“They are actual workers that wear our product and love the brand, but they’re very, very honest with us and they give us very direct feedback,” Hennike said. “For us to stay current, we have to stay on top of what is next, where the work’s taking the consumer and how we’re going to be there for them.”
Built to last
Before Faustin planted roots in Oregon, Hennike started there with Adidas, managing women’s apparel, before moving to Nike World Headquarters as director of licensed apparel. She followed that with multiple stints at Champion, eventually ascending to president, before leaving to become chief product officer at Bombas.
Hennike’s career has been built around durable garments, and the history behind founder Hamilton Carhartt’s rugged bibbed garments that he began making for railroad workers in 1889 drew her to the company. But even as workers in the company’s archived donned white gloves and pulled out versions of those garments from the early 1900s for onlookers at the Friends of Carhartt Summit, Hennike and her kept looking for ways to tie the brand’s past to its rapidly advancing future.
The first step is embracing that durability and touting the value of garments that aren’t meant to be disposable. Earlier this year, the company launched its Carhartt Reworked resale program that allows consumers to turn in used apparel for credit toward new items.
Partnering with resale company Trove, Carhartt refurbishes some of those used items and puts them back into circulation. The online, mail-in program was successful enough that Carhartt expanded it to retail locations.