Challenger to Watch: Re-inc
“We're not interested in regular. We want to be revolutionary. That's why we see the power to create as boundless and limitless. We exist to boldly reimagine the status quo—championing equity, creativity, progress and art.”
Putting aside this hyperbolic and slightly baffling string of non-sequiturs there’s definitely something very seriously up at the DTC apparel start-up Re-inc.
It’s not just the commitment to gender-neutral clothing (though that’s cool and notable they are not the first).
And it’s not just that the four celebrity founders — members of the brilliant World Cup winning, record-breaking, US Women’s National Soccer team — will be taking an active role in the running the business, as opposed to just lending their star power (they’re claiming they will be co-CEOs, testing their on and off-field relationships built over years of teamwork).
It’s the much larger cultural agenda driving the company that makes this one to watch.
“these four appear to be taking the law into their own hands with the launch of Re-Inc”
In March of last year, the US Women’s Soccer team filed a class-action lawsuit against their employer, the US Soccer Federation. The case will be heard in May this year, but the writing has been on the wall for some time now and these four appear to be taking the law into their own hands with the launch of Re-Inc, stating they want to become as big as Nike and Google so that they can affect real change:
"When you're that big of a company, you're able to throw your weight around and create a different status quo based on the values that you hold and the mission that you have," Klingenberg told Inc.
That’s great. Many successful challengers begin with just that kind of audacity. Given the enormous power that corporations hold to create this kind of cultural change and, frankly, the need for it, we’re all for it. Maybe more celebs with strong agendas will invest in themselves in this way if Re-Inc is successful.
Of course, as some have rightly pointed out they will need to make a lot more than $130 joggers to reach the kind of scale and impact they desire. And this will require them to think hard about the very real issues of supply chain and fair-trade, for example, if they are serious about “reimagining the status quo and championing equity.” That might just require all four CEOs. We wish them luck.
