How CEO Jeff Kearl Did His Homework Before Starting Stance

“I walked up and down the aisles of Target and Walmart and Nordstrom,” said the cofounder and chief executive officer of Stance, Jeff Kearl. “I would just stand in front of each category, and I would size it up.” The entrepreneur was doing his homework. After selling a tech business to Hewlett-Packard, he had decided to start a brand. “Why?” he asked. “I liked that it could be a container for all the things I love.” To decide on a product, he studied brands and how they were positioned: “What’s the value proposition? I would really look for the homogenization. “I eventually got to the sock category,” he continued. “It was black and white, navy, blue, gray, really basic and in plastic bags. Even when I went to Nordstrom, which theoretically it would be more premium, it was still multipacks, poorly merchandised, tired design.” He created Stance in 2009. What began as an e-commerce brand offering socks is now a company with several categories in men’s, women’s and kids, including undergarments and T-shirts, with more than 20 brick-and-mortars in the U.S. and Europe. A few years ago, they had their first $100 million year. “We’ve now grown way past that,” shared Kearl, who started the brand

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