VF Corporation Bought My Baby
Or, when big brands buy little brands
I’ve been accused of talking about the brands I work with as if they were family. Associates tease me when they hear me say things like, “I’m proud of them.” Well, today, I feel like I’m watching my youngest head off to college–and hoping home isn’t forgotten.
It was announced last Monday that VF Corporation is acquiring Timberland. I’ve had the pleasure of doing some work with Timberland recently, but I’ve worked with SmartWool since 1999, back in its infancy, before the company had even booked ten million dollars in sales. SmartWool was the brainchild of a hard-working couple that put all they had into the simple idea that we shouldn’t have to accept cold feet as the cost of our active-outdoor pursuits. While others claimed they made warm socks, they took “wooly” socks out of the commodity category and into the performance business from their garage operation in Steamboat Springs, CO.
Other companies make wool socks. They were made before SmartWool came into existence. And, the category has exploded since the initial success of SmartWool. So, if others can do it, why has SmartWool been so successful? Why did this brand succeed where others failed? Why did this brand continue to succeed as it transitioned through four presidents in its 17 years of business?
It’s fairly obvious it wasn’t about any one President. What I can share, given my personal relationship with the company, is that SmartWool has benefited from one of the most serendipitous cases of the right President at the right time of any company I’m aware of. Each shares equally in the success story, having contributed the exact right leadership competencies at the exact right time. But, it’s more than that.
Simon Sinek, a brand strategist with an engaging presentation style, posits that the answer to “Why do you do what you do?” drives your organization to differentiate. [See him on TED.] The answer to that question steers the choices you make everyday. It provides a point-of-view that no one else has when confronted with the same choices. In the case of SmartWool, this company isn’t simply a maker of socks and apparel. It’s now a band of people passionate about the life they live outdoors and committed to making products that improve that experience. That’s why they deliver on a brand promise of extraordinary comfort again and again, as they’ve grown from socks to apparel and accessories.
In the mergers and acquisitions game it’s about leveraging strengths and consolidating for greater efficiency. I get that. And, so, as excited as I am for the incredible support and strength VF will bring to SmartWool, I hope they don’t lost sight of why this particular company has succeeded; to date, the SmartWool brand DNA is directly tied to its provenance–a mountain community that is “the perfect testing ground for SmartWool products.”
