Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Barry.
Hi Daniel, we’d love for you to introduce yourself.
More than anything, I hope the story of Marc Skid inspires other people to hold onto their dreams and ideas and make them a reality when the time to do so is right. There are two key points of inspiration for the brand. The idea behind Marc Skid came to me 30 years ago. I was drinking a few beers and chatting with a good buddy. We started talking about underwear because he had a pair of high-end underwear on the coffee table. We got a kick out of observing that all an underwear company needed to do to sell its product was put a “fly bod” on its packaging and roll with it.
That’s when the idea came to us that all brands, not just underwear, should possess the same qualities as people we admire: a sense of humor, a strong character, and a goal of living a purposeful life. My Dad often taught little lessons with quotes. One of his more frequent quotes was, “Everybody would be beautiful if they could be.” Yes, we all indeed aspire to a better self. Physical beauty might be one aspiration, but there are many more important aspirations. One of the primary desires of Marc Skid was to make those aspirations immediately actionable. When you buy a pair of Marc Skid underwear, you are making an eco-friendly choice that’s an action. When you decide which charity to donate $4 to, that’s an action that can impact the world.
The other key inspiration for me came from being blessed to see great examples in my life about the responsibility of the individual to give back to the greater world. The closest examples were my parents and Sister Laurinda, who now have a Marc Skid underwear style named after them. My parents have been, and are to this day, very involved in my hometown of St. Louis. My parents have served St. Louis in elected offices and as volunteers in programs bettering the community. Sister Laurinda, my Mom’s childhood best friend, became a nun and started a mission in Honduras. I saw her excellent work in action when I joined her in doing mission work in Honduras. To this day, nothing has impacted me more than my mission trips. So, in 2015, when my 25-year career at Anheuser-Busch ended, I did not doubt what I wanted to do next!
When I wrote the business plan in 2015, I first wrote the brand’s call to action: Make your Marc on the World. The brand’s ethos drove me to want to do more in every phase to bring the brand to fruition. This isn’t about me, Dan Barry, wanting to Make his Marc on the World but, rather, the purchaser. What are the causes important to the purchaser? Thus, when writing the business plan, I surveyed millennials, my presumed target market, to learn what was important to them. That’s how I came up with the three cause initiatives: Feed, Save, and Cure the World. In addition, the survey helped me make decisions on style, color, and size offerings.
As a self-financed start-up, many decisions are limited by financial and opportunity constraints. In production, there are often minimum quantities for fabric and even color. All those things led me to have colors represent each initiative green undies support the cause of feeding the hungry (Feed the World). Blue undies support the desire to protect the environment (Save the World), and red undies impact health-related issues (Cure the World). In honor of my Dad, who has always been a “tighty whitey man,” we also have white underwear, and purchasers of white undies may choose any of the three initiatives.
Our giving back model is different than most in that it is clear and transparent about the money given on behalf of the customer. Once a customer decides whether they want to Feed, Save, or Cure the World, that customer then decides which of the nine 4-star charity partners, three of them for each initiative will receive a $4 donation from the customer’s purchase. To maximize our efforts to make a difference, we believe that money in the hands of expert charities is the most efficient and effective way to Make our Marc on the World.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The brand has not been as successful as I had envisioned or hoped. My dream was that because of the brand’s many unique, positive selling propositions; it would have some viral capabilities that would drive it to success. That success would allow the brand and its customers to Make a Marc on the World. I used to spend time calculating that if I could sell 1 million pairs, that would drive $4 million in support for the nine 4-star charitable partners of the brand and what a Marc we could make. For myself, I dreamed of getting back to mission work and traveling with those charitable partners to help those in crisis. That never materialized, and I went back to the corporate world. The brand continues because I know as much as anyone what a simple $4 can do to help someone in need or progress against the many issues facing our world. For example, $4 or 1 pair of undies can give someone clean drinking water for 7 years, plant 4 trees, or provide food to a child for 12 days! That is an immense source of satisfaction for me, and, other than my kids, the brand will always be the greatest thing I have done in my life. Success or failure, I brought a dream to life, a dream that, together with customers, affected other people’s lives.
Thanks for sharing that. You could tell us more about your work.
As I already mentioned, I worked for Anheuser-Busch for 25 years. It was a privilege, and a childhood dream of mine, to work for a company that impacted so many lives in my hometown and beyond. After the launch of Marc Skid, and seeing that it wasn’t looking as though it was going to garnish the success I dreamed of, I returned to the corporate world within the CPG, Consumer Product Goods. My success in my work life is due to my hard work and general curiosity about people. It has always made selling easy for me. It is genuine my interest and curiosity about people; people can sense it, and it’s an internal need for me to satisfy. The sale is secondary. As an individual salesman and leader of sales, the first step is befriending people because people like doing business with people they like, people that show interest in them. Steps two and three are possibly the unnatural part but essential in business. Step two is following up. Everyone knows people with great interpersonal skills, but from a business standpoint, poor follow-up will quickly lead to a dead-end in business. Step 3 is asking for the order. In the business world, we are measured on accomplishments; we must remember that we invest in developing relationships and respond to customers’ needs and concerns to, in return, ask them to buy our product or buy more of our product. Failure in any of these three steps leads to the inability to maximize success.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check?
The things I get the greatest help from to live my best life are the written or spoken word. I’m a non-fiction fan and enjoy history in particular. I don’t know if it’s being 56 or just having been raised by excellent parents, but as Al Pacino said in the final scene of Scent of a Woman, “I’ve always known what the right path was, without exception, but never took it. Why? Because it was too damn hard.” I know what’s right and wrong in all situations, but like anyone, I sometimes veer a little bit out of what I know to be the “right” lane. I find quotes that I use for inspiration. I start each day by thinking of the Winnie the Pooh quote, “Today is my new favorite Day!” The Marc Skid website and packaging adorn many quotes that inspired me while creating the Marc Skid mission. Like the fictional Al Pacino speech, I listen to the RFK speech on the night of the MLK assassination several times a year for inspiration. There are many wonderful quotes and speeches that address almost any situation.
Indianapolis, 1968: Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and a historic call for peace
Pricing:
- Women’s Undies $20
- Men’s Undies $29
Contact Info:
- Website: https://marcskid.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marcskid/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarcSkidCo
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcskid
