FIGS: How to Make Medical Scrubs Stylish and Earn $20 Mln in 4 Years

Continuing the series of posts about successful startups I want to share with you another story. This time it’s all about the brand of stylish scrubs FIGS.

We’ve all been in hospitals and we’ve all seen medical staff wearing scrubs that are made of rough cotton and are completely uncomfortable. They were designed years ago, and have never changed since. Today we are witnessing the era of redesigning — new approaches are used to make things we’ve got used to up-to-date, stylish and convenient. This idea struck Trina Spear when she saw outdated clothes medical staff has to wear. In 2013 she has founded the Figs company and started the producing of functional and fashionable clothes for doctors.

FIGS scrubs are:

• made of high-quality materials: they are antimicrobial, wrinkle resistant and made from breathable fabric (usual scrubs are made of cotton, which absorbs smells and liquids easily)
• stylish design and a wide range of items — wearing the uniform now doesn’t prevent medical staff from looking stylish at work
• a higher level of comfort compared to traditional scrubs — the company has provided research, asked an opinion of medical staff and tried few designs before creating a perfect one

When the first shipment of redesigned scrubs was ready, Trina and the co-founder of FIGS Heather Hasson decided to test the demand: they came to the hospital by car during the shift change and offered them to try FIGS scrubs. A few days later a queue of people lined up near the car. The first shipment was sold out in 23 days. Trina and Heather realized — there is a demand, and it’s huge!

According to polls, nowadays 90% of hospital staff has at least one item from Figs. In the next 3 years, Figs plans to open 150 offline stores that will be located near big hospitals. Over 50 employees are now working in the company.

Why market of hospital scrubs is worth attention?

• it’s stable — even in the times of financial crises and massive layoffs doctors don’t lose their job — there is a constant demand for medical wear
• huge market with a lot of opportunities and small competition

Reasons for success:

• founders saw the potential in a huge, but sleeping market
• high-quality product that makes work for medical staff more comfortable
• absence of competitors
• good SMM strategy — while most companies that produce uniforms show no activity in social media, Figs has Facebook and Instagram pages as any fashionable clothes brand

It’s one more story when entrepreneurs saw the opportunity where nobody else could see it. Every success starts with an idea — but you must have enough strength to make it real. If you want to turn your ideas into reality, get in touch with us. We are the S-PRO team, and we would be happy to help you.

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