Carhartt builds its brand with makers and doers
Stephen WhitesideWarc
Carhartt, a 126-year-old apparel brand famous for its durable workwear, faced a classic marketing dilemma: how to attract a new audience without alienating its existing customer base.
Tony Ambroza joined the firm in October 2010, when the "core of our core" – blue-collar Americans with physically demanding jobs, and often living in relatively rural parts of Alaska, Montana, Maine and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – were suffering as a result of the financial crisis.
"At Carhartt, we celebrate – and care about – them every single day, because...