EPISODE
16
How CDLP Built an Emotionally Charged DTC Brand and Broke Into Department Stores With Andreas Palm
with
Andreas Palm of CDLP Underwear
In the last episode of the Minds of Ecommerce Podcast, you heard from Andrew Youderian of Ecommerce Fuel, who shared what he thinks are the biggest growth opportunities for ecommerce merchants in 2020, gave us some tips for selling on Amazon, and talked about the evolution of SMS marketing.
In this first episode of the 2nd season of the podcast, Andreas Palm, co-founder of CDLP Underwear shares how they got featured in major publications such as Vogue and GQ, and got into Mr Porter, SSENSE, Barney’s and Selfridges right from the early days of the brand. He tells us why they chose to get into department stores early, HOW they did it, and how they’ve built a brand that’s emotionally charged. You don’t want to miss this one.
Andreas Palm is the co-founder of CDLP, a premium DTC men's underwear brand based in Stockholm, Sweden. Since launching in 2016, CDLP has been featured in Vogue, GQ, and Esquire, and secured retail partnerships with Mr Porter, SSENSE, Barneys, and Selfridges in the brand's early days. By building an emotionally resonant product and pursuing strategic wholesale validation alongside DTC, CDLP established itself as a leading name in luxury menswear.
Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:
- Why CDLP chose to pursue department store partnerships from day one — and how it accelerated brand credibility
- How to get into luxury retail partners like Mr Porter and SSENSE as a new brand
- The role of emotional brand-building in a commodity product category
- How editorial press (Vogue, GQ) and retail validation work together to build brand equity
- Why DTC and wholesale aren't mutually exclusive — and how to balance both channels
- The brand positioning strategy that helped CDLP stand out in a crowded market
In this episode…
Most DTC brands are told to avoid wholesale and own their customer relationship — but CDLP took the opposite approach from day one, and it worked. By getting into premium department stores early, they gained the third-party validation that no ad campaign can manufacture.
Andreas Palm explains how CDLP built an emotionally charged brand around a product most people never thought about — men's underwear — and turned that into a growth engine. He shares the exact process for pitching luxury retailers, why starting with smaller boutiques builds the credibility needed to land larger accounts, and how press coverage and retail partnerships compound each other.
For any brand operating in fashion, lifestyle, or premium consumer goods, this episode is a masterclass in using wholesale as a brand-building channel rather than a margin-eroding one.
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