Latest news with #SetActive
Refinery29
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Refinery29
This Parke x Set Active Collab Sold Out In 10 Minutes — Round Two Is Here
When two Gen Z-approved, TikTok-viral brands join forces, it's hard not to be at least a little intrigued — if not fully sucked into the clout-filled shopping frenzy. And we'll admit: we're in deep. Known for its status-symbol sweatshirts, Parke is teaming up with cult-favorite activewear brand Set Active for a second It-girl drop, Low Tide, (after the first sold out in 10 minutes). And if the athleisure collaboration doesn't already feel perfect, the fact that both brands' founders are close friends makes it even sweeter. In a recent Instagram post, Set Active founder Lindsey Carter wrote: 'Creating Low Tide with Chelsea [Parke Kramer], my best friend and the founder of Parke, has been one of the most meaningful and growth-filled experiences.' Speaking on lessons learned from the first drop, Carter added: 'We poured all of that growth into building something better. Something that feels calm, nostalgic, and effortlessly wearable.' The Low Tide collection includes 43 styles — 16 of which are brand-new for Set Active — ranging in price from $12 and $230. Parke's signature denim, classic knits, and branded crewnecks join Set Active's Formcloud and Airluxe workout fabrics and nautical striped basics, all offered in new colors like Baked Rhubarb, Beach Grass, Neapolitan Pink, and Cream. View this post on Instagram A post shared by SET (@setactive) Perfect for your late-summer beach yoga plans and early-fall back-to-school wardrobe, these pieces are ideal for transitional dressing — if you can get your hands on them. The collaboration drops August 5 at 1 p.m. EST on both brands' websites — and we've got the 411: there won't be any restocks. So if you're eyeing activewear sets, lightweight layers, horseshoe jeans, or socks, plan ahead and add to cart fast. Shop the Parke x Set Active collaboration on August 5 at and
Forbes
24-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Athletic Brand Set Active Made $1 Million In One Hour
Set Active focuses on creating athletic and athleisure matching sets, priced between $50 and $100 ... More per top and bottom. Perfecting a social media launch campaign is always a moving target, but one brand has honed a formula that has helped define its overall sales strategy. Set Active, a self-funded seven-year-old athletic brand, has developed a drop strategy that recently netted the brand $1 million in sales in just one hour for its first-ever resort collection, which launched in early May. Set Active earns approximately $20 million in annual revenue, according to an Instagram post from Female Founder World. The brand focuses on creating athletic and athleisure matching sets, priced between $50 and $100 per top and bottom. It's partly because of the bootstrapped nature of the brand that the team has to be more clever with the tools and opportunities in front of them, and more focused on cultivating a grassroots digital community compared to higher-end brands that sell affluence, which requires the allure of distance. Today, Set Active has approximately 40,000 rewards members, 475,000 Instagram followers and 8,000 followers between its Instagram broadcast channel and its founder's. Its core customers are women between 25 and 34-years-old, followed by women 18 to 24-years-old. Nearly 50% of the recent $1 million sales figure was earned within a 15-minute early access period for reward members and Instagram broadcast channel followers. Furthermore, 72% of customers had previously purchased from the brand in the last 12 months. According to Kira Jackson, chief brand officer of Set Active, the brand has earned $1 million from its drop model before, but the fast pace of sales for the resort collection was unprecedented. 'That [sales figure] is a huge testament to the community that's been built around the brand,' she said. As of 2023, the value of the global sportswear industry is close to $395 billion at retail value selling price, with local and niche brands gaining market share, according to a 2024 S&P Global report. Notably, e-commerce penetration accounted for about 30% of the sportswear market. The first-ever resort collection and photoshoot sought to evoke the feeling of a vacation. Like almost every brand, Set Active teases its upcoming product launches on social media and in marketing emails. The team uses special links on its social media that remind customers of upcoming launches, and the team can see how many opt in for reminders. Typically, the brand receives a few hundred sign-ups, which is viewed internally as strong interest, but the resort collection saw thousands of sign-ups, said Lindsey Carter, founder and CEO of Set Active. The limited-edition collection featured trendy pieces like butter yellow sweat pants and crew necks, contrast color tops and bottoms in pinks, blues and olive tones. For the brand's various social channels like Instagram, Instagram Broadcast, Pinterest and TikTok, the primary goal is to create different content opportunities within each channel that a consumer might otherwise not get from any other Set Active social channel. To achieve this, the team has to produce or commission hundreds of pieces of content for any given rollout, said Jackson. The in-house creative team consists of two graphic designers, a creative manager and a creative coordinator who manages photoshoots and other responsibilities. Carter's own Instagram broadcast channel sees more intimate behind-the-scenes content related to product development meetings, photoshoots and other daily founder and CEO life moments. 'That's the No. 1 most important tactic from a community and brand-building perspective; making sure that the creative [assets] match the platform that they're being produced for, instead of just being cross-leveraged on [social],' said Jackson. From an influencer perspective, Set Active has an in-house manager to oversee more manual and one-on-one relationships and opportunities, and uses the ShopMy platform for influencer gifting. But the team goes beyond influencers to gift products to rabid Set Active fans and followers who might not fall under the traditional influencer label. Because Set Active often features user-generated content on its social channels, marketing emails and occasional product detail pages for its e-commerce site, the team sees gifting to fans as a way to build a more dedicated online community. Gifting to community members and influencers alike happens before a product launch, in order to help build interest and momentum. Because this type of gifting is outside the bounds of traditional influencers, the key performance indicators 'go out the window,' said Jackson. Instead, the Set Active team focuses on the most engaged followers. These can be the names they recognize because they comment so much on Set Active social posts or create unpaid social posts on TikTok, for example. As long as it remains profitable for the business, the program will continue, she said. 'Consumers are bombarded with choices when shopping for active wear. So from day one, our approach has been to create genuine relationships rather than just a transaction,' said Carter. 'Consumers want to feel connected to something, and the more you can give that to your consumer, the more they're going to be brought into your brand.' It was that well-honed execution on all business and product fronts that led to the outsized success of the resort collection launch. Following every launch the team has a post-mortem to discuss which styles sold the best, what worked or didn't from a social and marketing perspective and anything else that can be learned from the experience. Carter said one major discussion point was that some resort styles, such as a butter yellow set, sold out during the early access period, meaning other customers were unable to purchase them and how to resolve that for the future. 'It's a balance of knowing how to speak to a customer now through a modern marketing lens, and understanding where the consumer is headed,' said Jackson.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Working hard or hardly working? Gen Z's brutally honest backlash over ‘out of touch' work-life balance ignites TikTok
A millennial CEO called out Gen Z's work ethic — and got flamed for it. Lindsey Carter, founder of activewear company Set Active, said she wasn't prepared for the backlash she faced after critiquing Gen Z's take on work-life balance in a now-deleted TikTok video. 'Now all I see are people sprinting out of their offices at 5pm like it's a fire drill and then wondering why they feel so unfulfilled in their careers,' Carter posted last week. 'Balance is important, but balance without ambition. That's just coasting,' Carter continued. 'You don't build something great by just doing the bare minimum.' The backlash was fast — and furious. Critics slammed Carter, suggesting she was promoting unpaid work and ignoring burnout. 'Staying past 5pm working for a company I have no equity in doesn't sound like the path to fulfillment, ' one TikToker responded. 'How can I be active if I have to be strapped to my desk after 5pm?' another wrote. Carter quickly deleted the post — then blasted her critics on her Instagram story and claimed she'd been cancelled. 'What followed wasn't dialogue. It was a pile-on,' Carter wrote. 'It doesn't leave room for the thing we all say we believe in . . . growth.' She didn't stop there. 'I'm a millennial. I grew up in a culture where 'hard work pays off' wasn't just a phrase . . . it was a promise,' Carter said in a May 30 Substack essay defending her position. 'Two truths can coexist . . . we can honor ambition and protect our peace.' But for many online, that didn't cut it. Haters noted Set Active's negative Glassdoor reviews and Carter's 2023 decision to restructure her social media team, which some interpreted as layoffs. 'She just had a bad take and is out of touch,' one Reddit user wrote. 'That's consequences, not cancellation.' The controversy has since evolved into a larger debate over what ambition should look like in today's workforce and whether Gen Z is lazy — or simply redefining success on their own terms. Younger workers are no longer buying into the hustle mindset pushed by older generations, said Gabrielle Judge, an influencer known as the 'anti work girlboss.' 'Gen Z isn't unambitious,' Judge told The Post. 'We're just done sacrificing our mental health for companies that reward burnout with pizza parties. 'Logging off at 5 isn't laziness. It's a boundary.' Career strategist J.T. O'Donnell, founder of Work It Daily, said she understands both sides. Rather than trading hours for pay, younger workers are more focused on leveraging skills and knowledge in a changing economy. 'Working long hours is less productive,' said Celeste Headlee, author of 'Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving.' 'I'm not irritated that Lindsey used the word 'coasting,' I have great empathy for her. She is still gripped by the delusion that work is what gives her life purpose and value.' Studies show Gen Z is noticeably less focused on work than young people were just five years ago, said psychologist Jean Twenge, author of 'Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents — and What They Mean for America's Future.' 'It's a rejection of the idea that work is the most important thing in life,' Twenge said.
New York Post
07-06-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Gen Z debate over work-life balance lights up TikTok
A millennial CEO called out Gen Z's work ethic — and got flamed for it. Lindsey Carter, founder of activewear company Set Active, said she wasn't prepared for the backlash she faced after critiquing Gen Z's take on work-life balance in a now-deleted TikTok video. 'Now all I see are people sprinting out of their offices at 5pm like it's a fire drill and then wondering why they feel so unfulfilled in their careers,' Carter posted last week. 6 In a now-deleted TikTok, Set Active founder Lindsey Carter told viewers to 'stay late' if they want to succeed — a hot take that quickly lit up the internet with backlash. Obtained by the New York Post 'Balance is important, but balance without ambition. That's just coasting,' Carter continued. 'You don't build something great by just doing the bare minimum.' The backlash was fast — and furious. Critics slammed Carter, suggesting she was promoting unpaid work and ignoring burnout. 'Staying past 5pm working for a company I have no equity in doesn't sound like the path to fulfillment, ' one TikToker responded. 'How can I be active if I have to be strapped to my desk after 5pm?' another wrote. 6 TikTok users did not like Carter's take and accused Set Active of promoting a hustle-first mentality. Obtained by the New York Post Carter quickly deleted the post — then blasted her critics on her Instagram story and claimed she'd been cancelled. 'What followed wasn't dialogue. It was a pile-on,' Carter wrote. 'It doesn't leave room for the thing we all say we believe in . . . growth.' She didn't stop there. 6 Carter quickly deleted her TikTok post — then dismissed the criticism, claiming it was 'cancel culture.' Lindsey Carter/ Instagram 'I'm a millennial. I grew up in a culture where 'hard work pays off' wasn't just a phrase . . . it was a promise,' Carter said in a May 30 Substack essay defending her position. 'Two truths can coexist . . . we can honor ambition and protect our peace.' But for many online, that didn't cut it. Haters noted Set Active's negative Glassdoor reviews and Carter's 2023 decision to restructure her social media team, which some interpreted as layoffs. 6 Haters pointed to Set Active's negative Glassdoor reviews and Carter's 2023 decision to restructure her social media team, which some interpreted as layoffs. Helayne Seidman 'She just had a bad take and is out of touch,' one Reddit user wrote. 'That's consequences, not cancellation.' The controversy has since evolved into a larger debate over what ambition should look like in today's workforce and whether Gen Z is lazy — or simply redefining success on their own terms. Younger workers are no longer buying into the hustle mindset pushed by older generations, said Gabrielle Judge, an influencer known as the 'anti work girlboss.' 6 Lindsey Carter's take on work-life balance is 'out of touch,' her critics said on Reddit, accusing her of pushing a tired, toxic narrative in a wave of viral backlash across social media. Obtained by the New York Post 'Gen Z isn't unambitious,' Judge told The Post. 'We're just done sacrificing our mental health for companies that reward burnout with pizza parties. 'Logging off at 5 isn't laziness. It's a boundary.' Career strategist J.T. O'Donnell, founder of Work It Daily, said she understands both sides. Rather than trading hours for pay, younger workers are more focused on leveraging skills and knowledge in a changing economy. 'Working long hours is less productive,' said Celeste Headlee, author of 'Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving.' 'I'm not irritated that Lindsey used the word 'coasting,' I have great empathy for her. She is still gripped by the delusion that work is what gives her life purpose and value.' 6 Lindsey Carter struck a nerve online after suggesting the 5 p.m. clock-out culture signals a lack of ambition — and the internet had receipts. Lindsey Carter/ Instagram Studies show Gen Z is noticeably less focused on work than young people were just five years ago, said psychologist Jean Twenge, author of 'Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents — and What They Mean for America's Future.' 'It's a rejection of the idea that work is the most important thing in life,' Twenge said.
