Stance

BACKGROUND

Stance’s founders saw a category – socks – had been ignored, taken for granted, and dismissed. By breathing life into something that had been overlooked, Stance has ignited a movement of art and self-expression that has drawn athletes, performers, and iconic cultural influencers to the brand – a group called the Punks & Poets. And by underpinning its creative roots with a relentless focus on technical innovation, Stance is now found in over 40 countries, worn by individuals who dare to be different.

CHALLENGE

Stance started and funded its startup business by recruiting a team of talented individuals, industry veterans, and committed investors. This group recognized early the need to have timely and accurate financials so that they could plan and manage growth with confidence. While they knew they needed additional financial expertise, they did not want to use their cash to hire a full-time CFO before they really needed one. As soon as Stance started shipping products, the challenges of consistently outperforming their sales forecasts became apparent. The meteoric growth meant Stance would need more cash, than expected, to fund inventory purchases and customer accounts receivable. Rapid growth also brought the need to better manage inventory purchases and distribution through demand planning and effective supply chain management.

SOLUTION

Stance’s senior team asked one of Amplēo’s partners with whom they had a long-standing relationship, to be their outsourced, part-time, strategic CFO. He supervised Stance’s accounting team, developed procedures and appropriate controls, and created a financial reporting deck to help the team manage cash, inventory, and receivables, and helped Stance recruit and train a full-time Controller and a Director of Operational & Business Intelligence with deep industry experience. In addition, the CFO worked with John Wilson, Stance’s President to secure a factoring line of credit with Wells Fargo Capital who provided not only much-needed working capital but credit reviews and underwriting of Stance’s customers to help mitigate collection risk.

Stance’s success and international recognition provided opportunities to expand distribution by opening more Stance retail stores, introducing new product lines such as performance socks and underwear, and improving its products through the addition of Stance Labs for research and development. These opportunities required more financial resources than Stance could generate from operations. As a result, Amplēo’s team helped Stance raise over $75M in equity capital in two financing rounds to finance these strategic initiatives at shareholder-friendly valuations and terms.

CONTINUED SUCCESS

As Stance executes its expansion initiatives and continues its rapid growth, it has established itself as the premier, global sock brand. Winning the NBA on-court sock contract and the grand opening of its flagship retail store in New York City has established Stance as a significant and influential player in the action sports and fashion industries.