like that approach. And if I wanted to purchase some more One Bone items, where should I go?
Adam Greenberg: You should go to onebone.com. That’s our website. That’s where everything happens. All the magic happens there. But if you have any questions about sizing, or anything like that, the easiest move is as well, we have chat on our website where somebody will most likely respond right away, or you could send us a DM on Instagram and we get back to all DMs and sizing questions, or questions about material, and et cetera, we’re always here. We’re always around. It’s what we enjoy.
Kurt Elster: I love it. I gotta go do some t-shirt shopping. Adam Greenberg, OneBone.com. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Sound Board:
Adam Greenberg: Thank you, everybody. Thank you!