Tommy John

Tom Patterson and Erin Fujimoto had already built a formidable premium underwear brand when they met Sheepdog. A track record of genius product innovations like the Quick Draw Fly and Second Skin material. Endorsements from Kevin Hart and Howard Stern. Strong DTC and wholesale distribution. And a pandemic-inspired boom in loungewear driving their best sales ever.

The brand was on a roll, but hungrier than ever. “I believe we’re uniquely positioned to accelerate the comfort categories even faster,” said co-CEO Patterson.

Tommy John’s CMO Nick Karrat, a four-time Sheepdog client, reached out about a strategy initiative to map the brand’s evolution from underwear market disruptor to a much larger lifestyle brand. Knowing this evolution would have to build around an inspired understanding of the target customer, Sheepdog partnered with accomplished brand strategy boutique Roundpeg, and set out on an innovative research and strategy development plan.

Qualitative ethnography and video journals brought us into the underwear drawers of Tommy John’s loyal buyers. Deep quantitative profiling through Roundpeg’s Correspondence Analysis methodology helped unlock the consumer mindset that would most drive growth and differentiation. We held co-creation workshops with the leadership team, which always sharpens the thinking.

In the end, Sheepdog, Roundpeg and Tommy John were able to develop an ownable positioning and comprehensive brand playbook that gave tactical direction for communications, product development, retail partnerships, merchandising and more. The team is executing off of the new platform now, excitedly confident it will propel the brand to new heights of category leadership.