Key Takeaways

  • Legacy scrub companies surrendered 60 percent of their sales price to retail distributors and 8 to 12 percent to licensing partners, starving their products of capital for fabric development.
  • FIGS accepted double the manufacturing cost of incumbent scrubs to build athletic fabrics, but only had to price 15 to 20 percent higher by selling direct.
  • Co-founders Trina Spear and Heather Hasson proved demand by parking outside emergency rooms at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. to sell scrubs to nurses during shift changes.
  • Traditional suppliers sold to hospital procurement administrators even though 85 percent of healthcare workers purchase work uniforms out of pocket.
  • Spear codified these structural market characteristics into Trina Spear's Uniform Market Evaluation Checklist.

The Trina Spear Uniform Market Evaluation Checklist

Before launching FIGS, Spear analyzed the medical uniform market through private equity modeling. She discovered that incumbent manufacturers were crippled by their supply chain math:

“So because these companies that were making scrubs sold through distributors and paid licensing fees, the cost of their product was really low because in their margin structure they were giving 60% of the total price to the retailer, and they were giving 8% to 12% of the retail price to the license holder. So that left very little to innovate or create a great product.”

By cutting out distributors, FIGS doubled its production spend while remaining price-competitive: “We were selling direct, and so when you think about our business model, our cost is about double, but we only had to charge about 15% to 20% more.”

When retail buyers rejected them, Spear and Hasson went straight to the curb: “So we would go at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., when all the doctors and nurses were changing shifts, and we would sell scrubs on the sidewalk outside of emergency rooms.” Gatekeepers were irrelevant: “Every aspect of getting a gatekeeper to say, 'Oh, FIGS will do great,' none of that worked. And the only thing that ended up truly working was going direct to this community and building a relationship with them one-to-one at scale.”

Spear evaluated the industry against five structural requirements:

Criterion 1: Mandated Wear Paid by the Individual

Healthcare apparel is mandated. You have to wear them to go to work every day, but the hospitals weren't paying for them, and healthcare professionals were on their own to go buy them.

Criterion 2: Replenishment-Driven Demand

The industry is replenishment-driven. You have to order your uniform over and over and over again.

Criterion 3: Non-Seasonal Revenue

It is a non-seasonal business. Most apparel companies are waiting for that holiday order where they make all the revenue for the year.

Criterion 4: Non-Cyclical and Recession-Resistant Demand

It is a non-cyclical business. Healthcare is recession-resistant, and healthcare jobs are recession-resistant.

Criterion 5: Direct-to-Consumer Distribution Opportunity

The industry was broken in that all the players were going about it wrong. They didn't sell to healthcare professionals, even though 85% of healthcare professionals buy their own uniforms. They sold through distributors, and that's where the problem was.

When This Works (and When It Doesn't)

Spear developed this checklist to assess unsexy uniform categories where product economics support a direct brand. It works when professionals buy their own daily gear out of pocket, despite working inside institutional facilities. Constant daily use drives replenishment cycles, creating recurring cash flow without relying on holiday shopping seasons or constant paid advertising.

The model fails when institutional procurement holds the checkbook. If a hospital network or airline contracts uniform supply through corporate vendor bidding, direct consumer marketing falls flat. You cannot bypass middlemen if the employer controls employee clothing. It also breaks down when garments last several years, removing the regular reorder behavior required to offset consumer acquisition costs.

What to Do With This

Run your target category through Spear's five criteria before placing an inventory order. If you want to build for culinary workers, aviation technicians, or veterinary staff, talk to ten workers this week. Ask two questions: "Does your company buy this uniform for you?" and "How many times a year do you replace it?"

If over 70 percent pay out of pocket and buy replacements at least twice a year, skip corporate procurement. Double your product quality, price for direct margins, and sell on the curb outside shift changes to build initial velocity.