In 2020, Karim Abed was the chief monetary officer for a Texas-based residence builder. The job paid effectively, he says, however he yearned to launch his personal enterprise and reconnect along with his Egyptian heritage.
Quick ahead to 2025, and that enterprise is WYR, a males’s attire model using Giza cotton, the storied material, and small Egypt-based factories. The corporate is prospering.
In our current dialog, Karim addressed WYR’s preliminary struggles, subsequent development, and, sure, the advantages of Egyptian cotton and craftspeople.
Our complete audio is embedded under. The transcript is condensed and edited for high quality.
Eric Bandholz: Inform us who you might be and what you do.
Karim Abed: I’m the founding father of WYR, a males’s premium clothes model launched in 2020. My girlfriend, now my spouse, urged WYR, shorthand for “what you’d fairly” put on. I cherished the simplicity and caught with it.
Earlier than WYR, I spent practically a decade in Texas working in finance, finally because the chief monetary officer for an actual property division of a house builder. It was financially rewarding, however I wished to create one thing of my very own.
I ultimately selected clothes due to household connections in Egypt. I hoped to reconnect with my tradition and heritage whereas producing high quality objects — shirts, pants, boxers — utilizing Egyptian cotton, a famend product.
In January 2020, simply earlier than the pandemic, I traveled to Egypt with material samples and refined patterns that I had labored on for six months, and I launched in July of that yr.
I discovered from errors. I saved my finance job to fund the enterprise, so I might afford to lose a couple of bucks. We misplaced a very good sum of money within the first and second years. Covid unexpectedly helped by letting me work at home and deal with WYR after hours.
Bandholz: When did you commit totally to the attire firm?
Abed: We bought just one,000 items within the first six months and generated solely $20,000 in income throughout the first yr. As soon as I refined our promoting proposition — premium Giza cotton, exact match, nice evaluations — gross sales exploded. Income jumped to just about $1 million in yr two. That development gave me the arrogance to go full-time.
Many attire manufacturers order from giant factories, typically in Jap Europe. I selected a unique path. I supply in Egypt and work with small artisan-run workshops as an alternative of huge producers. A craftsman with 35 years’ expertise leads our essential facility. He nonetheless sews and manages a 15-person staff.
Partnering with these artisans ensures meticulous high quality and permits for customized particulars reminiscent of curved hems, distinctive stitching, and tailor-made armholes that enormous factories wouldn’t accommodate. We offer them sufficient enterprise to focus solely on WYR.
To keep up requirements, we added our personal high quality management staff to those small factories. This hands-on method lets us protect the craftsmanship and match that outline our model whereas scaling manufacturing responsibly.
All instructed, we make the most of six factories, relying on demand. Every makes a speciality of a talent. For instance, one focuses on chinos as a result of it has the fitting equipment for twill cotton, whereas one other handles our curved hems, which require exact stitching. We match every product to the ability finest suited to that craft.
This community took months to construct. Via my spouse’s household connections, I met an skilled manufacturing supervisor who joined our staff. He helped us check quite a few small workshops, dropping people who didn’t meet requirements and including new ones as wanted.
Right now, we now have eight workers members in Egypt, together with managers for high quality management, stock, and manufacturing. We additionally preserve a small warehouse. We function lean, producing on an as-needed foundation. Proudly owning our yarn permits us to remain versatile and preserve a good stock whereas guaranteeing constant high quality.
Bandholz: What’s the distinction between Egyptian and Giza cotton?
Abed: Giza is a selected, long-staple pressure of Egyptian cotton, graded by location and fiber sort. It’s uncommon and government-regulated. Most “Egyptian cotton” merchandise aren’t actually Giza. We safe manufacturing by reserving about 10 tons of yarn from a trusted textile mill and verifying it ourselves.
Customers might imagine a t-shirt is machine-made begin to end, however for us, expert labor is important. Drawing and layering patterns, exact reducing, and cautious stitching all have an effect on the ultimate high quality. Each step — from selecting the cotton to spinning, dyeing, and stitching — occurs in Egypt.
Our cotton is dear. It’s the best enter value for our shirts. Cheaper alternate options can be found in nations reminiscent of China, Bangladesh, and India. China, specifically, excels at artificial athletic materials. However for genuine Giza cotton high quality, Egypt is unmatched.
Bandholz: You’ve succeeded with attire, a aggressive business.
Abed: The problem was convincing customers — who can’t really feel our shirts on-line — of their worth. We relied closely on adverts with fast, attention-grabbing messages about our match, Giza cotton material, and easy, logo-free fashion. That constructed sufficient belief and evaluations to drive repeat purchases, which stay our largest development engine.
Going viral isn’t practical for minimalist fundamentals. Our enchantment is inconspicuous consolation and timeless high quality, not flashy logos. As a substitute, we deal with regular buyer acquisition and retention.
Early on, I employed a number of advertising businesses, however none cared as a lot as I did. With my finance and analytical background, I spotted I might handle most of it myself. Now I deal with advert technique with one staff member, outsourcing solely content material creation. For promotions reminiscent of Black Friday, we plan campaigns, drop the artistic into our adverts, and intently monitor efficiency.
Bandholz: How do you discover content material creators?
Abed: We produce podcast episodes in-house. Businesses create humorous adverts, and our prospects generate evaluations and testimonials. I discover creators on Instagram who match our minimalist vibe, then invite them to make genuine posts.
Surprisingly, easy flat-lay photographs — only a well-styled shirt and pants — carry out exceptionally effectively, though they’re troublesome to shoot, so we outsource a few of that work. The hot button is fixed iteration and various artistic sources to maintain adverts contemporary.
I desire creators who genuinely like our shirts, fairly than these chasing paychecks. Some settle for merchandise in trade for content material. I keep away from costly “pay-to-play” offers as a result of audiences can sense inauthenticity.
We briefly tried a big public relations company for publicity, however it felt out of brand name. I’d fairly develop grassroots than pay athletes or influencers five-figure sums for sponsorships. Authenticity issues greater than big-name endorsements.
Bandholz: What’s your subsequent development stage?
Abed: We intend to scale rigorously. Having a single manufacturing unit centered solely on us can be wonderful. I’ve even toyed with opening my very own facility, however that’s a completely totally different enterprise.
In an ideal world, I’d personal each a part of the availability chain, from manufacturing to promoting. That provides prospects the best worth and ensures the highest quality. However I additionally worth my life exterior of labor and need time with my household.
I’m not a fan of the “develop first, revenue later” mindset. Some founders run losses for years earlier than turning money circulate optimistic. I imagine a enterprise ought to show itself inside two or three years. Scaling takes steps. You may’t leap in a single day from promoting 200,000 shirts yearly to 2 million. The provision chain should develop methodically to keep up high quality.
Bandholz: The place can individuals purchase your shirts or attain out?
Abed: Our website is Wyrwear.com. We’re additionally on Instagram. I’m on LinkedIn.
