Sold Out in 24 Hours: Building Fearless Swimwear in Public, with Lyndi & Les Cohen

<p>What happens when a dietitian and a lawyer start a swimwear brand? </p><p>Ryan talks with Lyndi and Les Cohen, the husband-and-wife team behind <a href="https://fearlessswimwear.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Fearless Swimwear</a>. Lyndi, known as The Nude Nutritionist, spent 15 years helping women with body image before deciding the swimsuit was a body image problem to solve. </p><p>They built in public, let their audience pick the brand name, cuts and colours, and launched to a 15,000-strong waitlist. </p><p>The pre-order sold out in 24 hours for $200K. </p><p>They also share the $100K sizing mistake that followed, the &quot;magic sizing&quot; that came out of their waitlist data, why they&#39;re stepping away from deep Black Friday discounts, and what Lyndi calls the &quot;embarrassment tax&quot; of building on social.</p><p><br></p><p>About The Host: </p><p>Ryan Martin is Founder of Remarkable Digital, a specialist <a href="https://www.remarkabledigital.com.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">eCommerce SEO marketing agency</a> working with Australian Brands. </p><p>In this episode</p><ul><li>Packing orders at Thread Together, and a humbling start to the chat</li><li>Why a dietitian who specialised in body image decided to start a swimwear brand</li><li>Building an audience by &quot;listening to the data&quot;: body image content beat healthy breakfast content</li><li><strong>Co-creation:</strong> letting the community choose the name, cuts, fabrics and colours, and why 100 poll votes is often enough</li><li>A 15,000-woman waitlist, a $200K pre-order that sold out in 24 hours, and going straight to a 3PL</li><li>Trademarks: buying the &quot;Fearless&quot; name for $3K, and the risk of trademark squatting in China</li><li>Sourcing in China: 36 hours at Intertextile Shanghai, and why you need a swimwear specialist, not a generalist</li><li>The $50K tech pack lesson, and hiring a head of product with nearly 30 years in swimwear (including the 2000 Olympics swimsuits)</li><li><strong>The $100K mistake:</strong> gifting all their stock to Thread Together when the sizing came up small</li><li><strong>Magic sizing:</strong> 49% of their waitlist wore a different size top and bottom, so they built one-pieces with mixed sizing</li><li>Long torso styles, and designing for a size 12 to 16 instead of scaling up from a size small</li><li>Using Refundid checkout insurance to let customers try at home</li><li>Custom fabrics vs cash flow: s