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

What happens when a dietitian and a lawyer start a swimwear brand?

Ryan talks with Lyndi and Les Cohen, the husband-and-wife team behind Fearless Swimwear. 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.

They built in public, let their audience pick the brand name, cuts and colours, and launched to a 15,000-strong waitlist.

The pre-order sold out in 24 hours for $200K.

They also share the $100K sizing mistake that followed, the "magic sizing" that came out of their waitlist data, why they're stepping away from deep Black Friday discounts, and what Lyndi calls the "embarrassment tax" of building on social.

About The Host:

Ryan Martin is Founder of Remarkable Digital, a specialist eCommerce SEO marketing agency working with Australian Brands.

In this episode

• Packing orders at Thread Together, and a humbling start to the chat
• Why a dietitian who specialised in body image decided to start a swimwear brand
• Building an audience by "listening to the data": body image content beat healthy breakfast content
• Co-creation: letting the community choose the name, cuts, fabrics and colours, and why 100 poll votes is often enough
• A 15,000-woman waitlist, a $200K pre-order that sold out in 24 hours, and going straight to a 3PL
• Trademarks: buying the "Fearless" name for $3K, and the risk of trademark squatting in China
• Sourcing in China: 36 hours at Intertextile Shanghai, and why you need a swimwear specialist, not a generalist
• The $50K tech pack lesson, and hiring a head of product with nearly 30 years in swimwear (including the 2000 Olympics swimsuits)
• The $100K mistake: gifting all their stock to Thread Together when the sizing came up small
• Magic sizing: 49% of their waitlist wore a different size top and bottom, so they built one-pieces with mixed sizing
• Long torso styles, and designing for a size 12 to 16 instead of scaling up from a size small
• Using Refundid checkout insurance to let customers try at home
• Custom fabrics vs cash flow: simplifying to shorten lead times and the cash conversion cycle
• Stock planning with no historical data, air freight, and a seven-month lead time on a sold-out style
• Black Friday: last year's tiered 10–60% discounts, and why this year they're focusing on newness and gift with purchase instead
• Swimwear's short selling window (September to December), and why March makes more sense for a sale
• Being "ridiculously honest" with customers about strategy changes
• The embarrassment tax: why your fails outperform your highlight reel on social
• Shooting product on real customers with a $4,000 camera instead of professional models
• Staying close to customer feedback as the team grows
• Mentors and inspiration: Shelley Sullivan (MCoBeauty) and Emma Grede
• Long-form content, brand voice, and being the "chief reminding officer"
• What's next: a ready-to-wear capsule, the US market, and becoming the most recommended swimsuit brand