How True Classic is evolving into an omnichannel brand after hitting $500M in lifetime sales

Since then, True Classic has grown exponentially and evolved beyond T-shirts. It now sells a wide range of men’s apparel, including jeans, polos and chinos. Since launching less than five years ago, it has hit $500 million in lifetime sales; its run rate for 2024 is more than $200 million, according to Ben Yahalom, the brand’s CEO. 

Although the vast majority of True Classic’s sales are still direct-to-consumer, the brand’s big focus in 2024 was becoming more of an omnichannel brand. Earlier this month, True Classic announced that it would begin selling its line of core men’s tees in 460 Target stores nationwide. The shirts are also now sold at Sam’s Club, Kohl’s and Amazon. Over the past year, True Classic nearly doubled its owned store count, going from five to nine brick-and-mortar locations. 

In turn, omnichannel will be a big focus for True Classic in 2025. Overall, Yahalom said that True Classic’s North Star, its 10-year target is to “empower over 100 million people to look good and feel good with True Classic by the end of 2034.”

To get there, True Classic plans to invest in more brand marketing over the course of next year. It plans to open more stores and expand into more retailers. The brand also wants to launch a women’s collection, potentially by the end of 2025 or at the beginning of 2026. And it’s looking at ways to grow some of its most promising international markets, like Australia, Canada and the U.S, potentially by working with local marketplaces or with Amazon in these areas. 

Yahalom said True Classic’s guiding principles for 2025 are: “How do we create the best product in the world that makes people look good and feel good? And how do we then distribute that as effectively as possible?”

When True Classic launched in 2019, it was strictly a DTC company. Yahalom was formerly a manager on Meta’s Emerging Disruptors team, which works with fast-growing businesses like digitally-native startups to help them get the most out of the platform. Facebook ads, unsurprisingly, were core to helping True Classic acquire a bunch of new customers. Over the course of 2022 and 2023, True Classic went on to launch on Amazon, opened its first brick-and-mortar store and started selling internationally by working with the cross-border platform Global-E.

But 2024 was really the year that True Classic began to morph into an omnichannel brand in earnest. In May, True Classic launched at Kohl’s. In June, True Classic’s products started becoming available on Target’s website as part of a partnership Shopify struck with Target. That was the beginning of a conversation, Yahalom said, which ultimately led to True Classic landing a deal with Target to get its products carried in 460 Target stores. 

“Growing wholesale is a huge strategic priority [in 2025], and it’s inclusive of growing the partnerships we already have, as well as penetrating new ones,” Yahalom said. He added that True Classic will strike new wholesale deals based on what makes sense with the behavior of its core customers; many of its customers already shop at Target, for example. 

Through its website, True Classic’s products are available for sale in 190 markets. But, True Classic is looking for ways to further grow penetration in some of its top-performing markets in 2025, like Canada, Australia and the U.K. This could mean potentially partnering with local marketplaces. International brick-and-mortar stores are “not on the immediate horizon,” Yahalom said. “But there could very much be a wholesale expansion and, eventually, a retail expansion. I would say it’s like a continuation of our United States playbook.” 

Yahalom did not say exactly how many stores True Classic plans to open in the U.S. next year, but that the brand has already signed a few leases. “We’re going to open a store in Las Vegas, which we’re very excited about,” he said. “We only want to place our bets on spots that we feel very confidently [that] we would easily be able to be profitable in the four walls, right out of the gate,” he said. 

Launching a women’s collection will also be a focus. True Classic had previously hoped to launch one in 2024, but Yahalom said the company wanted to take its time to get it right. 

“We, as a male-focused brand, have needed to do a lot of homework and a lot of consumer research and a lot of trials to get this right,” Yahalom said. “We only get to launch women’s once.” 

Amid all of these product and channel expansions, True Classic also plans to do more brand marketing in 2025 to help it reach new types of customers. Already, the brand has partnered with UFC, as well as the LA Clippers and the LA Kings on initiatives like social media campaigns where True Classic gave fans seat upgrades. Yahalom said the brand would looked to invest in more of these tactics next year.

Jesse Pujji, founder of growth-marketing focused holding company Gateway X said “he could probably count on less than two hands,” the number of DTC brands that have grown as quickly as True Classic. Pujji formerly founded Ampush Marketing, a marketing agency that sold to Tinuiti and helped manage digital ad spend for early digitally-native disruptors like Dollar Shave Club and Stitch Fix. He’s also a partner in Growth Assistant, a company that counts True Classic as a client.

In Pujji’s eyes, what has been key to True Classic’s success is the fact that, early on, the company developed a “rigorous engine of how to run [Facebook ads], test and experiment with them.” Of course, it helps that Yahalom is a former Meta employee. It’s a foundation, Pujji said, that not every promising DTC startup was able to build early on.

Additionally, he also noted that wholesalers like Target are becoming more stringent about what DTC brands they bring on their shelves; in turn, he said more startups are waiting until they hit a similar stage like True Classic, to launch into mass retail for the first time. “I think they need to be nine figures and growing and have a brand where the sell-through is actually going to be meaningful when they get into the store,” he said. 

Amid all of these expansion efforts, Yahalom is careful to note that True Classic is bootstrapped and profitable. The company has just over 60 full-time employees. 

“Being super financially responsible, or fiscally responsible, is the absolute core DNA of who we are,” he said.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Ben Yahalom’s title. He is the CEO of True Classic, not the CEO and co-founder.