At NRF 2026, a panel of executives laid out the lessons learned from operating DTC brands over the past decade. The participating brands included Vuori, founded in 2015; Away, founded in 2016; and Rothy’s, which launched back in 2012.

“Ten years back, the world was a bit different, in terms of where digital [commerce] fit into the mix,” Ashley Kechter, Vuori’s global president, said during the panel. Simply having a direct-to-consumer site was still a novelty in certain categories, and the rise of Instagram and Facebook allowed these players to acquire a huge swath of customers at low costs. Since then, the way people search and shop for products has evolved beyond simply discovering a brand through Instagram and rushing to its DTC site to hit “buy.” Now, today’s digitally native brands face new threats and opportunities, like the rise of copycat brands and the ascent of generative AI. During the panel, executives shared how they are thinking about the evolving commerce landscape.

On how the DTC-first model helped shape stagnant categories 

When brands like Away came on the scene, selling direct-to-consumer became an opportunity to breathe life into sleepy categories such as travel gear.

During the panel, Away CEO Jessica Schinazi said the DTC model helped establish an emotional connection with consumers in unexpected categories. “Before Away came to market, no one was buying luggage online,” she said.

“Now what we’re seeing is a decentralization,” Schinazi said. “The brand is still as important and the product is still fundamental and critical to the overall experience, but we are going to meet the customers where they are.” That could mean social commerce, agentic commerce or mobile commerce. Away has also expanded into wholesale and physical retail, and finally launched on Amazon in 2025.

The company is also aiming to retain customers by continuing to offer relevant products to bring them back. “Some of our earliest customers now have families,” Schinazi said. “So we launched a sold-out kids collection in the spring of last year.”

During DTC 1.0, Kechter said e-commerce was still seen as an afterthought for major retailers. “It was less promising,” she said. “Unless you were a DTC or a digitally-native brand, [brands] needed to be anchored in retail versus digital.” Now, that equation has been flipped on its head; many DTC players from that era have had to transition to being omnichannel brands to seriously compete with legacy players and new competitors. 

On the greatest threats DTC startups face today

As more competitors enter, established DTC brands have had to navigate challenges such as supply chain complexities, along with the ascent of cheaper copycats and dupe products.

“Something we probably all think about is intellectual property,” said Dayna Quanbeck, president at Rothy’s, noting the Rothy’s patents that are often knocked off. “You defend those patents as an inventor, but we’re seeing in the news where IP is not respected and could possibly not be protectable.”

For Rothy’s, the priority is to tie everything back to its core mission of sustainability. “Sustainability is our ‘non-negotiable,’” said Quanbeck. That means continuously creating durable, washable shoes as the assortment grows. “We started with two silhouettes, and we’ve evolved to take on more of the closet with the same product arch.” 

The product development cycle is also shrinking, giving established brands less time to grow in a product category. “You used to have five or six years before copycats would come to market,” Schinazi said. “That happens in six months now.”

Kechter said, after years of growth, DTC brands have to prioritize their North Star and establish what is non-negotiable, “so that you’re not going to chase the next fashion trend that feels like it’s a flash in the pan.”

The new DTC marketing playbook 

What’s more, marketing “has changed fundamentally in the last 10 years,” Schinazi said. 

In their early days, DTC startups were largely focused on optimizing for search and paid performance marketing to acquire customers. Now, digital CAC costs are much higher and customers are consuming content in different ways. “This has forced us, very rightly so, to diversify our media mix [by] shifting from CAC to LTV,” said Schinazi.

With that, there are also new marketing channels that did not exist 10 years ago, such as TikTok Shop and AI assistants. Kechter said Vuori is excited for the prospects of reaching customers through AI tools. “It’s still early; we’re testing ChatGPT, and we’re part of the pilot program,” she said. “2026 is about being in the forefront of how people shop and how [shopping] is changing.”

Rothy’s, which also scaled during the heyday of cheap digital ads, is also trying to get more creative with marketing, Quanbeck said.

“It’s more complicated to build diverse brands through stores, wholesale and all these touch points,” she said. However, Rothy’s is also broadening awareness through unique campaigns, like store activations to reach local communities and brand collaborations. “It might not be a spend shift, but it is an attention shift,” she said.

Quanbeck said that, as the DTC model changes focus from digital to omnichannel, it’s pushing brands to diversify their reach. “I do miss the simplicity, [but it] was a different time,” she said.