If you walked into a trendy coffee shop in Austin or Soho circa 2018, you couldn't miss them. The color-blocked leggings. The "Doing Things" hats. The specific shade of navy and hunter green that felt more like a social club than a gym kit. At the center of this aesthetic whirlwind was Tyler Haney, the founder of Outdoor Voices, who managed to convince an entire generation that sweating was actually... fun?
She didn't just sell clothes. Honestly, she sold a vibe that countered the hyper-aggressive "crush your goals" mentality of Nike and Lululemon. But the story of the founder of Outdoor Voices is way more than just a success story about spandex. It’s a case study in what happens when venture capital hype meets the cold, hard reality of retail margins.
The Jogging Architect: Who is Tyler Haney?
Ty Haney wasn't your typical corporate executive. She was a Parsons School of Design graduate who grew up in Boulder, Colorado. That's important. Growing up in a place where hiking is basically a personality trait shaped her entire philosophy. She realized there was a massive gap in the market. You had the high-performance athletes on one side and... well, nothing stylish for the rest of us who just wanted to walk the dog or play a casual game of frisbee without looking like we were training for the Olympics.
She was 25 when she started. Imagine that.
The early days were scrappy. She reportedly worked with a mill to develop "Textured Compression" fabric because she hated how shiny traditional gym leggings were. She wanted something that hid sweat and looked like actual clothing. It worked. By 2018, the company had raised over $50 million from big-name investors like Mickey Drexler (the guy behind J.Crew's heyday) and General Catalyst.
People were obsessed. They weren't just buying leggings; they were joining a movement.
When the "Doing Things" Mantra Hit a Wall
Everything looked perfect on Instagram. The "Doing Things" hashtag was a goldmine of user-generated content. But behind the scenes? Things were getting complicated. This is where the story of the founder of Outdoor Voices takes a sharp turn from a "Top 30 Under 30" profile into a corporate thriller.
👉 See also: Palantir Alex Karp Stock Sale: Why the CEO is Actually Selling Now
Growth is expensive. Really expensive.
When you take tens of millions of dollars in VC money, the pressure to scale becomes suffocating. You aren't just expected to be a profitable clothing brand; you're expected to be a tech-company-level unicorn. By 2019, reports started leaking about high burn rates. The company was reportedly losing $2 million a month while only bringing in about $40 million in annual revenue.
Then came the clash with Mickey Drexler.
He's a retail legend, but he’s old school. Haney was the visionary. When those two worlds collided over how to run a sustainable business, the friction was visible from space. In early 2020, Haney stepped down as CEO. The news sent shockwaves through the direct-to-consumer (DTC) world. It felt like the end of an era for "girlboss" founders, a term that has since aged like milk, but at the time, she was the poster child for it.
The Myth of the Easy Scale
We often think that if a brand is everywhere, it must be making money. That’s rarely true in the DTC space. Outdoor Voices had to deal with:
- Astronomical customer acquisition costs on Facebook and Instagram.
- The high overhead of opening physical "recreational centers" (stores).
- Management turnover that left the brand's identity feeling fractured.
It’s a tough pill to swallow. You can have the best product in the world, but if the unit economics don't make sense, the house of cards eventually wobbles.
✨ Don't miss: USD to UZS Rate Today: What Most People Get Wrong
Why We Still Talk About the Outdoor Voices Philosophy
Even though Haney left the day-to-day operations years ago—and the brand eventually shuttered its physical stores in 2024 to move to an online-only model under new ownership—her influence is everywhere.
She pioneered the "recreational" category.
Look at brands like Alo Yoga or even the way Nike shifted its marketing toward "everyday movement." That is the Haney legacy. She proved that people value community over competition. She made "The Exercise Dress" a staple of the American wardrobe. Think about that for a second. She convinced people to play tennis and go for hikes in a dress.
It was brilliant.
But the downfall of the original vision serves as a warning. It’s the "Growth at All Costs" trap. When a founder is pushed to expand faster than the infrastructure can handle, the soul of the brand often gets lost in the spreadsheets. Haney eventually moved on to new ventures, like Joggy (a CBD-based supplement line), proving she hasn't lost her itch for building brands around lifestyle and wellness.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Exit
There’s this narrative that Haney "failed."
🔗 Read more: PDI Stock Price Today: What Most People Get Wrong About This 14% Yield
That’s a bit of a stretch, honestly. She built a brand from a dorm-room idea into a household name that defined a decade of fashion. Most entrepreneurs would kill for that kind of "failure." The real lesson here is about governance. It's about who you take money from and what their expectations are.
If you're a founder, you have to ask: do I want to build a $100 million company that lasts forever, or a $1 billion company that might burn out in five years? Haney’s journey suggests that the pressure to reach that billion-dollar valuation is what ultimately fractured the leadership.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Entrepreneur
If you're looking at the founder of Outdoor Voices as a roadmap for your own business, here is the reality of what you should take away:
- Own your niche fabric. Haney didn't just use off-the-shelf polyester. She invested in a specific look and feel (Textured Compression) that became a brand identifier. If your product doesn't have a "feel," it's just a commodity.
- Community is a moat, until it isn't. The "Doing Things" community was incredibly loyal, but community doesn't pay for expensive Soho leases when the venture capital runs dry. Balance your "vibe" with ruthless accounting.
- Pick your board carefully. Investors like Mickey Drexler bring experience, but they also bring a specific way of doing things that might clash with a digital-first founder's intuition. Ensure cultural alignment before signing the term sheet.
- The "Exit" isn't the end. Tyler Haney's career didn't end when she left OV. She used that platform to launch new ideas. Your first big company is often just the training ground for the second, more sustainable one.
The story isn't over for Tyler Haney, and it isn't quite over for Outdoor Voices either, even if it looks different now. It remains a definitive example of the 2010s gold rush in retail—sparkly, chaotic, and deeply influential on how we dress today.
Next Steps for Deepening Your Brand Knowledge
- Analyze your unit economics early. If you are starting a product-based business, calculate your customer acquisition cost (CAC) versus your lifetime value (LTV) before you even think about scaling.
- Study the "Recreational" shift. Read up on how heritage brands like North Face have adapted their marketing to mimic the "casual movement" style popularized by Haney.
- Audit your brand community. Are people buying your product because of a logo, or because they feel like they belong to a specific group? Identify your "Doing Things" equivalent.