We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Xenia Chen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Xenia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I started off my career working in finance, where I wore tights almost every single day for work. However, I found it difficult to find a brand that I really loved – something that was well-designed, comfortable, and also affordable. Every time I brought up this topic with my female coworkers, I would get the same frustrated, visceral reaction from them. I knew that there was something here to be solved. At the age of 25, with $10,000 of my own savings, I decided to start working on this business idea at nights and on weekends. My mission was to improve the age-old wardrobe staple and everything about it – the product, how we buy, etc. The first thing I did was send out a research survey and sent it to my network of female friends and colleagues. Within two days, over 200 people had taken the survey, as the initial recipients were forwarding it to their friends. It was from this data that I started building what eventually became Threads.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We make tights, hosiery & other intimates for women and men. Every product we produce and bring to market is designed using the feedback and input from hundreds of real people and optimized for comfort and quality. We were the first brand on the market to directly market to men as well as women. We sell mostly online through our website and through over 100 independent retailers across Canada and the United States. In the past 4 years, we’ve amassed thousands of 5-star reviews online and happy customers. Our Opaque Tights recently were awarded “Best Tights” by THE KIT Magazine and we were featured on Season 17 of CBC’s Dragons Den (Canada’s version of Sharks’ Tank). But we’re just getting started!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn from my finance days was the striving of perfection before something is launched or goes out. In entrepreneurship, “done is better than perfect”. You’re constantly iterating so it’s important to get things out and test them, instead of waiting for it to be perfect.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A year after I had gone full-time on the business, COVID happened. I don’t think a global pandemic is any business owner’s business plan, but it was especially bad given our business depends on people wanting to get dressed and leaving the house. Navigating the global pandemic during the business’s second year was a big challenge, but it only made Threads stronger and more resilient (we turned some of Threads’ manufacturing capacity into making reusable masks, making Threads one of the first brands in Canada to launch reusable masks in early April 2020).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yourthreads.co
• Instagram: threads.co
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourthreads.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/threadsco/
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yourthreads?lang=en

Image Credits
Bettina Bogar BeMisterMister