Industry
Apparel & Footwear
2 pieces on The Craft of AI tagged with Apparel & Footwear — across The Brief, the Failure Museum, and the Playbooks.
The Brief — 2 issues
The Founder Who Came Out of Retirement, Killed 80 Spreadsheets, and Spent $60M on a Warehouse Before He Touched a Chatbot
Steve Schlecht's Duluth Trading sequence is a masterclass in what operators should do first — and it starts with the least exciting AI project in the building.
Stephen L. Schlecht, Duluth Trading Company · ~$626M (FY2024)
Ariat Cut Warehouse Steps From 40,000 a Day to 7,000 — And Never Once Called It an 'AI Strategy'
Beth Cross has been running the same playbook for 36 years: pick one worker, measure their hardest day, remove it. In 2026 the tool is agentic robotics. The method is the part to steal.
Beth Cross, Ariat International · ~$1B (private, estimated)
Get the next Brief
One operator. Every other Wednesday.
Plus the AI Glossary and the Failure Museum.
Real names. Real numbers. Honest analysis.
No spam. No pitch.