EXCLUSIVE Q&A: Pacsun connects with consumers for cultural relevance
Youth-oriented specialty fashion retailer Pacsun seeks to build and maintain a community with its customers.
Chain Store Age recently spoke with Brieane Olson, CEO of Pacsun, about the importance of cultural relevance, how it stems from community participation, not preservation, and how Pacsun uses cultural relevance as a cornerstone of its branding strategy. Olson is the author of the new book "Co-Created: The Cultural Strategy That Redefined Pacsun."
[READ MORE: Pacsun goes to Harvard Business School]
How do you define cultural relevance?
Cultural relevance is about building alongside the consumer, as opposed to for the consumer, and staying culturally relevant requires bringing the community along with you, as opposed to marketing something to them. It’s about co-creation.
Co-creation is broader than just influencer marketing. It's about building an operating system that has ongoing feedback loops with the consumer and creators, so they actively shape the brand experience. The goal is not just amplification; it is participation and collaboration.
What common mistakes do retailers and brands make when they're trying to be culturally relevant?
Many legacy brands rely too heavily on what might have worked for them in the past, including how they create awareness or emotional connection. But cultural relevance requires continuous listening, adaptability, and operational flexibility.
When and why did Pacsun decide to focus on cultural relevance as a transformation strategy?
About 10 years ago, we started to dip our toe into some collaborations, such as with Kendall and Kylie Jenner and with designer Jerry Lorenzo’s Fear of God label, and began expanding outside of our traditional surf and skatewear.
We started to build some real credibility in terms of those collaborations. I would say about three to five years ago we moved from collaboration to the true power of co-creation.
Pacsun took a real focus on the consumer and not just building collaborations that would resonate from a cultural standpoint, whether with an athlete or with a celebrity like influencer Emma Chamberlain, but building partnerships with co-creation and community at the forefront and at the heart of them.
We had to move from a struggling legacy retailer, and we made a very intentional choice that we were going to build product that spoke to the Pacsun brand and label, and now that's over 50% of our sales today, including some of the products that our customers love the most, such as Pacsun jeans and Pacsun fleece super soft hoodies.
How does Pacsun achieve cultural relevance?
An example of this effort is the research that we did with the Pacsun Youth Report, a study of 6,000 U.S. consumers age 11-24, and understanding how much young people are prioritizing their mental health. That led to our partnership with Selena Gomez and her Rare DNM product collaboration that gives back to youth mental health advocacy.
We recently launched the Pacsun Community Hub, building an app that is centralizing creativity, commerce and community. We have given young people a voice through our Pacsun Youth Advisory Council, which are 14 people aged 12 through 26 who have an actual seat at the table, not just coming in to give their opinions on new product drops or who we should collaborate with next, but on strategies for our marketing approach and our new technology innovations.
Our mission is to inspire the next generation of youth to create a better world and build community at the intersection of music, sport, art, and fashion. It encourages us in all different areas of the organization to continue to push forward in the best interest of these future generations. We have successfully evolved from a retailer to a brand and put the customer at the center of it all.
Are there any future plans or upcoming initiatives related to cultural relevance?
We have expansion plans, opening 10 stores last year and opening another 10 stores this year. We have global expansion plans, as well, and that is another point of connection.
Pacsun also has a pipeline of energy drops, collaborations, co-creation opportunities through the Pacsun Collective with artists, athletes and musicians. that will continue to come to life almost every month as we look forward for the next 18 to 24 months. There will be some exciting ones in the lane of fashion that will be dropping in June and July, and some more excitement that's happening in the sphere of art later in May.
