Zero-to-one brand and go-to-market development for a luxury activewear company
PORT DE BRAS
2014-2016
Brand Strategy · Brand Development · Marketing
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I served as a close strategic and marketing partner to the founder. I helped define the positioning and brand narrative and managed ecommerce development, content strategy, digital marketing, identity coordination, and the sales materials used to build retail relationships.
The Challenge
Port de Bras began with a differentiated product idea: luxury, environmentally conscious activewear inspired by ballet. The challenge was building everything the product needed around it. I worked closely with the founder to develop the brand from the ground up, creating the strategic, digital, and commercial foundation required to introduce an unfamiliar label to customers and retail buyers.
Finding a distinctive position
The activewear category was crowded with similar promises about performance, aspiration, and empowerment. Sustainability was becoming common language, making it difficult for a new brand to establish a point of view through environmental claims alone. Ballet offered a more distinctive foundation, provided it shaped more than the visual identity.
The discipline combines strength with precision, control with fluidity, and technical rigor with personal expression. Movement is deliberate, and elegance comes from the work behind it. That gave Port de Bras a richer territory than generic athletic performance. The brand could bring the discipline and grace of ballet beyond the studio and into contemporary life.
Building the brand
The positioning and narrative established how Port de Bras would present the relationship between performance, femininity, and conscious production. I helped define that strategy and managed the identity’s development with the wider team. The same principles guided product descriptions, photography, packaging, content, and commercial materials.
Consistency was especially important for a new company. Every interaction needed to help customers understand what the brand stood for while making it feel credible alongside more established labels. The result was a brand expression that felt elevated without becoming distant and performance-oriented without borrowing the aggressive language common in activewear.
Content strategy extended that point of view beyond the website. Editorial and social content connected the clothing to movement, wellness, design, and the lifestyle surrounding the brand.
Digital marketing introduced Port de Bras to prospective customers while maintaining a consistent visual and verbal identity across channels.
Building the Commercial Kit
The business also needed to reach buyers and prospective retail partners.
I developed catalogs, flyers, and other sales materials that connected the brand story to the practical information buyers required. These tools presented product details, collections, and commercial value within the same premium identity customers encountered online.
This gave the company a coherent story across two different audiences: consumers discovering the brand and retailers deciding whether to carry it.