How Caraa founder Aaron Luo is turning a passion project into growth

While many brands are locking into the World Cup, women’s accessories brand Caraa is looking forward to the 2028 Summer Olympics as part of its growth strategy.

Co-founder and CEO Aaron Luo, a lifelong fencer, is banking on a passion project to spur growth for the over 10-year-old brand, which has revealed a partnership with USA Fencing in the lead-up to the Los Angeles Summer Games. The partnership kicked off with a capsule collection incorporating fencing motifs and styles for Caraa’s premium bags, and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the USA Fencing Foundation.

“The idea is that we wanted to learn from the community, hear the feedback, and then iterate from there,” Luo said about the ongoing partnership. “This will be one of the few [products] that we hope to launch before the Olympics, during the Olympics, and, of course, after the Olympics.”

Connecting with the community

As the US fencing network is relatively small compared to other sports participating in the Olympics—according to USA Fencing, it had just over 45,000 registered members as of August 2025—Luo is leveraging his connection to the community for the partnership. He hopes the collections appeal to both fencing enthusiasts and sports fans more broadly.

“Because this is something that we care [about], because we want to give back to the community, we want to really give [customers] something that’s really cool,” he said. “The end product ends up being something that is special, and that’s something that we learn from the design standpoint that we’re going to translate more into other designs that we’re going to do.”

While the partnership is on the smaller side compared with, say, Ralph Lauren serving as an official outfitter for Team USA, Caraa’s collaboration with USA Fencing allows the brand to cater to a niche community.

According to Anjali Bal, associate professor of sports marketing at Babson College, these types of partnerships can go a long way in developing a brand’s long-term customer base.

“When we’re looking at these large-scale sporting events, there’s a relationship between the athlete and the consumer, and that relationship is one of the strongest ones,” she said. “I connect with the athlete, the athlete is important to me, and what the brands say is basically, ‘I also connect with them,’ so it’s twofold.”

Turning passion into profit

Luo took an unconventional approach by looking at the partnership as a fan first.

“The reality is when you talk to any fashion designer or fashion brand founder, there’s the, ‘I’d love to do this,’ and then there’s the CFO that afterward comes in and says, ‘You really can’t. Here are the constraints. That’s too expensive. Kill some pockets. Make it cheaper. That’s never going to sell,’” he said. “When it comes to this particular collection, we said, ‘If cost wasn’t a barrier or guardrail, what would an ideal fencing back look like?’ So, we started from that point of view.”

This led to Caraa using an antibacterial and water-repellent fabric from Korea and many fencing-related patches for the products. Luo said that customer feedback has been positive since the collection was released.

He believes the authentic nature of the USA Fencing collaboration will appeal to customers in the long run, even if they aren’t fencing enthusiasts.

“When I think about the long-term strategy of the brand, I want our customers to realize that there’s a bunch of humans behind the brand that’s creating products for people,” Luo said. “We’re always looking for meaningful long-term partners, so it’s not a moment, it’s a legacy.”