Entering the market with a new product is challenging, and many brands struggle to succeed. Ari Bloom has a methodology to help brands beat the odds.
After spending seven years in merchandising at Gap and running venture-backed tech companies in Silicon Valley, he founded A-Frame Brands. The brand-building incubator is behind the success of celebrity-backed lines like Proudly (with Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade) and Loved01 (with John Legend).
Along the way, he developed a framework that borrows design thinking from tech and applies it to consumer products. It asks brands to start with the problem, validate through the channel, and resist the urge to scale before they’re ready. Bloom breaks down the methodology behind launching into more than 10,000 retail stores and the mistakes he’d fix if he could do it again.
On what retail teaches you that tech doesn’t (and vice versa)
In retail, we look at our sales reports from last season. For instance, if the black button-down shirt was the bestseller, we redesign it, put it back in store, open the doors, and hope people like it. And if not, we mark it down. You’re planning for even a top seller to mark down around half the inventory. You’re optimizing for failure, and you get stuck in these promotional cycles.
Then I went to tech and realized they just start with a problem and work backward to the solution set. If I’m building new brands, I should be starting with a problem first. When you solve a problem for people, they’re much more likely to engage with it, purchase your products, and come back for more. I still use that design-thinking mentality to this day.
On the stat that made him start A-Frame Brands
About 40% of growth in consumer industries comes from new brands, new product lines. Innovation does drive a lot of growth, not surprisingly, but about 90% of new brands fail. There’s this clear disconnect between opportunity and solution.
For me, A-Frame was about asking: What are the problems I know a lot about, that I could be an expert in, that I could deliver products and brands to solve?
Hill Harper, A-Frame’s cofounder, and I started out just talking about being dads. We both have beautiful, diverse families—different religions, different ethnicities. We knew that the experience we were having personally was very disconnected from the experience we had professionally. And at one point Hill said, “Ari, you could do this. Why aren’t you addressing this?” He did that for me in a way nobody else ever had.
That led to Proudly, which centers the needs of diverse families. More than 50% of the babies born in this country since 2014 have one parent who’s Black, brown, or Asian. That presents a market opportunity, a social need—doing well and doing good. When you can wrap those up into one thing, that’s where I want to operate.
On packing 1,200 soap boxes in his garage during COVID-19
One of the first concepts we were going to do was a refillable, sustainable soap brand. I launched it in April of 2020 out of my garage. I managed all the orders, packed all the boxes, put them in the basket of my bike, and rode them over to the post office. I got a 2,000-unit wholesale order and had to reduce it because I couldn’t physically pack enough boxes—it was just me. I spent three days packing and shipped about 1,200 units.
I built a Shopify site with this tiny agency, Ludlow Kingsley. I had to do every single job—manage the website, handle customer service, respond to every email, do the social media, take all the photography. But I also realized what I wasn’t good at and where I needed help.
Even sourcing the soap—I met contract manufacturers, went through the process of how they fill, where they fill, what are the right bottle shapes, is there a size that fits in the machine. That’s stuff you just cannot learn without doing.
On what he tells celebrities who pitch him passion projects
I’ve had conversations with a number of celebrities where they say, “I really want to do men’s fragrance.” And I’m like, Cool. What else? “Well, I think there’s nothing out there like this.” That’s definitely not true. Would you fund it? It probably costs $3 to $5 million to really be successful. Are you willing to spend that money? And inevitably, a lot of folks are like, “No, I’m not.”
Celebrities, in some cases, have a lot of people around them that tell them yes. They’re champions—they’re really good at what they do and they got there because they never took no for an answer. I totally respect that. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to work in building a brand.
I’m a big fan of saying no impulsively to everybody, in a kind and constructive way. Some folks just don’t hear it that often. If I have to be that person, I don’t mind that job.
On using retailer feedback as his strongest validation tool
We use triangulation. We need multiple data points. Coming from retail, I think retailer feedback is maybe as strong as anything in my equation.
I like to have that conversation with a number of retail partners before I get into the market, just to express what I’m doing and see if there’s interest. When I start getting responses like, “Oh my God, yeah. Could we do that? Would you work with us? How many stores would you want?” I’m like, OK, I’ve got something here.
If I’m not getting folks that are interested, I think that’s important feedback. I’ve definitely had ideas where I’m like, This is the best idea. And I’ll talk to a couple of friends who are retail executives and they’re like, “Yeah, we wouldn’t do that.” You’ve got to listen to that feedback because sometimes they’re seeing things that you just don’t. I’ve had a lot of brands I was passionate about that did not resonate, and we didn’t pursue them.
I don’t particularly love traditional focus groups for a new brand, because sometimes it’s hard to explain to people something that doesn’t exist yet. For those without access to retailers, there are AI-based focus groups now, which are incredible—you can do it in seconds. But I’m a little bit old fashioned. Because my brands will need to go into retail, that buyer enthusiasm is a really important proof point for me.
On wishing he’d launched in fewer stores
I launched in more than 10,000 stores. In some respects, I wish I had gone a little bit smaller to start with some of my brands. We would get offers to launch full-chain in some of these companies, and of course, as an entrepreneur, I’m like, Of course. I’ll figure out how to do that. But there’s something to be said for going slower and making sure you nail it in a smaller group of stores before you expand.
It’s very expensive to be successful. Retailers kind of love you to death. There’s an increasing amount of expectations on brands to do a lot of marketing in store—fixturing, social media advertising, internal platforms they want you to advertise on. That’s a clear formula, but it’s harder for small brands because the budgets required are very tough.
On the exact words to use when a retailer offers you too much
It’s a smart move not to get over your skis. I know it’s tempting—I was there too, and I just went for it. But if you have that conversation and say, “Listen, I really want to be successful. Can we dial back a little bit and focus on the top stores that will tell the best story but also give me the ability to focus my resources?” I think they actually appreciate that.
Once a retailer is interested in you, that’s the first most important test. It’s OK to say, “I want to do this right and win with you long-term.” Most retailers are starting to optimize for that, especially for smaller brands. If you push back, I don’t think you’d get a lot of resistance.
Catch Ari’s full conversation on Shopify Masters for more on how he vets celebrity partners for seriousness and his approach to choosing investors who’ll stick around through bad quarters. Plus, learn why he thinks companies are making mistakes with their approach to AI.
