Sarah LaFleur On the Existential Threat From the Tariffs

Sarah LaFleur (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Tracy Alloway (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:22)

And I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

Joe, we've been inadvertently doing a tariff series, basically on what the trade restrictions mean for a bunch of different industries.

Joe Weisenthal (0:32)

So funny, I read your mind. Yes, it's like, we have to go down the list. There's actually, it's impossible. Every industry is gonna be affected by tariffs a different way. And there's this temptation, like, okay, let's just talk to someone from literally every single industry. Today, on May 7th, we released an episode talking about the video game industry. But yes, we could go down the line of every category within GDP and learn something.

Tracy Alloway (0:57)

Video games, lentils, the important stuff. No, so when we're talking about tariffs, I think one of the really big industries that is obviously gonna get impacted has to be clothing and textiles, right? So we know places like China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh are huge textile exporters.

And so we should talk about that. And what it actually is like if you're running a clothing business in the US to source textiles from abroad.

Joe Weisenthal (1:25)

You know what's funny? I was at some event for my school. And I ran into a fellow dad, or for my kid's school, and I ran into a fellow dad with a clothing company. Two days after the initial tariffs were revealed in early April, he was talking about he was gonna add a button on his website, and made some sort of athletic gear, talking about like this is the pre and post tariff price. He was talking about how it might make sense in certain circumstances to move some of his manufacturing outside the US, especially what he sells to non-US customers. So much in textile specifically. The other thing about textiles, of course, is when people think about the China shock, that's one of the first categories that comes to mind, the fact that the US used to have a booming textile industry, particularly in the Southeast, as we know.

Tracy Alloway (2:12)

Yeah, we visited the remnants of the American textile industry in North Carolina.

Joe Weisenthal (2:17)

So there's a lot there.

Tracy Alloway (2:18)

Yeah. All right. Well, I am very pleased to say we do, in fact, have the perfect guest. I have to do a disclaimer up top because this guest is a long time friend of mine. We actually went to high school together in Tokyo and she started her own clothing company. And I was involved at the very beginning doing product testing and caveat. I have a lot of their clothes. I have dresses that I think at this point are like 10 years old, but they still look amazing. So I am a big fan of this company. That is my disclaimer.

Joe Weisenthal (2:49)

Tracy, did you ever do any modeling?

Tracy Alloway (2:51)

Yes.

Joe Weisenthal (2:52)

I thought you did you ever do any modeling for this company?

Tracy Alloway (2:54)

No.

Joe Weisenthal (2:54)

OK.

Tracy Alloway (2:55)

No, no, no. We can talk about that later. I did modeling when I was like 17 in Tokyo, where the standards are arguably a lot lower. Anyway, I am very pleased to say we're going to be speaking with Sarah LaFleur. She is the founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur. So Sarah, thank you so much for coming on Odd Lots.

Sarah LaFleur (3:15)

Thank you for having me. It's a true honor.

Joe Weisenthal (3:17)

Sarah, what is your favorite Tracy memory? And did you know she was going to be a star podcaster one day?

Sarah LaFleur (3:24)

I thought she was going to be the US ambassador to the United Nations. So yeah, I guess she was always a true intellectual.

Tracy Alloway (3:34)

Oh dear.

Sarah LaFleur (3:35)

Uh-huh. And I would say precocious beyond her years.

Tracy Alloway (3:39)

So this is, yeah, that's probably fair. All right, Sarah, talk to us about the company. How would you describe M.M.LaFleur and when did you get started? Sure.

Sarah LaFleur (3:48)

So I started the company in 2013 with my two co-founders. I myself do not come from the fashion world. I actually worked in management consulting and then in private equity.

Tracy Alloway (3:59)

You were at Bain, right?

Sarah LaFleur (4:00)

Yes, I was at Bain. And I always struggled to kind of find good, well-made, appropriate, but still very stylish, professional women's clothing. Like I just thought there was a real dearth in the market. And I was never, I had never been in fashion. My mother actually worked in high-end fashion. She would always bring home these beautiful pieces of textiles and got these Chanel suits. And I was like, gosh, that's so beautiful. And that's what I'm going to wear when I grow up. And I'm a working woman and lo and behold, I found out for my budget, I was not going to be wearing a Chanel suit to work. But the idea stayed with me. And basically when I was 27, couldn't get into business school, didn't know what to do with my life. Private equity was not quite the right place for me. I was like, you know what? I've always thought this was a good idea. Let me go for it. So yeah, it's been, gosh, it's been almost 12 years. We launched in 2013