Episode 20: The challenges of scaling young brands (w/ Christine Day)

Written By Christine Cowan

We have been seeing a surge in new fashion and lifestyle brands even as the bigger players in this subsector seem to struggle. Yet making it through to profitable scale remains elusive for many. The TBOR team are joined by Canadian retail executive Christine Day to explore why this is occurring and to discuss the challenges and common pitfalls founders face - and the reasons to be optimistic about their futures.

Christine recently teamed with Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and his wife, Ciara, to form a new purpose-based house of brands, the House of LR&C. She formerly scaled Luvo Foods (Performance Kitchen) into a food-as-medicine success in the US, grew Lululemon Athletica post founder, and took Starbucks global. Christine is passionate about purpose-based lifestyle brands and innovating the go-to-market journey.

Christine Cowan

Christine has lived in Portland, OR for 16 years, having grown up in Vancouver B.C. and then a 9 year stint in Toronto. Ont. before she made the move to PDX.  

She hails from a line of gardening women. Her beloved Tutu (grandmother) won awards for her garden, in particular for her roses.  Christine's mum Wendy was also an avid gardener who volunteered at the UBC Botanical gardens.  Christine's passion for gardening started early and in particular she was drawn to succulents and the unique creations of Thomas Hobbs in Vancouver.  She is inspired by the unique and often quirky look of the plants as well as the beautiful containers she puts them in.  Succulents are sustainable, peaceful and low maintenance. Each one is unique and some are flawed but they are just as beautiful - like we are as humans!  

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Episode 21: Implementing “Purpose” with purpose (w/ guest David Labistour)
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Episode 19: How will hard-hit food service come back? (w/ Sylvain Charlebois)