How True Classic is sticking to its performance-driven roots while building a more omnichannel marketing approach

True Classic launched in 2019 as a DTC-only brand. For years, it has grown without taking on outside investment, and it exceeded $200 million in sales last year. 

Now, True Classic has reached a critical inflection point. It’s selling through more places, including Amazon, Target, Sam’s Club and Kohl’s; last week, it launched in Costco. It also has seven of its own retail stores and has brought on an outside investor. Earlier this month, the company announced that it had received a strategic investment from 1686 Partners, a private equity firm started by the son of one of Chanel’s co-owners, that valued True Classic at $850 million. 

The key challenge for True Classic this year is figuring out how to evolve its marketing approach as it sells more products in more places. “We are continuing to diversify the marketing mix while continuing to double down on Meta, Google, Tiktok and the obvious channels that everybody’s on,” Yahalom said. True Classic has dabbled more in TV advertising, podcasts, and brand-building partnerships with sports teams like the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Kings. It has also had to evolve its measurement approach along the way and is in the process of building out its own marketing mix model, Yahalom says. 

Yahalom said his mantra is, “wherever performance goes, budget flows.” So True Classic wants to maintain a marketing stack that can quickly pivot depending on where the brand is finding success. 

Like many digitally-native brands, True Classic started “pretty much on the back of Facebook and Instagram and Google,” Yahalom said. Before joining True Classic, Yahalom was a manager on Meta’s Emerging Disruptors team. 

But becoming more of an omnichannel brand means True Classic has not only had to shift where its advertising dollars flow, but it’s also had to rethink how exactly it connects with customers. “Everything we did was like, ‘We’ve gotta give you the product, give you the offer, give you the deal right there — and then go to the website, [so you] convert right now.”

Now, “we’re really trying to think about it from a brand-first approach of, ‘How do we create the best relationship emotionally with consumers?’” Yahalom said. 

A lot of that comes down to how True Classic speaks to customers in ads. True Classic started in T-shirts, but as the brand has grown, it’s also begun selling other clothing items like jeans, joggers and polo shirts. But True Classic is trying to position itself as a brand that sells not only clothes, but also confidence. It recently put out a video on YouTube highlighting its origin story, including how its founder “discovered the three secrets to making men look better in their T-shirts.”

Through organic social, True Classic tries to emphasize its involvement with its community. For example, it shared that it opened up its offices and donated over 100,000 garments to victims of the Los Angeles wildfires. 

In short, True Classic is starting to embrace more of the traditional brand-building tactics, while still adhering to its performance-driven roots. True Classic has a Facebook Group, for example, consisting of its most loyal customers, and Yahalom will periodically bring them to all-hands company meetings where he interviews them about what they like and don’t like, and previews upcoming videos to get their feedback. 

Over the years, the company has introduced more tools into its attribution arsenal, like post-purchase and lift surveys. True Classic even did a study with Amazon to better understand how the Shopify consumer behaves compared to the Amazon consumer. 

“We really just try to study — as best as possible — consumer behavior, and then try to properly attribute how impactful the media is to ultimately guide how much we spend,” Yahalom said.

Andrew Lipsman, independent analyst at Media, Ads + Commerce, said in an email that the shift True Classic is going through is a common one. “The entire marketing playbook can’t just be performance, because sales will plateau,” he wrote. 

But, he added, “one modern benefit of upper-funnel channels is that they’re more targeted than they used to be. So performance marketers can cast a more narrow net and be more efficient with spend. They just need to be careful not to target too narrowly or they’ll never introduce their brand to new potential customers.” 

But like every other company out there right now, True Classic isn’t immune to shifting consumer behavior. For Yahalom, the answer to responding to tariffs and economic uncertainty is to stay nimble, just like it does with its marketing mix. 

“We want to provide great products for a great price point. You’re always striving to do exactly that,” he said. “What we’re trying to do right now is figure out how we can continue to optimize our supply chain, which we’ve already been doing, to mitigate any impact that will ultimately reach the consumer.”