Challenge: Launched in 2019, &Collar is a DTC menswear brand that is breathable, comfortable, and most importantly budget-friendly. As the brand grew quickly past 10M in annual sales they were running into issues keeping products in-stock leading up to their peak season. Faced with the possibility of running out of stock or hurting their margins with last-minute air freight, the team started looking for long-term solutions.
Solution: Looking for a long-term solve under a time constraint, &Collar was introduced to Portless and was able to onboard within 30 days leading to a 20x increase in their hero sku’s in-stock ratio and increasing their year over year revenue by 35% during their peak season.
&Collar launched in 2019 as a college side-project with a simple mission: create best-value menswear that works from 9-to-5 as well as 5-to-9. Co-founded by entrepreneur Mark Brown who was tired of choosing between uncomfortable dress shirts that didn't fit well or premium options that broke the bank, &Collar developed a line of stretchy, machine-washable, stain-resistant dress shirts and has expanded into a complete menswear collection including pants, ties, dress shoes, and accessories.
“The idea was that when we were in college and we had to go to events like weddings, we had to do presentations, we had job interviews… but then we had to put dress shirts on. They were the cotton shirts that didn’t fit you well… and the ones that do fit you well cost an arm and a leg. As college students, that didn’t work for us.”
What began as a resume-building exercise quickly evolved into something much bigger. After launching on Kickstarter and generating double their initial expected volume, &Collar experienced rapid growth, scaling from a few hundred thousand in annual revenue to well over $10 million by 2022. However, this growth trajectory brought new challenges that would test their operational capabilities.
&Collar's rapid success created an unexpected problem. "We were experiencing quick growth. And as a small business, I think really anything over 40% percent growth it's really hard to get things to stay in stock and to get things on time," explained Mark.
The situation reached a critical point in early 2023. "We had crushed our Q1 forecast, January through April, and we're coming up on our father's day sale, which was the second biggest sale of the year, right behind Black Friday. And we were going to be out of stock. We were going to be chronically out of stock."
“We were growing, growing, growing. And then we had to take a step back and ask, do we have to build a solid base to grow to the next phase?”
With Father's Day representing their second-largest sales event of the year, &Collar faced an existential crisis. Their inventory was still being produced in China, and traditional sea freight shipping methods wouldn't deliver products in time. The team scrambled for solutions: "How do we get things from China to our Utah warehouse? Like yesterday. We didn’t want to air freight 50,000 units due to costs. So we started looking for solutions.
With the clock ticking, Mark and the &Collar team began evaluating logistics partners with a set of straightforward - but demanding - criteria. Mark recalls the decision-making process: "Who can make it happen? Who can move quickly, who gets it (Ecommerce), and who can be really good partners to help us save our Father's Day sale."
After speaking with several potential partners and conducting reference calls with existing Portless customers, &Collar found their answer. "The Portless team was a no-brainer just by how fast they were willing to move," Mark explains. What impressed him most was Portless's deep understanding of Ecommerce operations: "We're still a young company and we don't know what we don't know, but we've been onenough calls at least to recognize that the Portless team knew what they were talking about."
The speed of implementation sealed the deal. The timeline from initial conversation to execution was remarkably fast: "We moved really quick. In less than 30 days we went from never having talked to anyone at Portless to already having the first truck scheduled to inbound at the Portless warehouse," says Mark.
With just three weeks before Father's Day, Portless executed a complex logistics operation that saved &Collar's peak season. "Within 30 days we rerouted like 40,000 units — two full containers — to the Portless warehouse three weeks before Father’s Day.... Everything was counted, synced to Shopify seamlessly. Dual-noded between our Utah warehouse and Portless, routing guidelines set up, scheduling was super easy."
The coordination between &Collar's existing Utah warehouse and Portless was seamless. "The Portless team got on a call with our current warehouse just to make sure everything was set up well. On the Portless side, they said “we'll make any time that works for your current warehouse work.” So it was really a dream to work with them through that process," said Mark.
When Father's Day arrived, the results exceeded expectations. "As the Father's Day sale played out, everything Portless said they would do, they did. So for us, it was massive." The operational excellence was evident in the details: split shipments were virtually eliminated, customer service was exceptional, and all SLAs were met during their busiest period of the year.
The transformation in &Collar's inventory position was immediate and dramatic. Mark quantifies the impact: "We would have been only 5% in-stock of our hero-SKUs had it been not for Portless. The math is simple, but when you go to a hundred percent stock, it’s a 20X increase in in-stock ratio. Going from out of stock of almost all of our core SKUs to completely in-stock is a game-changer."
This inventory transformation directly translated to revenue impact. "In terms of revenue swing we would have been down like 30 to 40% revenue year over year during that Father's Day sale. Because we were able to stay in-stock I think we're up 35% that first Father's Day. So that’s a 60% revenue swing. It was insane.” "
“Portless legitimately saved our year that year. If we ended 40% down YoY on Father's Day, that would’ve ruined the rest of our year… we would have no cash for July, August is hamstrung, then you’re recovering in September, and you don’t have enough to spend to fill the Black Friday funnel.”
Beyond the immediate stock-out resolution, the &Collar team saw additional benefits. The partnership eliminated the need for expensive air freight solutions to cover their stock gap while maintaining their "best value" positioning. For a brand selling shirts under $50, avoiding the $8 per unit air freight cost preserved nearly 20% of their margins.
“The customer support and operators on the Portless side are probably some of the best we’ve ever interacted with from a 3PL perspective.”
Based on their experience, Mark offers specific guidance for brands evaluating logistics partners. "Something that's become a non-negotiable for us is speaking with brands who have been with a logistic partner for at least a year or two." He emphasizes the importance of comprehensive due diligence, including speaking with existing and former customers to understand potential challenges.
“Our three most important relationships are our people (employees), our manufacturers, and our 3PLs. They’re all long-term and difficult to switch from, so you have to get them right.”
Operational compatibility is crucial: "Make sure they handle or have handled businesses similar to yours in terms of volume and SKU count. And then scalability, to make sure they can flex up" For &Collar, managing over 1,500 SKUs required a partner who understood complex Ecommerce inventory management, not just simple fulfillment.
“Make sure they can flex up to the thousands of orders that quickly. Portless’s first week was one of our biggest weeks of the year, and to have that accuracy and all SLAs met was incredible.”
Looking toward future growth, &Collar appreciates Portless's global capabilities: "You can sell anywhere in the world from Portless, so it's interesting to us." This international reach aligns with their expansion plans and eliminates the need to establish multiple logistics relationships as they grow.
