🇺🇸 Veterans Day Message | Before we dive in, a quick pause to honor those who’ve served. To all Veterans and their families in our community and beyond, thank you for your service, sacrifice, and strength. We appreciate you today and every day. | | | There’s a new rhythm in the world of commerce: slower, smarter, steadier. The brands winning right now aren’t sprinting; they’re steering. They’re focused on stronger teams, sharper systems, and growth that compounds quietly. Whether it’s Athletic Brewing redefining category leadership or operators tightening margins ahead of Q4, this week’s Hotline is your reminder: scaling fast is optional. Scaling well is not. | | | | | Inside the D2C Beat | 🔥 The D2C Deep Dive: Athletic Brewing Company is proving that you don’t need alcohol to make a buzz. | 💰 Deal of the Week: Great brands start with great teams. Dimond Connect helps you build both. | 📞 Missed Calls: From pets to performance, brands winning now know their niche and own it. | 🎤 D2C IRL: Your next two weeks, sorted: one event for smarter CX, one for stronger sourcing. | 🛸 Signal Boost: Community nurtures repeat buyers, and precision accounting locks in profit. Top operators lean into both. |
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| | | Your weekly look at the D2C brands setting the bar and what operators can learn from their playbook. |
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| | | | | Athletic Brewing Company isn’t just redefining non-alcoholic beer, it’s rewriting what modern growth looks like in CPG. | | Founded in 2018, the brand is now the 8th-largest craft brewery and 18th-largest overall brewery in the U.S., climbing two spots in a year while most brewers are struggling to stay afloat. After a $50M equity round led by General Atlantic doubled its valuation to $800M, Athletic Brewing is expanding fast. It’s even adding a 4th facility in San Diego that will push capacity past 1.2M barrels, nearly triple 2024’s 400,000-barrel output. | The strategy? Smart, mission-led, and relentlessly community-driven. With only 20% brand awareness and top SKUs in just 38% of stores, Athletic Brewing sees enormous white space ahead. Their dual-focus marketing model — “moments of participation” (like IRONMAN and Spartan Races) and “moments of enjoyment” (music festivals, Live Nation venues, pro sports) keeps the brand visible, human, and aspirational. | And they’re not just selling NA beer. With programs like Two For The Trails, donating up to $2M a year to preserve outdoor spaces, they’ve built a movement rooted in wellness. | 💡Operator takeaway: Athletic Brewing didn’t compete in a crowded market, it created a new one. They built around behavior change, not just product differentiation. That’s the playbook for real longevity. | |
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| | | Our favorite tools, agencies, tailored deals, and exclusive perks to help you optimize your D2C stack. | Dimond Connect | Sometimes, the success of your e-commerce business equals the success of your team. | Whether you’re hiring now or planning for Q1, Dimond Connect is the go-to recruiting partner for 7-, 8-, and 9-figure D2C brands. | They’ve partnered with companies like Hexclad, Grüns, Armra, Nello, and many others—helping founders build elite teams through a seamless, hands-on recruiting process. |
| | 🚨Friends Rate Discount: Get a free hiring process review + $2.5K off your first full-time hire |
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| | Dimond Connect is a partner of 1-800-D2C. Let them know this newsletter sent you to receive the offer! | | | | | | | The D2C world moves fast. These are the stories worth your attention. The ones showing where strategy, spend, and consumer trends are headed next. | | More than 600 creators have joined Chewy’s new “Storefronts” program, where pet influencers curate products, share affiliate links, and track conversions via dashboard. With 66% of U.S. households owning a pet + pet spending hitting $136.8 B in 2022, creators are becoming a key commerce channel for the category.
| 💡 D2C Takeaway: Creator networks aren’t just for beauty or fashion, they’re fueling commerce in pets, food, and other high-repeat categories too. | | Brooks reported a 17% YoY revenue increase in Q3 2025, marking its 9th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Growth was strong across all regions and channels; in North America revenue rose 14% while many footwear players struggled.
| 💡 D2C Takeaway: Even in a slowing market, sharp product focus, loyal audience building, and controlled innovation can keep growth on track. |
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| | | Where operators show up IRL. The top community events and conversations happening right now. | | | This premier product-sourcing expo brings together 500+ exhibitors and over 16,000 attendees across white & private-label retail categories, from beauty and pet supplies to food & drink and CBD. Explore new product ideas, sourcing channels, and supplier ecosystems that could unlock your next revenue stream. | If you’re looking to scale via product innovation or diversify your SKU mix, this is where the sourcing magic happens. | Wednesday & Thursday, November 12-13, 2025 | | | | | From the folks at Gorgias comes this deep dive into how AI doesn’t just automate support, it aligns your team, workflows, and CX for scalable growth. You’ll hear from practitioners on how to integrate an AI Agent to not only speed replies but convert conversations into sales. | The brands excelling this year aren’t just faster, they’re smarter. This session helps you engineer CX that scales. |
Wednesday, November 19, 2025, 1:30-2 pm EST | Webinar
| | | | Quick hits and resources from around the industry we think are worth your time this week. | | | | | | | | Are you D2C (Down to Collab)? | At 1-800-D2C, we spotlight the real builders behind the tools and brands featured on our site and the D2C players putting those tools to work. Let’s collab: | For Brand Founders: | | For Tool Founders: | List your tool on 1-800-D2C today to show off your brands and become a Friend’s Rates member. Sign up today. Want to share the story behind your tool and how it's changing the D2C space? Fill out our founder questionnaire to get featured in our Behind The Tool interview series!
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