How to build a DTC brand that can survive anything.

Hey everyone,

Welcome back for another bite to chew on.

Back in 2020, Ministry of Supply was drowning in 27 months of inventory across 20,000 SKUs when the pandemic hit.

Today, they turn inventory 15 times a year with 3-week production cycles.

Ministry of Supply makes performance business clothing using NASA-inspired technology. Think dress shirts that regulate temperature and suits you can throw in the washing machine.

When we sat down with Aman Advani, Ministry's co-founder, we expected to hear about performance fabrics and NASA technology. Instead, we got something far more valuable… a masterclass in what he calls "asset-light" building.

After 12 years of struggling through pandemic shutdowns, iOS changes, and devastating tariffs, Aman knows what works and what doesn’t. 

And his message is clear: The companies that survive these days are the ones that need the least to win.

On the Menu: 

BTW, this is just a sample of our discussion with Aman. Check out the full conversation and find out how he’s built Ministry of Supply from an idea into a juggernaut here:

Listen on Spotify 🎧 and Apple 🍎 as well.

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Let's start with the numbers that made us physically cringe.

At their peak, Ministry of Supply seemed to have it all: 20k SKUs, 10 retail stores, fresh PE funding, and a team of 100+. 

They were doing everything the playbook (at the time) said to do. Flying to Tokyo to explore licensing deals. Testing every new marketing channel the second it launched.

Then March 2020 happened.

"We put up the same sign everybody else did – we'll reopen in two weeks," Aman told us. But while they waited, something terrifying emerged in their data. They were holding 27 months of inventory. 

That was more than 2 years worth of travel and work clothing that nobody was buying.

Here's what Aman learned the hard way →

When you have 20,000 SKUs, you're not running one business. You're running 20,000 micro-businesses, each with its own inventory requirements, marketing needs, and cash flow dynamics. 

When the market shifts, you're just not pivoting a single ship. You're trying to turn an entire fleet.

"We had this feeling that we had to be first in class at everything," Aman explained. "If a new marketing channel emerged, we should grab it. If a new market became interesting, we had to go in."

Sound familiar? Most of us have been there. Chasing every opportunity because we're terrified of missing the one that matters.

But here's the kicker: In trying to be first at everything, they'd lost sight of being best at anything.

The transformation took 3 years and 2 major crises to forge Ministry’s new operating philosophy.

First came the pandemic survival mode. 

Then, just when they thought they were recovering, December 2023 brought the tariff bomb. The president of Mexico announced preemptive strikes on Section 321 de minimis. For Ministry of Supply (producing in China, fulfilling from Pennsylvania and Mexico), it was the perfect storm hitting from every angle.

Most brands would have raised prices or cut products. Ministry of Supply did neither.

Instead, they rebuilt their entire supply chain from scratch.

The radical moves they made →

When they had 6 factory suppliers, they had redundancy. But that also meant managing 6 relationships, 6x the complexity, 6x the communication overhead, etc.

"We worked with both factories to say, how do we dream of turning inventory over 20 times a year? That way, no obsolescence. No massive liquidation events. And suddenly your margins can handle what you lost through tariffs."

But asset-light isn't just about inventory. It became their entire philosophy.

Channels: Only those that justify themselves without attribution gymnastics
Team: Every role has to fight for its life in the P&L
Product: Focus on becoming the "50% of your closet you wear 80% of the time"
Retail: Walked away from their 10-store expansion plan entirely

The mantra became simple: "Agility is the only remaining superpower." And asset-light is how you get it.

Here's where most case studies end. But the real value is in understanding exactly what got cut and why.

Aman's framework is deceptively simple: "A bad month should be profitable."

Not break-even. Not "we'll make it up next month." Profitable.

This single principle forces brute-force honesty about every line item. If you need a great month to cover your costs, you're one market shift away from disaster.

Take their approach to marketing channels…

After testing everything from Twitter to Pinterest, they came back to a simple Meta-Google playbook. Not because other channels can't “work”, but the complexity cost wasn't worth the marginal gain.

"Be way more skeptical of plugins," Aman advises. "It's 30 seconds to get something live on your site, and you're getting 5k of free credits. Accept that it's gonna be a 50% hit rate. Don't assume the playbook working for your neighbor works for you."

They also made peace with saying “no” to expansion.

When everyone was pushing them to go international, to open Tokyo, to launch EU, their response was: "We're tiny. We're nobody. There's infinite room for growth in closets we haven't reached yet."

Even their product philosophy changed.

Instead of launching new styles every season, they focused on perfecting core pieces. One customer told them: "I went on a three-day trip with just a backpack." That became their north star, in place of fashion weeks or “trend reports”.

The hardest cuts were human. Not just team size, but the entire approach to culture. 

"We over-invested in the HR playbook – perks, benefits, ping pong tables. But culture isn't the perks. It's the mission."

Ready to start your own asset-light transformation?

List every "asset" in your business → inventory, channels, team roles, software, SKUs. 

Then ask 3 questions:

1. If we had a bad month, would this still justify itself?
2. Does this directly serve our core customers' core needs?
3. Could we achieve 80% of the value with 20% of the complexity?

These help you determine your first cuts.