Brian Ciciora: Truewerk
Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today’s guest is Brian Ciciora the founder and CEO of Truewerk. Brian and his company Truewerk are the first apparel brand to be featured on the Woodpreneur Podcast, and while he has a very unique story to share, it is rooted in the same journey as so many other Woodpreneurs. He wanted to solve a problem, and work with and support the trades.
Brian’s story begins at the start of the recession in 2008. At the time, he was working for a tech startup and got laid off when the recession hit. Despite the layoff, he was good friends with the company’s CEO, who sat Brian down and told him that while he was doing sales at the time, he had the skills and the heart to make it in the tech industry, and he should “build a house or something.”
“I kind of laughed and then took it to heart and realized that, to a certain extent, I’d been playing in a game that I was set up to play. Go to college, get a job behind a desk, try and make money. But my heart was in building, it was in the trades. I was ultimately just going to keep getting set up for failure in desk jobs.
It was a leap of faith, it was a jump to leave the security of a desk job, and to ultimately do something that I often felt like society was telling me was in some way beneath me. But in my heart, it felt like the right journey.”
- Brian Ciciora
Starting it as a Test
One of the things that inspired Brian was a company that was selling simple steel-framed tables with wooden tops, but they charged high prices for their products. Brian wondered if he could make something just as nice and charge around the same for them, so he put an ad out on Craigslist to sell a table of that style.
At the time he put out the ad, he hadn’t built one yet, but he was gauging interest. Immediately he was inundated with replies from people wanting to buy the table that he had posted about. Brian responded that the one he had posted was gone, but he would be happy to make another one for that person.
This test speaks to the entrepreneurial mindset, and Steve notes that Brian just went ahead and said he could build the product to see if the market wanted it, which gave him the certainty that his fledgling business would have an audience.
Around this time, Brian began to develop relationships with several people in the Denver, Colorado area as he had just moved up to the mountain town of Winter Park. Originally, Brain was making one or hour-and-a-half drives to Denver to pick up steel from a fabricator there, but after a while, he struck a bargain with a local fabricator who, as he puts it, “suckered him” into welding for them doing spiral staircases, ornamental railings, and structural work.
“I think there’s a lesson here for people who are looking at opportunities in the skilled trades. There’s this narrative that life in the skilled trades is kind of like this sentence that at 18, you sign up for the skilled trades, and you’re going to forever be a plumber if that’s where you start out.
But it’s just this journey that you can move around. And there’s so much opportunity, that it’s anything but a closed door. The journey through all of these different skilled trades often culminates in doing something that combines a bunch of them in a way that that really works for you.”
- Brian Ciciora
Leading into Truewerk
The beginnings of Truewerk happened for Brian when he was building houses in the middle of winter in Winter Park at very high altitudes, working with steel, and spending a ton of time outdoors. At the time, the people working were wearing traditional canvas and denim clothing, and when it would snow, they would get soaked through with water and literally have icicles on their legs by the end of the workday. They believed that’s just the way it was.
Soon after, Brian took a trip to Europe to go skiing and climbing, and he looked at the people working the various jobs that were similar to what he was doing in the United States, but they were working in the same technical fabrics and materials that he was skiing and climbing in. That realization struck a chord with Brian, and he realized that there was no reason that people in the trades shouldn’t be wearing the same high-quality gear that sports enthusiasts wore when working in the elements.
Throughout the next several years, Brain worked with a company called Back Country Access that specialized in snow safety equipment. They invited him to do some product development work that was originally supposed to be two weeks but turned into several years. It was during this time he continued developing his professional relationships and learning more about the specific problems that face tradespeople.
In 2014, Back Country Access was sold to a larger company. However, because Brian preferred working in the early stages of company development, he took that company sale as the chance to strike out on his own to create the technical garments that the trades industry needed.
“For me this was the confluence of things that I’ve been super passionate about for a long time and that’s Truewerk in a nutshell. For so much of workwear it’s all historical, it’s about celebrating the past, and that’s okay in a way but we have a different view.
Our view is that the past is the past, we’re stoked on the future. We think the present is great, we think the future is going to be even better. And we want our products and our community and our brand to reflect that. And so we leave kind of the historical heritage vintage thing to others and what we’re about is embracing the future and celebrating the present.”
- Brain Ciciora
Steve’s Advice Corner
For Steve’s marketing segment, Brian mentions that he is most interested in finding a way to reach more people. Not only the tradespeople who are going to be buying the garments but the people beyond that. He believes that there is a message that needs to reach an audience that doesn’t know that Truewerk exists yet.
Steve notes that a big part of marketing is finding ways to reach the parents. A big part of Truewerk involves teaching that the trades are open-ended and wide-ranging, and marketing to younger people means making the products cool. He adds that Brian should find several tradespeople across a few different fields, and then partner up with Gen Z influencers through Tik Tok or YouTube.
Brian could then create content that highlights their work and create some limited edition collaborations, and then partner with brands outside of the apparel space to create the chance for wider recognition.
“Basically, you find some complimentary, not-competitive brands to tap into their audiences. Let them know that you’re serving the same people. And you know they care about the future of your businesses in these industries. Then partner up together.”
- Steve Larosiliere
Click the link below for 15% off your Truewerk order! This discount is only applicable to one use per customer on orders of at least $75.
Website: https://truewerk.com
Instagram: @truewerk