When it comes to footwear, there are a plethora of options for millennial office workers. However, there isn’t one that works for getting through heavy, inclement weather while still work appropriate for a professional office setting. Adam Klein and Jared Johnston, two MIT Sloan MBAs, are working hard to create the fashionable, yet durable boot called “The Ansel” to wear both in and out of the office at Season Three. Season Three is a contemporary apparel brand influenced by art culture and an outdoors ethos, serving as a foundational platform for someone to explore their environment. The two founders of the direct-to-consumer footwear company have plenty to chat about building a brand centered around physical and personal exploration.
Season Three cofounders Adam Klein (left) and Jared Johnson (right).
Frederick Daso: Could you guys walk me through the psychology behind your brand? What makes people want to connect on an emotional level with your footwear offering?
Jared Johnson: We had an extensive discovery process and interviewed over 350 people. We tried to drill down our ideal customer based on their lifestyle, and we arrived at the persona of a freelance designer. They are someone who is always on the move, and whose personal brand is in part defined by how they dress.
Adam Klein: We also tried to understand the pain point we wanted to solve as a more generalizable problem. We knew that our ideal customer was working in a creative field located in an urban area. They’re probably used to high-quality design in the things that they wear.
Daso: Do you mind going a bit deeper into the archetype of your ideal customer?
Johnson: The modern archetype for the freelance designer is Virgil Abloh of Off-White and Louis Vuitton. Virgil is someone who has many different creative outlets, with fashion but also as an artist and a DJ. Freelancers, by nature, pursue their side hustles relentlessly and reject the full-time jobs that would constrain their creative outlets.
Daso: Freelancers, also by nature, have to be versatile in the side hustles they pursue if they are going to go anywhere. Based on your selection of them as your ideal customer, how does your shoe reflect the versatility they need to thrive in their unique careers?
Klein: We’ve built our boot around three aspects: style, comfort, and durability. We want our product to be a premium product, so we’re using the same grade of high-quality leather that other luxury brands like Prada are using. We also want people to wear everywhere, so we used materials that could make them as comfortable as a pair of sneakers.
Daso: Got it. Let’s say you execute on your vision well, and you succeed in building your ideal boots. What’s the strategy behind your distribution to getting it to your customers? How does that strategy tie-in with the brand?
Klein: We have no delusions about the challenges of operating in this space. You can no longer launch a brand exclusively on digital, as advertising on Facebook and Google are very expensive. We’re also not the only ones noticing this. We want to be a different type of lifestyle brand, one that attracts customers non-conventionally, through meaningful content and community building. That isn’t to say we won’t have a digital presence, but our main focus will be connecting authentically. We will use our marketing budget to bring people into the conversation that we are currently having. That discussion is around what we represent as a brand: gender neutrality, environmental responsibility, freedom of expression, and practicing compassionate capitalism. This will take the form of community events, involving getting outdoors, town halls, panel discussions, or even something as small as movie nights.
Johnson: We have a small community now, pre-launch, of around 150 people. Once we grow our community to 1,000, then we can start thinking through the next phase of attracting customers, the same manner, but more massive scale.
Daso: What’s the overall vision of Season Three, given the distribution strategy, the concept, and underlying psychology that makes up your product’s brand?
Johnson: The grand vision for Season Three is to inspire exploration. A lot of how we talk about this is in the outdoors because getting to be outdoors is now an aspirational lifestyle. Still, we think research can also happen in your office or within yourself.
Klein: We want you to associate our boots with the understanding of what’s possible, both in individual and societal pursuits.
Disclosure: I was a previously an investor at Rough Draft Ventures, which has invested in Season Three.
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