Man, this topic has been on my mind for a while. It’s a thought I wrestle with in private, but in an effort to be transparent, let’s talk about it.

The race to the bottom. What exactly is it?

To frame this conversation, I want to share my beliefs that guide how I think about it.

• The fashion space is saturated. Menswear is no different.
• Frequent markdowns from once esteemed retailers (think SSENSE, Saks, and Barneys) have distorted pricing expectations.
• Brands, especially newer ones, come and go quietly. We’re too busy being overfed by social media’s algorithm to notice. We’re constantly in a daze.
• Authenticity wins, but it’s hard to distinguish it from trends and influencer bias.
• There is a lot of smoke and mirrors. Brands that appear healthy are scraping by.

It’s hard having a brand in 2026. If you can patiently sit through the obnoxious banter on the Throwing Fits podcast, their guests often open up about the struggles of brand building. Recent episodes featuring Josh Willis of Second Layer and Keith Henry of Henry’s shed light on the realities of running an independent brand, something I aspire for WABM to be one day.

Their stories really stuck with me. For example, Josh shares he might land tens of thousands of dollars in wholesale orders but not see a single dollar until 30 days after net-30 terms. While the money eventually comes in (key word: eventually), production still needs to be paid for upfront…which is an entire season (think 6 months) ahead of the actual wholesale delivery.

Or consider this: Keith’s product drop sells out in 5 minutes but since he’s reinvesting back into the brand, he doesn’t actually get to touch much, if any, of that revenue. And if his next collection tanks, he’s doubled down only to find himself broke. Talk about highs and lows...

I can feel my own anticipation building as I type this out. So where does the race to the bottom play into all of this?

I define the race to the bottom as when a brand uses tactics that gain short-term advantage at the expense of long-term health and scalability. I’ve been guilty of this myself.

There are a number of ways this can show up:

• Pricing items at razor-thin margins to help drive sales. But looking at the bigger picture, it’s detrimental to a brand’s long-term health. It leaves little to no cushion for missteps, almost like living paycheck to paycheck. When the rainy day comes, you won’t be prepared to weather the storm.
• Fake sellouts and/or password protected pages. While this boosts demand, it ultimately leaves the brand exposed with an inventory liability. Rule of thumb from my fashion career: products should always be available for sale.
• Extreme discounting. Offering several promo codes or setting the retail price lower than it should be ties back to razor-thin margins. Put simply: if you’re building a brand but undercut your own time and effort, you’re operating more like a hobby than a business.
• Cutting Corners. Sampling, previewing and marketing a product with the utmost care only to then run production units at a significantly lower quality standard. I have no shame saying this...anyone heard of No Faith Studios?
• Flooding the market with product. Being first in a customer’s mind is important, but if you’re not intentional with the product assortment or marketing, it becomes slop. Example: I once seeded product to a large influencer, banking on reach to grow my brand. What actually happened? He posted WABM but also tagged ten others alongside it. I gained zero followers from the effort.

You might be wondering why I’m sharing all of this. Part of it is cathartic lol, but there’s a reason.

Since going full-time, I've given a lot of thought to my brand’s positioning. Some of these thoughts tie into the race to the bottom, and I’m reminding myself it’s what you make of it. It can be just noise, something that consumes you, or even something you participate in.

With that said, there’s some good news. As I admitted earlier, I’ve tried participating in the race to the bottom. While it's helped acquire new customers, it didn’t truly engage my core audience, people like you who chose to subscribe to WABM Weekly.

You’ve given me the confidence to tell my story no bullshit and continue to remind me that what I’m building is special. Some of you have even challenged me to elevate the product offering because you believe in my design choices, no questions asked. And honestly, as a 33-year old chasing his dream, this means more than you know.

After giving it some thought, I want my first full-time moments to be dedicated to my core audience. If I can continue impressing you, then I can tune out the noise coming from the race to the bottom, build products we all love, and keep playing the long game. Just because fashion is saturated doesn't mean there aren't winners. Independent brands like Second Layer, Soshi Otsuki, James Coward, mfpen, Story mfg. show that it's difficult but possible.

I don’t have all the answers yet, but my first step in 2026 will be to elevate the product offering. This is for you.