Andrew Gibbs-Dabney spent all of his free time in the outdoors growing up, wandering and riding his bike, even though he had been told he’d have physical limitations due to a disability he was born with.
That all changed when he went to college, became addicted to oxycontin, and ended up in prison for robbery. After getting sober and serving time in both prison and boot camp, he wanted to tap into that feeling of childhood freedom again, to appreciate life and live it to its fullest potential – to be a livsnjutare, as the Swedes call it.
“I realized that it’s not the stuff you own that’s important,” said Gibbs-Dabney in an interview with The Daily. “It’s what you do with it.”
That’s the spirit behind Livsn, Gibbs-Dabney’s emerging outdoor apparel brand based in his home state of Arkansas, which he launched in 2018. Livsn’s aim is to help its customers own less and live more, supported by well-made, versatile, and functional products. That means thoughtfully creating apparel that can be worn in multiple settings, with utilitarian design features hidden within innovative textiles.
The Daily caught up with Gibbs-Dabney after Livsn launched its fall lineup to find out how the small brand is managing through this season’s economic headwinds.
How’s business?
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: It’s going well despite very real headwinds we’re facing alongside others. We’re up 82% year-on-year in revenue while only increasing cost of goods sold by 67% and operating expenses by 33%. Those are all great things to hear as the founder of a still (very) small brand on still-uneven footing pushing forward in the face of a tepid outdoor industry. Our wholesale channel is up 140% year-on-year, and I’m very proud of our efforts to be good partners with our retailers.
Wholesale accounts for about 30% of our revenue, with DTC accounting for the rest – split between our online store and the flagship store within our HQ. We’re in about 100 retail rooftops, almost entirely specialty outdoor. We’ve been incredibly happy with the team at Gearhead Outfitters and our rapid expansion to most of their doors over just a couple of seasons. We’ll do a pop-up event at their Fayetteville, Arkansas location in a few weeks. And speaking of events, we just returned from Roads, Rivers, and Trails in Cincinnati, Ohio, where we were a part of their outdoor fashion show.
This year, we added two advisors to the company: Phil Graves, formerly of Patagonia, where he was VP of development and the founder of Tin Shed Ventures, and Eoin Comerford, formerly of Moosejaw, where he was the CEO for over 10 years. They now have their feet under them and combined with our already strong group of veteran advisors, we have the wise guidance to balance out our newcomer mentality and lend some order to the madness.
Tell us about your hero product.
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: After all these years, our No.1 seller is still our OG Flex Canvas Pants, which we have updated to V3 for 2024. They’re made with ultimate versatility in mind, with a subtly integrated feature set including three zippered pockets, phone sleeves, articulation, gussets, roll-up legs, EDC pockets, and strong, mobile construction that looks more like a normal pair of canvas pants as opposed to tactical fatigues. I’m most excited about our efforts to increase the transparency of our supply chain. The Flex Canvas Pants are made of OCS-certified organic cotton, GRS-certified recycled polyester, roll-packed without plastic using paper twine with recycled paper hangtags, and made in a Tier 1 factory that has completed the Higg Facility Social & Labor Module Step 1 and Facility Environmental Module Level 2 assessments.
Overalls took the No. 1 spot through fall and winter of last year, and they’re set to do the same thing this year. People love their Flex Canvas Overalls, and it shows in the content and media we’re tagged in. The people love them, which makes me happy because I technically designed overalls before I designed pants.
How are you managing inventory?
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: We’re over-inventoried, but we have a grip on it. I can’t say it’s for all the same reasons everyone else is, but there is some overlap in buying strategy that we unfortunately shared with many other brands. While we’re growing fast this year, we are under plan, and since we bought inventory for plan (gasp), we have too much of some styles. However, most of what we overbought for this year is carry-forward, and since we’re not very trend driven, these are items we’re comfortable holding. We have also decided to sunset a few styles for the first time, and what we’re overstocked in is primarily those sunset items for which we have no problem lowering the price so they find new owners who will use them. Those items aren’t being carried forward by any retailers, so that helps us try to protect our stores’ margins as much as possible.
What’s your approach to marketing?
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: We’re looking hard at this as we enter Q4 of this year, because what was working last year isn’t working as well now. While we always have a healthy organic presence, we became too reliant on social media ads (shocking, I know) so that we became myopic in focus in our paid strategy. This year, we are focusing on the things no one can do better than us: Telling our story, leaning into our invested community, and becoming a leader in the world of sustainability (a word we are weary of and have a lot to say about).
I saw your LinkedIn post about emotional durability. Does Livsn design with that in mind, and how does that work?
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: I’m so glad you caught that. Yes, it hugely impacts our design! Emotional durability focuses on the meaningful connections we form with things that we own, usually resulting from experiences we have had with them. These connections lead us to have a deeper appreciation for that thing, which in turn leads to more attention to its care and more focus on longevity. In design, we focus on putting our products in the background. This may seem counter-intuitive for a brand, but we want our clothing to disappear in your special moments, to work and work well, to the point where you are focused on the present and not worrying about your pocket being too shallow, your zipper being hard to close, or if your movement is limited. We obsess over the small details so that, most of the time, our clothing works well and makes you feel at ease.
Do Livsn products have a lifetime guarantee, and how do customers tap into the repair network?
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: We have a local repair facility that handles most of our repairs, and if someone wants a “loud” repair, that’s the best place to go. However, we are actively crowdsourcing a list of repair shops in our retailers’ markets so that we all can save the time, money, and carbon of shipping and get repairs done locally. We reimburse those local repairs if the repair falls under our warranty.
As for our Fair Deal Guarantee, it is a lifetime warranty on manufacturing defects and an at-cost repair program for wear and tear. It’s on the honor system for now, and our customers are very trustworthy in choosing between “it broke and it shouldn’t have” and “it broke because I used it hard.” We’d like to keep it that way!
You’ve just launched some new fall offerings. What are you most excited about?
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: Boy, did we! I’m most excited about adding not one but four new tops to our collection. We have been bottoms-focused for years because of limited resources, but we believe our design principles apply to every apparel category. Our Highlands Sweater is a standout for me, and apparently for customers, because the first run sold out in two weeks. I’d encourage everyone to take a closer look at our new fall arrivals. There are three new textiles that are different from anything else in the market.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Andrew Gibbs-Dabney: I know it’s tough out there for many stores and brands. We’re feeling it, too. But there is a lot to be excited about and it’s time we take the future in our own hands and forge the next chapter of the outdoor industry. Re-trenching won’t cut it. We need innovation. Luckily, the best innovation is focusing on quality, relationships, and “doing it right.”
Kate Robertson can be reached at [email protected].