Influencer-Created Fashion Brands: The Stories Behind parke and daily drills
By: Ella Girzadas
Daily Drills was founded in 2020 by Mary Ralph Bradley and Kennedy Crichlow. An LA-based lifestyle clothing brand, Daily Drills revolves around “cozy loungewear to stylish workout apparel and vacation-ready resort wear.” In November of 2021, Daily Drills hit $1 million in sales after just a year of getting started. In the past year, however, Daily Drills has sky-rocketed in their market, and so has the brand Parke. Parke was founded by Chelsea Parke Kramer in 2022, starting as a high-quality denim collection. But after a year of being in business, Parke expanded to basic clothing you can wear everyday, such as their signature Varsity Mockneck.
These brands have interesting brand management ideals. If you go on their websites, Daily Drills and Parke are quick to let you know that they do not accept returns. All items are final sale. Why is this? When Daily Drills gained a new fame about a year ago, I remember girls on TikTok complaining that the sweatpants and sweatshirts they ordered were too oversized and the size chart was completely off. They could not do anything about this, however, because Daily Drills does not accept returns. It put a bad look on the brand, showing that they were not worried about their customers being unhappy. Similarly, Parke has been under scrutiny in the past month for a website crash that occurred during their most recent Valentine’s Day drop. Chelsea Kramer had told customers that the new drop contained the most inventory yet, and everyone would be able to get what they wanted. But after 15 minutes, all the Varsity Mocknecks were sold out. Customers were furious. Parke, however, had never seen such success in a drop. And Daily Drills' most recent clothing drops seem to be hitting it out of the park, as well. What is really behind the success of these small businesses started by fashion influencers?
I would argue that Daily Drills, although based in Los Angeles, California, mostly targets women at SEC schools. One of my friends at Ole Miss has many Daily Drills items, and her sorority even created Daily Drills inspired merch. Parke, on the other hand, mostly targets women at universities in the Northeast or the Midwest. I haveseen many midwestern and northeastern universities’ sororities create Parke inspired merch, as well. For example, my friends in Kappa Kappa Gamma at Indiana University had Parke inspired mock necks for their recent Mom’s Weekend.
In my mind, it all circles back to TikTok. I am constantly seeing Daily Drills or Parke clothing hauls on my For You Page, or even girls complaining about receiving a product that was manufactured incorrectly or got damaged in the mail. Even this kind of publicity is beneficial for the two brands. It gets their name out there, making people aware of the brand. At the end of the day, if the clothes are still cute, seemingly well made, and not ridiculously expensive, Daily Drills and Parke will maintain customers. And it helps that these brands are run by women who display their lives on social media, and showing themselves wearing their own products adds to the marketing effect. Chelsea, founder of Parke, lives in Miami with her fiancé and posts Get Ready With Me and Day in My Life videos on TikTok. If women watching her videos see how cool her life may be, they may want the clothes she wears, too. Ralph, co founder of Daily Drills, perhaps, has a different marketing approach to her brand. She does not post herself wearing Daily Drills items as much as Chelsea posts wearing her Parke items, and she posts much less on TikTok now than she did when I first started following her a few years ago. But I think because Daily Drills is not Ralph’s name, and is run together with Kennedy, this works out okay for them. Parke, however, is much more about Chelsea, as the brand closely touches her specific life (with the brand name being her middle name, of course).
It originally seemed to me that Parke and Daily Drills were taking over the fashion industry. When you think about it, however, the two brands have very niche markets that can be difficult to keep up with. I wonder if their market can sustain them, and if their small business layouts will be enough to maintain their brands.