Meet the real life “Q”: Aman Advani, cofounder of Ministry of Supply, has brought innovative engineering to fashion

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Ideometry

8 min readApr 26, 2017

Back in 2012, Ministry of Supply made it onto everyone’s radar with its record-setting Kickstarter campaign, but Aman Advani, MoS’s cofounder didn’t stop there. He’s built one of Boston’s most well-known fashion companies around the concept of “performance professional” — dress clothes with performance features like sweat wicking, odor reduction, and wrinkle protection. It’s fashion-meets-engineering.

In this interview, we asked Aman how he started MoS and his approach to product development, how he views physical stores, and his advice on competing with established industry players with deep pockets.

This is part 2 of our Future-Forward Fashion Founders series. Don’t forget to check out part 1 (Nineteenth Amendment), part 3 (Tyme Wear), and part 4 (Pixi), part 5 (Forsake), part 6 (Sebo Designs), and part 7 (Bow and Drape).

Why did you decide to start your own apparel company?

It happened on accident, but it felt right from day one. I was working in consulting and doing a lot of traveling. One night I was Googling dry-fit dress socks because I wanted something more comfortable for the constant traveling I was doing. We’re the first generation who has ever worn dry fit clothing, so we know how great it is. I knew a lot of people were looking for this kind of product, but it didn’t exist at the time. I ended up sewing my dress and dry fit socks together.

When I went to MIT for business school, I already had an engineering degree and I wanted a way to put all my experience together. When I met Gihan there, he was actually building dress shirts in the same way that I had been stitching my socks together. We were trying to solve the same problem independently. We’re a match made in heaven.

I’ve never doubted the decision — I really wanted to be a maker. Paul Graham has a classic essay about makers and managers, where he says that managers spend most of their time jumping between meetings, while makers spend most of their time building something. Everyone has to do both at some point, but being in consulting made me want to be a part of making something.

I love fashion and I love function in fashion, and by putting the two together, we’re creating a new category called “performance professional.” My absolute favorite brands incorporate performance into their products, and I wanted to make an impact like that.

How did you know you had something you could go to market with?

There’s always a desire for a big moment of realization. We did break a lot of records on Kickstarter, which was a sign we had something, but that was about a year into our research and development. Before then, we were selling some prototypes, so I knew we were already on a good track. Then, Kickstarter put us over the edge.

What advice do you have for someone looking to run a successful Kickstarter campaign?

I have two pieces of broad advice:

Just double down on what you do and be authentic. Let your true colors come out and see if the market accepts it. There’s generally a fairly reliable alignment between Kickstarter success and an idea you can build a good company around.
Don’t underestimate the work it takes. It’s not a shortcut. It’s as hard as any other route.

What are your biggest influences on your design/tastes?

The human body itself. We do so much in terms of musculoskeletal research — how your skin stretches, how your body moves, etc. We’re very influenced by the idea of biomimicry, of building on what the human body already does. This keeps us problem- and person-driven, rather than just being style-driven.

What do you do to ensure that you’re always in touch with the customer’s wants and needs?

This is the pride and joy of our company. We’re like Q from the James Bond movies. His whole job was making sure Bond looks good. He’s the empathetic inventor. We have the same mindset — we meticulously store every piece of feedback, do quantifiable tests with a massive toolset to measure so many different metrics, and always stay focused on what will be best for the customer.

What has been the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome so far?

I’d say awareness. For us, our mission is the creation of “performance professional” apparel. We think this will be the new normal. But building consumer awareness around a new vertical and products is hard. It takes a lot to make consumers understand what we offer.

That extends to manufacturers and investors. No one knew about this space because it didn’t exist. Most stores don’t have a section for it. Building a category and company at the same time is hard.

What are some of the advantages of being in Boston? What are some of the challenges?

Boston’s a special city. Between the climate and commute, Boston is a good testing ground for “performance professional” apparel.

Additionally, Boston is a tech friendly city. We are a fashion company, but we’re taking an engineering approach. It’s easy to standout as a fashion company because there are fewer, but the city has really embraced what we’re doing. Boston is still our number one city for sales. Also, MIT is here and we have that community around us when we need it.

What’s the most important thing you’re working on right now, and how are you making it happen?

We decided with our women’s wear, we don’t want to just “shrink it and pink it.” We’re building it from the ground up, applying what we learned from men’s wear to women’s wear. The energy of women’s wear at MoS is incredible now. There’s just so many options for women’s wear. It’s like being a new company. We’re working to apply our value prop to every one of our customers.

What were your first products like compared to what you’re offering now?

The good thing about MoS is that even though we’ve changed colors, and even our channel strategy, our core mission is the same: Make the clothes people want to wear to work. We’ve gotten better in terms of overall quality and durability, but it’s the same principles: Balancing novelty and familiarity and being better than what else is out there. We want to get more bold and innovative, and make the blend of performance and professional more graceful.

What value do you see in a multichannel (online and offline) retail experience? How do physical stores and online stores work together for MoS?

We love physical stores to a point. We don’t want to have hundreds of stores, we want a few flagship stores that provide a unique experience. Brick-and-mortar is not the majority of our business.

Awareness will be a massive challenge for the next decade, and retail locations are a great way to boost our profile. It gives people a chance to touch and feel the product — you can’t do that online. If photos could convey that, we wouldn’t need stores. Nothing can replace having a garment on your hand. Our stores will be about introducing you to the brand. They won’t necessarily be purely transactional.

In apparel, there are always massive competitors — Nike, Under Armour,etc. — who could come in and put their massive budgets behind new products. What tips do you have for a startup who wants to outwit and beat competitors with larger budgets?

It’s a big risk for sure. I’d say to build a lot of trust in your space. We’re building trust in performance and professional. Every company has areas they’re investing in: H&M invests in speed and price, Nike invests in performance. Another example is Brooks Brothers — they’re all about “professional and tradition.” They’ve got years into that and it would be hard to compete with them on those terms.

It’s hard to jump into a new intersection without diluting your brand or spending a lot of resources catching up with the companies who already own that intersection. It’s all about owning your space and building trust there.

Who were your biggest mentors since starting MoS? What was the most important piece of advice they gave you?

We had a mentor early on who said don’t waste your time convincing non-believers. Instead, double down on the people who already get it. That’s been true for employees, customers, factories, investors. We prefer to work with people who are really into it.

One big mentor of ours, who is also an investor, is Eric Friedman from Edward Holdings. He’s on our board and he was my first boss at Deloitte. He’s been a consistent advisor and it’s special to have someone like that on speed dial.

If you weren’t running your company, what would you be doing?

I’d probably be doing something unrelated — probably in the nonprofit world working on the issues I spend a lot of my spare time on. For example, we have our “1 In, 1 Out” program. When our customers receive their shipment of something from us, they can put in under-used piece of clothing from their wardrobe in the MoS box. Then, we send them a return shipping label so they can ship it to us, where we donate it to Goodwill.

We’re also involved with the International Institute of New England, making sure refugees have access to clothing. It’s about making an impact on the world and asking how you unlock creativity and happiness through other means.

Where do you see yourself at this time next year?

We’ve moved away from initiative-based growth. We see ourselves in the same place but with deeper relationships and farther reach. We’ll continue improving and promoting our product and building an authentic brand identity.

Tell us about your morning routine.

It’s a fight. I am not a morning person. I get up at 6, reluctantly. I have a fairly normal routine — shower, shave, walk the dog. Then I come into the office and spend time cleaning and organizing. Clean desk, clean mind. I do all the paperwork and get everything ready so I can work free from distractions. By about 8–8:15, I’m ready to go.

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Read the rest of our Future-Forward Fashion Founders series here:

If you liked this interview, check out our Boston’s Booziest Businesses series, featuring interviews with founders from Boston’s alcohol industry. Also, don’t forget to read our wrap up of the top three marketing lessons we learned from business and marketing leaders at CIC Boston.

This interview was conducted and written by Camden Gaspar, Content Strategist & Copywriter at Ideometry. You can follow him on Twitter @camden_gaspar.

Ideometry is a full-service marketing agency located in Boston helping awesome companies and organizations amplify their growth strategies.