Parade
- Inclusive underwear brand Parade is launching at 400 Target stores this week.
- The brand is popular with younger consumers, but wants to grow its reach away from its Gen Z core.
- It is known for its colorful, playful designs, and inclusive marketing.
Inclusive underwear brand Parade will launch in 400 of Target's 2,000 stores across the US this week, according to The Business of Fashion.
The brand is known for its colorful and playful underwear, bras, bralettes, and basics. Underwear starts at $8 and comes in sizes XS to 3XL. More structured bras cost between $48 and $62, and come in sizes 32A to 46G.
Cofounders Cami Téllez and Jack DeFuria, who are Gen Zers themselves, were intent on creating a brand to disrupt the American underwear industry, dominated by the likes of Victoria's Secret. DeFuria has since left the brand.
Parade has already gained a cult following among younger shoppers and is now looking to broaden its reach through partnerships with larger retailers, such as Urban Outfitters, and most recently Target.
Target is known for its brand partnerships and collaborations. While experts say these lines don't necessarily drive major sales for the big-box chain, they create hype around Target and give shoppers a reason to visit. For direct-to-consumer brands its a way to reach a larger consumer base.
Self-described as the "Internet's favorite brand," Parade has built itself up around its community of Gen Z nano influencers, who promote and offer feedback on new items.
"Our ambition is to be the leading underwear brand for all people," cofounder and CEO Téllez told Business of Fashion. "We've established that cult-like following online, and our next phase is ubiquity."
Insider reached out to both Target and Parade for further comment, but did not immediately hear back. It is not yet clear what range of Parade's items will be offered in Target's stores.
Téllez told Business of Fashion that the company is on track to reach $75 million in annual revenue and expects to be profitable by the end of 2023, its fourth year in business.
Téllez and DeFuria set up the business in 2019, when the US lingerie industry was facing a moment of reckoning. Victoria's Secret, the industry leader, came under intense scrutiny in 2018 after its longtime marketing chief, Ed Razek, made controversial comments about transgender models in an interview with Vogue.
This spurred a larger conversation about the brand, which was increasingly being criticized for being out-of-date and out-of-touch in the wake of the #MeToo movement, and for failing to represent its customers with more inclusive and diverse marketing.
More body-positive underwear brands such as Aerie, ThirdLove, and Lively cropped up at that time and took market share from Victoria's Secret.
"We knew the entire [underwear] category was undergoing a massive revolution, and the company that was going to win the category was going to create a grassroots revolution that celebrated real women and femme-identifying people," Téllez told Insider in 2020.
Neil Blumenthal, the CEO and co-founder of Warby Parker, and Andy Dunn, the CEO of Walmart's e-commerce subsidiary, Bonobos, were early investors in the company.