How Brunt Workwear used authenticity to create a $300 million boot

It’s boom times for the workwear market globally, with the segment valued at $19 billion and expected to grow to $28 billion by 2033. If Carhartt, Dickies, or Strauss come to mind that would make sense, especially if you’ve taken at least one stroll around Williamsburg in the past year.

One brand, Brunt Workwear, has used authenticity to ride the workwear wave to $300 million in annual sales. Revenue Brew spoke with company executives about how it cultivated such a distinct brand, staying authentic amidst trend cycles, and getting the product just right.

If the boot fits: According to founder and CEO Eric Girouard, the company started as a branding concept, not a boot. The actual aesthetic of the boot was created as a way of representing the future business’s ideal customer profile.

“My buddies were like, ‘Why don’t you build a brand for us that looks like us and talks like us?’ All these heritage brands really focus on themselves. They talk about when they started and what they did back in the early 1900s or late 1800s. Our entire brand is focused on the actual customer,” Girouard said.

Girouard employed a successful direct-to-consumer model, but ultimately wanted to meet his customer base where they shopped; so the brand expanded into stores. Now, six years after it first started shipping products in 2020, Brunt has opened a flagship location in North Reading, Massachusetts.

Throughout the brand’s evolution, Girouard has insisted the mission was to stay focused on the worker, not follow trends.

“I no longer make long-term decisions. I make legacy decisions, and so if it’s a decision that isn’t going to be a good decision for the brand 10 years from now, it’s a bad decision,” Girouard said.

Authentic or it gets the boot: For Tim Linberg, chief brand officer, growth is important, but it isn’t effective unless it’s achieved by staying true to the brand.

“This past year has been about sustained growth—and staying true to who we are while we scale across channels,” Linberg said in an email to Revenue Brew.

Linberg said he and his team are working to keep the focus on the customers by sharing their stories and creating authentic brand moments. For example, earlier this year Brunt announced a pledge to donate 100,000 pairs of boots to trade school students across the country.

Partnerships have also helped the brand grow, including a tie-up with the New England Patriots specifically focused on the Gillette Stadium field crew. Brunt also created moments around Daytona International Speedway this year with Travis Pastrana for the Nascar Truck Series season opener.

“At the end of the day, we’re a brand built for today’s trade workers, and that gives us room to bring some real excitement to the market, and our customers,” Linberg wrote.

Best boot forward: Scott Roberts, chief merchandising officer, has enabled his company to scale by making sure that products are meeting worksite specifications. He explained that Brunt has established a consumer-centric creation model that is predicated upon maintaining a robust feedback loop.

“This process is why we name products after the real trade workers who made sure we got it right, and it has fueled incredible acceleration across our entire line,” Roberts said in an email to Revenue Brew.