Elwood CEO Jackson Wirht on turning a discount brand into a streetwear hit

When Jackson Wirht and creative director Justin Saul bought Elwood Clothing in 2020, the skate label had been dormant twice and was leaning on heavy discounting. Their first change was a question. "We switched from the existing product strategy of 'will this sell' to 'will WE actually wear this'," Wirht told FashionUnited.

That rule came with a second one: no more markdowns. The pair cut inventory buys and moved to fair year-round pricing so they would not have to discount stock. "To this day, we only have one sale period throughout the entire year," Wirht said. Elwood has stayed independent and profitable since then, and it is now preparing to open its first store, a flagship in Los Angeles.

Why revive Elwood

Wirht came to Elwood from the business side of fashion. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration, management and operations from the University of Colorado Boulder, and he previously worked as merchandising and sales manager at Topson Downs and as development and production manager at Madhappy.

Taking on a defunct label instead of launching a new one was not an obvious choice. "This is something we went back and forth on, weighing the pros and cons of reviving a brand vs. starting one from scratch. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer," Wirht said. "Ultimately, we felt like there was something about Elwood that still felt relevant even though the brand itself had been dormant."

The label had history and credibility in Southern California, rooted in skate and surf culture. Enough time had passed that the new owners did not feel bound by what it had been. "Justin and I felt like we resonated with the original brand DNA, that is so closely related to our upbringing, and could evolve it to build something more relevant," he said. "Starting something completely new would have given us a blank canvas, but Elwood gave us a foundation and a past, which felt more real."

Once the product was where they wanted it, the owners began building a team to invest in the community around Elwood. "Before we did any major marketing, we wanted to get the product right first," Wirht said.

An all-in bet in a pandemic year

The pair decided to buy Elwood in January 2020, weeks before Covid-19 upended retail. "By the time the severity of the pandemic really started, there was no going back," Wirht said. "I had already left my job at another clothing brand, with a one year old at home, so we were all in on making this work."

The disruption ended up working in their favour. "Ironically, the pandemic was a huge shift from traditional retail to DTC e-commerce businesses, so the timing was serendipitous to be building a digitally native brand," he said. "The first year wasn't crazy from a numbers perspective, but we could definitely feel the momentum building drop by drop."

Wirht and Saul split the work along their strengths, with Wirht taking operations and finance and Saul taking design and marketing. In the early days, the split was mostly theoretical. "When you're that small, 1-2 employees, there isn't really a true divide in what we did," Wirht said. "As we have grown, we've been able to build teams around us and become much more focused, but I think that original division of strengths still exists today."

Selling the blank

Elwood sells clothes meant to be worn several times a week, which leaves little room to hide. "From the beginning, we've never been able to hide behind a logo or a graphic that you could slap on any blank and sell. Our offer was the blank itself," Wirht said.

That puts the focus on details that do not always show up in photographs, including fabric weight, handfeel, construction and the exact proportions of a sleeve or chest. The focus has a cost in time. "It can create a strain on product lead times, as we are often developing and perfecting a garment for six-plus months before putting it into production," he said.

Pricing follows the same logic. If a piece is sold as an everyday essential, customers need to be able to buy more than one. "We're not big enough to compete on price, nor do we want to. And we don't want to charge 200 dollars+ for a hoodie, but we want the garment to feel like it could be," Wirht said.

The brand's signature sun-faded wash shows how hard the approach can be. "It took years to get right, and it's an ever evolving process. What looks like a simple faded t-shirt is actually surprisingly difficult to get right," he said. "Garment washing and dying on a production level is like threading a needle. Too much of any speciality process can destabilize a garment, and not enough and it doesn't stand out."

Each production lot can come out differently. "It's a difficult task to perfectly produce imperfection," Wirht said, adding that the company is always testing new wash processes and that "you have to find the right factory partners that can actually execute them at scale."

Celebrity fans, unsolicited

Elwood has been worn by Timothée Chalamet, Sabrina Carpenter and Justin and Hailey Bieber. Wirht said the brand did not chase those placements. "The majority of that is all organic. We never sought out those placements, although we're very grateful for them because it can cast a broader set of eyeballs on the brand," he said. "Oftentimes it's a stylist who is a fan of the brand coming directly to us, or a friend of a friend putting them on. Either way we try not to force anything in that sphere."

Growth with intention

Sales were up 165 percent year on year when Saul spoke to Glossy in 2024. Wirht said the business is still in growth mode, but the nature of that growth is changing. "It's one thing doubling up, year on year, when the numbers are smaller. But as you reach higher levels there is much more risk to that growth," he said. "We never want to expand for the sake of expansion. There has to be intention behind it."

Elwood has never raised money beyond the owners' "original low 5-figure partner contributions," and it has been profitable since its first year. "Although we've remained profitable since year one, growth burns cash and clothing businesses in particular are capital intensive," Wirht said. "So we put every last dollar of free cash flow back into the business, which means there isn't really any margin to take big risks."

He sees advantages in the constraint. "We don't have the luxury of growing at any cost, and I actually think that's made us build a healthier business," he said. "Sometimes we look over the fence and see other companies expanding in ways we couldn't fathom, and it can be hard to compete with brands that have raised millions and millions of dollars. But on the other hand we have no investors or shareholders to keep happy on a short term horizon, which allows us to make the decisions we feel are right for the long term."

From screens to stores

The next step is physical. "There is so much noise online that we are looking forward to growing our footprint in the physical world," Wirht said. Elwood has no stores of its own today, and opening at least one flagship in Los Angeles comes first. "Once we iron that out, the goal would be to have a few touchpoints across the country," he said.

“We think physical retail can become a meaningful part of Elwood, but we don't want to open stores just for revenue growth. The experience has to make sense for the brand, first and foremost."

More than surf and skate

Both owners grew up in Malibu in the 1990s and 2000s, and that upbringing runs through the brand. "We both grew up in Malibu in the 90's and 00's, shoes off, surfing and skating," Wirht said. "I think surf/skate culture is so intertwined with clothing trends, it's almost impossible to acknowledge one without the other."

Elwood's references go beyond the boardwalk, taking in garage bands, baseball, classic cars, bonfires, dirt biking, tattoos and fishing. Wirht sees that range as what separates Elwood from older labels. "Historically [they] had to pick one lane," he said, whereas Elwood can draw on many cultures. "That feels more human to us. Most people aren't one thing, and we try to incorporate that nuance into Elwood."

As for the next five years, Wirht has no fixed plan. "There are a few different paths we can go down from here, and Justin and I discuss it on a daily basis," he said. "Technology and consumerism is changing so fast it's hard to even imagine what that world will look like in 5 years from now."

For now, the priority is the product and the people who buy it. "We just want to focus on elevating our product so we can continue to be truly enthusiastic about every piece we make," Wirht said.