How New DTC Brand Brunt Workwear Is Faring After Year One

Last fall, former M. Gemi executives Eric Girouard and David Chernow debuted Brunt Workwear, a direct-to-consumer collection of work boots targeting everyone from electricians to warehouse workers. Despite the fact that the business started amid the COVID-19 pandemic — and all its extenuating factors, including business closures, labor shortages and, more recently, a major supply chain crunch — the brand has had a quick takeoff. After launching with four work boot styles, Brunt has since expanded the range with new versions of its most popular looks and it has added other product categories including socks and apparel. Execs say even more growth is on the horizon following a series A fundraising round that closed in mid-September and brought in $8.4 million. Here, Girouard talks about how year one went. What was the big lesson learned since launching Brunt? Eric Girouard: “How fast this customer group was willing to adopt and try this, a new work boot brand in a category that is completely run by 100-year-old incumbents. That was the big question mark — how slow is the adoption trial going to be? And it is exceeding all of the expectations that we had.” Why have customers gravitated to the brand so quickly? EG: “We had a little

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