Nathan's reflection is that "DTC doesn't really make sense. It just means direct to consumer. It doesn't mean online." It means cutting out the middleman to get customers the best price — which is exactly what Uniqlo and Lululemon do, and they have thousands of stores.
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Nathan describes a "DTC gold rush" from "2015 to 2020" when every new DTC brand believed "online is so scalable, it is a gold mine, we should just stick to online meta ads." That stopped working as Meta ads got expensive through competition. His internal-strategy reflection: "DTC doesn't really make sense, it just means direct to consumer, it doesn't mean online... it just means you're cutting through all the middleman and getting the best price for your customers." He points to Uniqlo and Lululemon — "are they DTC? They kind of are actually, and they have thousands of stores across the world." His takeaway is that "you're just a retail consumer brand business" and people "love visiting a store... they love touching the products," which is why Paire opened one.