How SET Became The It Brand Of Athleisure

Lindsey Carter, the founder behind the insanely popular activewear and athleisure brand that is SET, knows how to turn a product into a must-have.

You’ve undoubtedly seen this brand all over your social media and worn by the coolest in the Gen Z and Millennial crowds. But in a world overrun with fitness apparel and athleisure, what has made SET stand out from the competition and sell out collections again and again?

Ahead of the brand’s 7th birthday celebration, I spoke with Carter to learn more about the brand’s evolution over the years and why its fans cannot get enough of it.

A Non-Linear Road To Founder

Lindsey Carter didn’t always think she was going to launch her own business; in fact, she went to school with the goal of becoming a kindergarten teacher. After college, she started working at NBC Universal, which is where she "really fell in love with storytelling, social media, and connecting the dots digitally." From there, she worked at different companies to facilitate their social media marketing strategies and provide trend forecasting, which is where she started to recognize a pattern, or lack thereof, within the athletic wear world.

Namely, that there was a gap in the market for the everyday girl: the girl who went to occasional workout classes but wasn’t training for a marathon; the girl who needed something that could take her from yoga to coffee; the girl who wanted to look elevated, even in comfortable materials. So in 2018, Carter took the entrepreneurial leap and launched SET.

Using Instagram To Establish A Powerful Community

In the early days of the brand, Carter was running the business out of her apartment, with boxes everywhere and packaging, customer service, and marketing all done in-house (literally). With no budget for marketing, she relied on growing a community organically on Instagram, which remains one of the brand’s most important marketing channels. For her, social media wasn’t solely about selling product. "It’s about creating a lifestyle that people want to be a part of."

She also realized that in 2018, most brands were still incredibly polished with their social media strategies, only sharing professionally shot photos and buttoned-up content. SET leaned away from that, instead focusing on real-life moments, behind-the-scenes content, and the why behind the brand. Carter used social media to share the design process, how the brand came up with colorways and names, and even struggles like shipping delays and faulty products. For her, showing the 360-degree reality of running a business would strengthen brand loyalty more than picture-perfect photos. “I knew how important it was to build trust with our community,” she stressed. And clearly, that strategy has paid off.

Using The Personal To Build The Brand

One question a lot of brand founders have is how much they should be using their personal social media to drive business. For Carter, it’s a no-brainer to utilize her own profiles to extend the reach and community of SET. She uses features like Instagram’s Broadcast Channel tool to communicate with SET’s most dedicated fans, “talking to them about teasers, [answering] questions, what’s coming next, what I’m most excited about,” and so on, with customers able to interact back.

As the brand has grown, Carter has been able to build out her team and hire team members to develop SET’s social media content, while she’s delved back into utilizing her personal channels to extend the brand’s mission. “I think that founders have such a huge opportunity to bring people into their journey in a way that makes the brand feel more personal, relatable, and reachable,” she said, with some advice for any fellow brand founders. “People can tell when a brand is just trying to sell them something versus when it genuinely cares about its community,” so showing up consistently and authentically is key to a successful social strategy.

She also advises not to be afraid of experimenting, whether that be in your brand’s social media strategy or even how to run the business. Carter will be the first to admit that SET has experienced plenty of setbacks along with its successes, but what’s important is being transparent about those moments and using them as learning opportunities. And now, 7 years into the brand, SET is bigger and better than ever.

Celebrating 7 Years In Business

Carter proudly shared that “this is the best year product-wise that SET has ever done,” with upcoming launches like the birthday collection, a game day collection, and another SET x Parke collaboration in the works. She also just took to Instagram recently to share that their recent resort drop did $1 million in business in 1 hour. If that’s not a testament to the brand’s continued success, I don’t know what is.

Naturally, the brand is celebrating these incredible milestones with an adorable ice cream-inspired birthday collection that combines their best-selling Espresso color with 3 pastel hues. SET fans can shop the new drop on May 23rd at 10 AM PT and be treated to a 23% off sale on the site (excluding the birthday collection) for 24 hours, also starting on May 23rd at 10 AM PT. As always, you can browse their social media for all the behind-the-scenes of the collection!