{"id":4318,"date":"2020-05-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=4318"},"modified":"2020-07-17T09:33:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T13:33:56","slug":"clothes-make-the-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2020\/05\/01\/clothes-make-the-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Clothes Make the Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Brian Duford \u201905 helps bring versatility to menswear<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As one of the first employees of Gap\u2019s new men\u2019s athleisure brand, Hill City, Brian Duford \u201905 is helping reinterpret what men\u2019s clothing can be.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Previously working as a business forecaster at the women\u2019s athleisure brand Athleta, Duford spent most of his time looking at spreadsheets, not clothes. \u201cI\u2019m an economics kind of guy,\u201d he says. \u201cI like being surrounded by creative people, but I\u2019m the guy who is not creative.\u201d For months, Duford had a folder on his desktop for a new project that the company, part of Gap Inc., was considering for a \u201cmen\u2019s Athleta brand.\u201d When Athleta leadership approached him to be a part of an internal team to make it a reality \u2014 building a new brand from the ground up \u2014 he didn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cIt was a unique opportunity,\u201d Duford says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now he is one of approximately two dozen employees in the fledgling clothing brand Hill City, which hopes to do for men what Athleta and Lululemon did for women a decade ago: create a new category of clothing \u2014 athleisure. \u201cIt\u2019s all about versatility,\u201d says Duford. \u201cMen\u2019s clothes are siloed \u2014 if you are going on a hike, you wear Patagonia; if you are going to the gym, you wear something with logos all over it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While he never gave much thought to clothes before, he considers himself the target demographic for the company, as a young urban professional in San Francisco who wants functional clothes to wear to the office, as well as after work. \u201cIf you want a pair of pants that looks good at night, but is also comfortable and has some stretch in the waistband, there aren\u2019t a lot of options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Along with a new clothing category, Duford and his colleagues are creating a new kind of company, with a start-up mentality inside a legacy brand. This has required him to look beyond the numbers and take on multiple roles.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duford studied <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colgate.edu\/academics\/departments-programs\/international-relations-program\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"international relations (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"aioseop-link\">international relations<\/a> at Colgate, focusing on international business economics. When he started at Gap, Inc. in San Francisco after graduation, he enjoyed the challenge of economic forecasting in an industry disrupted by the internet. \u201cWe found there is a place for retail stores, but it has to be done a little differently,\u201d he says. While at Athleta, he pushed initiatives for smaller stores with running clubs and athletics events to bring in customers. \u201cIf you build a community and engage with the clientele, it keeps them coming back,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hill City is primarily an internet brand, but Duford and his colleagues are pursuing innovative ways to market the company, with pop-up stores and clothing \u201cfood trucks\u201d at athletics events. \u201cWe are doing something scrappy and different,\u201d says Duford, who has taken on everything from inventory management to wholesale distribution to working in the store. \u201cIt\u2019s energizing to come into work and not know what you are going to do that day,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd seeing how your work has direct impact on the bottom line is motivation to work harder.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Duford hopes to help grow Hill City to the point where he can once again focus on forecasting. For now, though, he\u2019s enjoying looking beyond the spreadsheets every once in a while to be closer to the creative energy of the brand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brian Duford \u201905 helps bring versatility to menswear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1221,"featured_media":4198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[276,487],"coauthors":[153],"class_list":["post-4318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-endeavor","tag-business","tag-clothing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-17E","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/01\/021120F003.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4318"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4441,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4318\/revisions\/4441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4318"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}