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The Marketing Factor, by Cobble HillAuthor: Marketing Factor
Welcome to "The Marketing Factor" - the podcast and content series that dives deep into the world of direct-to-consumer e-commerce, uncovering the strategies and insights that separate the hobbyists from the heavy hitters. Hosted by Austin Dandridge, the visionary CEO of Cobble Hill and a seasoned digital marketing expert, each episode is a masterclass in making the leap from small-scale to stratospheric success. Language: en Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Building Spence: Why the Racket Sports Brand Moment Is Now - With Amanda Greeley
Wednesday, 25 February, 2026
Amanda Greeley has been thinking about Spence since 2017. She didn't rush it.Before launching the racket sports brand, she built Tink & Tiger out of Brooklyn's garment district during Instagram's pre-ad era, founded Thelma footwear (picked up by J. Crew before her Italian manufacturer collapsed during the pandemic), and led creative direction at Serena & Lily. She's someone who has done this before — multiple times — and has the scar tissue to prove it.In this episode, we get into what it actually looks like to build a brand in today's DTC climate: tighter investor appetite, more expensive paid media, and a fundraising environment that has completely reset from the Warby Parker window of the early 2010s. Amanda is candid about all of it — what's working, what she'd do differently, and why she's more optimistic now than ever about the racket sports category.We also talk about the creative tension at the core of Spence — nostalgia versus futurism — and why tennis, pickleball, padel, and squash represent one of the most underserved brand opportunities in the market right now.Topics covered:— Why the DTC fundraising window has closed and what that means for founders building today— The Lululemon and Nike comparison: what happens when a brand expands the TAM instead of just serving it— Building in public: the risks, the upside, and why Amanda is leaning into it with Spence's journal— Surf and skate as a brand template for racket sports— AI in brand operations: where it's useful and where it produces forgettable creative— The optimization trap in wellness — and why racket sports is uniquely positioned outside of it— Why "idea people" only get so far, and what execution actually demands
