DTC POD - #319 - From Building a 9-Figure Menswear Brand to Redefining Baby Monitors

DTC POD #319 - From Building a 9-Figure Menswear Brand to Redefining Baby Monitors

Blaine Bolus 00:00:06 - 00:00:45

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Blaine Bolus 00:00:45 - 00:01:39

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Blaine Bolus 00:01:43 - 00:02:07

What is up DTC pod? Today we have the pleasure of being joined by Kevin Lavelle, who was the founder of Mizin and Maine. And now Kevin is also the co founder and CEO of Harbor. So we're really excited to have Kevin on today because Mizin and Maine was a massive men's apparel business and now he's moving into the baby. You know, Kevin, I'm going to let you kick us off.

Blaine Bolus 00:02:07 - 00:02:13

Why don't you tell us a little bit more about your background and what led to the inception of Mizin and mate.

Kevin Lavelle 00:02:13 - 00:02:32

Yeah. Thanks Blaine. Glad to be here. Always a pleasure to be able to share some of my lessons learned and experience. We feel like, we transformed the menswear space. And now with harbor, we are building a better baby monitor and pediatric telehealth company. I think there's a lot of opportunity to improve sleep and wellness for parents. So been a great ride so far.

Kevin Lavelle 00:02:32 - 00:03:12

And hopefully some of the lessons learned from company one will improve in company two and share some of those today. So the background in Misman and Maine, I grew up playing golf and watched performance polos take over on the golf course. So I had this aha moment. I watched a congressional staffer run into a building soaked in sweat, and I wondered why no one had ever made a dress shirt out of performance fabrics. The idea stuck with me for many years, and ultimately, after some tinkering in 2011 into 2012, I launched Mizzen and Main in 2012. I expected it to be a smashing success in the first week or two because I just invented a performance fabric dress shirt. And if you build it, they will come. Is not true in the world of DTC.

Kevin Lavelle 00:03:12 - 00:04:01

You actually have to put a lot of work into it and really build a brand and a business that your customers resonate with. So I had an amazing experience, built that company over many years. We've done hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. We have well over 500 wholesale partners, and we've got ten of our own stores now. And then the transition there in kind of mid 2022 started this process of building what is now harbor. We have a great new leadership team at Mizzen and Maine. I sit down a couple of years ago and remain chairman of the board, but I'd had this experience in wanting to build what is now harbor. My son is seven years old, and I'd done a whole bunch of research when he was born and went out and bought what was supposed to be the most innovative baby monitor on the market.

Kevin Lavelle 00:04:01 - 00:04:36

Product called Nanit. And it ultimately is a Wi Fi security camera that you point at your child and you have an app on your phone, and you sleep next to your app, and it's supposed to run audio in the background. But I woke up one morning and the app had just crashed. And I had no idea how long I hadn't been monitoring my son. And upon then doing a little bit of research, I realized this is not a baby monitor. It is a Wifi security camera with an app. And so I went out and bought one of those old school radio monitors so I could have that kind of failsafe capability of knowing if I had lost connection. So, similar to vision in Maine.

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