Kerry Docherty: Co-Founder & Chief Impact Officer of Faherty

Episode 704

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Kerry Docherty, Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of Faherty—the family-owned, American fashion and lifestyle brand redefining what it means to scale with purpose. Known for its surf-inspired aesthetic and unwavering commitment to sustainability, Faherty has grown into a profitable 9-figure business with over 75 stores nationwide and a passionate, loyal customer base.
In our conversation, Kerry shares how she and her co-founders set out to build a brand that challenged the norms of the fashion industry. With a background in law and human rights, she brings a unique lens to what it means to lead with intention—launching initiatives like Faherty’s Native Partnership Program, steering the company to B Corp certification, and ensuring impact and integrity are built into every decision.
We talk about how to create authentic partnerships, how to stay mission-forward as you scale, and what it really takes to build a brand customers trust—without compromising on values. If you’re interested in ethical business, sustainability, or how to lead with both heart and results, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. Now on The Kara Goldin Show.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. So excited to have my next guest here. She is somebody I am seriously excited, not just about her, but also her brand and everything that she has built and is one of the driving forces behind an incredible brand that maybe you passed it along the way, whether you’re in New York or Marin County or Malibu or many other places where they have an incredible store, but we have Kerry Docherty, who is the co founder and chief impact officer of a brand called Faherty. And if you are not familiar with the brand, get familiar with the brand, because, as I was mentioning to Kara, my husband and so many other people are obsessed with many of their clothes. But in particular, he is obsessed with their flannel shirts, and I have to tell him that he cannot wear them during the summer. Of course, maybe in San Francisco he can where it gets a little chilly, but it’s just such an incredible brand. And when I learned that there were these amazing people like Kara behind this brand, family owned fashion, lifestyle brand known for its surf inspired style commitment to sustainability and deep roots in storytelling and community. And like I said, you’ve probably seen the stores around. There’s more than 75 now. And what you may not know is that this nine figure, profitable brand is also certified B Corp. So that is absolutely incredible, and she co founded the brand alongside her husband and his twin brother, so I can’t wait to get into that as well. And more than anything, I’d love to hear so much more about how do you scale a brand today? How do you start a brand in apparel, but how do you scale a brand like they have and so much more. So welcome. Kara, very excited that you’re here. So happy to be here. Very, very excited. Okay, so let’s start with the origin story. If you can take us back, what was the spark that led you to co found faradi, and if you can just talk about the initial vision.

Kerry Docherty 3:03
So Alex, my husband, and his identical twin brother Mike, grew up surfer kids on the Jersey Shore, and this has always been their dream to create a lifestyle surf brand that’s elevated. And so Mike actually wrote his college essay on starting this brand. I met Alex the first day of college in Spanish class, and then later on, I went to become a went to become a lawyer. I was focused on human rights and social justice. Alex went into private equity in business, and Mike worked at Ralph Lauren for 10 years and in 2012 basically three weeks after Alex and I got married, we moved in with his brother, and six months later, we all quit our jobs to start the brand, which, as my therapist would be, like, we need to talk about boundaries, but it really is a family business. The boy’s mother is an interior decorator, so she decorated all of our stores. Mike’s the creative director, Alex is CEO, and I’m Chief impact officer. So I always like to joke that each of us only has a quarter of our brain, but together, we are Captain fairity. We’re able to tackle a lot of things at once, which I think has been a huge part, honestly, of our success is just the number of skill sets one needs to be able to navigate and build a new business.

Kara Goldin 4:33
So the name Faherty, where did the brand name come from? It’s

Kerry Docherty 4:38
my husband and Mike’s last name. There you go. So I could have been Carrie Faherty, but it rhymes too much. So I kept my maiden name.

Kara Goldin 4:47
I love that. So when you you joined the two brothers, I mean, I guess I’m speechless. You’ve lived with them right after you’re married, and then you started a company. So I guess you really knew them quite well. Did you have concerns about jumping in with them? I

Kerry Docherty 5:08
think my lack of concern, I probably should have had more concerns, but it’s, I mean, it’s been an incredible journey. We’ve learned so much. We’ve done family therapy, Alex, you know Alex and I had to go to couples therapy to negotiate my salary. Any issue can imagine working with your husband has happened. And I used to think that the brand had the potential to tear us apart. But looking back, and I think in a lot of ways, it’s kept us together, because so much has unfolded over the past 12 years since starting the brand, and we’ve, you know, we’ve gone through so many different iterations as a couple, but we remain so tied and committed to this dream that It’s, it’s really helped us be teammates, you know, side by side, day in and day out.

Kara Goldin 6:04
So fashion can be such a tough industry. So I when I look at the industry as a whole, look I was in the beverage industry, so I get it there. There’s a lot of tough industries out there, but I guess one of your co founders worked for Ralph Lauren. I mean, they had sort of been in the industry, so it wasn’t like you were totally coming in cold. You actually came from a background in law and human rights. How did your perspective influence the way you approached launching this brand, it influenced

Kerry Docherty 6:43
everything. I think. First and foremost, as a lawyer, I’m always thinking about, what are the risks, what are the liabilities? How can we get sued? Are we doing things right? But also from a social justice and human rights perspective, because it’s my husband’s name and our family name that’s on this brand, the level of personal accountability I have to make sure that we’re doing things right. You know, our last name is stitched on every garment is makes me really want to make sure, you know, we’re working with ethical manufacturing, venue factors, we’re doing things right. I often share that the first couple years we started the brand, we were using these beautiful native inspired prints, but it was essentially just appropriation, because we weren’t actually working with Native designers, and resources weren’t flowing back to the Native community. So I think my background in social justice and human rights helped me realize that we needed to pivot and our native Initiatives Program where we work with native designers on our native prints is one of my heart’s passion and one of the things I’m most proud of at the brand same from a sustainability perspective. So I think, because it’s a family business, our values matter, and it really informs every decision that we make.

Kara Goldin 8:00
So let’s touch on the native partnership program. How did that all come together? And can you share a little bit more about what that program is about?

Kerry Docherty 8:13
Absolutely. So like I said, we were, you know, fashion is so notorious for particularly white run brands finding a beautiful print, putting their name on it and selling it. Native motifs do not belong to us. They are beautiful, but they have meaning. Certain motifs mean certain things, certain color schemes belong to different tribes. And so we got to the point where we decided that if we were going to use any of these type of prints, we only wanted to work with actual Native artists. And so in 2017 I reached out to a mutual friend, Doug goodfeather. He’s Lakota of Standing Rock nation. When we started working with him, he flew in. He worked on designs and art with us. I think the best way to effectuate change is with long term, systemic partnerships. And so we now work with five amazing Native artists on an ongoing basis, and it’s something that our customers love. It’s something that it helps our team feel like we’re doing good work. And it’s honestly been such life force energy back to me, because some of these partnerships and some of these partners have become some of my closest friends.

Kara Goldin 9:23
That’s incredible. So I love that you’re actually working with different tribes to specific tribes, and really calling attention to some of the different things that they’re trying to do geographically, because there’s so many issues. I grew up in Arizona, so it’s I’m very familiar with many of those issues as well, but I love seeing that as part of your overall mission and ethos that’s been built in overall so when you think about the ups and downs of. Building a business. You know, that’s it’s something that I think people just want to go start a company, right? That they have this idea and they want to go start it, but nobody sees the squiggly line that happens. Sometimes there’s products that are launched that don’t work, or, you know, a real estate deal that you thought was going to be amazing, and then, for whatever reason, it’s not. But what are some of the ups and downs that you’ve seen that obviously you’ve weathered the storm, but they’ve been really challenging.

Kerry Docherty 10:36
I mean, I could name so many, and some are funny, you know, we initially when we launched, we had yellow board shorts that were completely see through. So we had customers who were swimming with their in laws came out of the pool and realized that it was see through. We’ve had production issues. We’ve had we had a mobile trailer that we took around the country, and it got broken into. It broke down on the side of the road. It got confiscated on the Mexico border. I mean, I can go on and on. I think the most stressful thing about having a company, though, is what a hungry beast capitalism is. And in order to scale, no matter how well you’re doing, you are always in a cash crunch. And so we only recently became profitable a couple years ago, nine years in to having the business. And when you start having employees and team members, the level of responsibility, knowing that you’re helping provide for their livelihood, and if the business is not doing well, it’s affecting people who work for you, is a very heavy emotional weight to bear. And I think because we we do care so much, like it’s there have been times where, yeah, we’ve been afraid we weren’t going to be able to make payroll the first couple years. We we are not private equity backed. So we did around our friends and family when we started, and then we have one angel investor, and so we really have, you know, bootstrapped it, and, you know, have had to call in favors. I mean, I feel very grateful. I feel like enough founders don’t talk about like access to like being privileged, but so much of it is, do you know someone with money who, when you’re desperate, you can call in a favor? And we’ve had to do that time and time again, like, I’ve had to call my dad and be like, you know, we owe this manufacturer money, and we can’t pay for it. Can you, can you loan me some money? And that’s the behind the scenes. I think that a lot of people don’t, don’t see, and it’s stressful. It’s, it’s almost torn my relationship apart at times, you know, so. But we’ve weathered the storm and we can finally breathe. But I think there is, when people start a business, there’s an expectation that even if it’s successful, that you’re profitable, and just because you’re growing doesn’t mean that you’re making money, given how much operational infrastructure is needed to keep the business afloat.

Kara Goldin 13:20
Yeah, yeah, no, it’s so true. Thank you for sharing that, because I think it is so true. And I think often, you know, when you have employees too, you’re, you know, trying to balance keeping people motivated and and leading and not stressing everybody out. But you know, at the end of the day, the buck stops here, and you want to make sure that everyone is getting their payroll and their 401, K, and all of these things that you know are really important, I think, for the team to have and also have a great line of products that are quality and things that are, You know, representative of the brand that you started, but also ones that consumers will continue buying. So I think that’s such an important piece that a lot of people don’t realize. That’s why I love founders, right? Because I have so much mad respect for doesn’t matter what industry they’re in. I just get it and it’s it’s a lot, it’s a lot to hold, hold together at times, for sure and carry on your shoulders. So when you think about differentiating the brand, there’s always competition in every industry. But how do you stand apart and how do you continue to really stay true to your original values, I guess, while continuing to stand apart.

Kerry Docherty 14:47
The fact that, you know, we’re a family business, I think, is the most differentiated, because the brand is so much of the things that we love, so it’s very organic, like we wear the clothes. We design the clothes that we want to wear. We’re real people. We’re in our catalogs. Often our you know, our parents, our kids, have been in the catalogs. We visit our stores a lot. So, you know, there’s really a face to the brand in some ways, although we’re obviously wanting to expand beyond that. But I think we don’t think about competition as much as Who are we really inspired by? And I look at the trajectory of like a Patagonia, it’s still founder based, you know, Yvon Chouinard, very steeped in his values and sustainability. We want to be doing this for a very long time. So we don’t want to sell the company and retire and start something else. There’s nothing else we really would rather be doing. I mean, I’m working on a book, so I love writing. But because of that, the brands we look up to are ones that have been around for a really long time, like even like Cuccinelli, which is a European brand. So in terms of, I don’t think about as much as competition, but as much as, yeah, what type of legacy do we want to be leading, and are we continuing to make decisions that we’re proud of, and having that inform everything from our style, our vibe, the places we’re traveling, the nonprofits we’re associating with, all of it’s very organic. I love

Kara Goldin 16:19
it, and I think how you’ve grown the brand, too, is just you can tell there’s the people that really care about it, and the look and the feel and the vibe and the pieces of clothing are really different. What are some of the pieces that you’ve created that are maybe you’re most proud of that were really tough to achieve, and you finally got it to a point where you nailed it, and you were so excited.

Kerry Docherty 16:47
You know, for women’s, I’m obsessed with our stretch Terry bottoms. We wanted to do a more structured bottom for a really long time, but that also had that signature, kind of vintage, really gummy, soft feel to it. And so we spent years perfecting these, this really flattering, yeah, stretch cherry pant, and I have it in every color. And now we make an ankle length and a long length, but that’s something that you know, was years in the making of trial and tribulation, and now it’s definitely a core product piece that we offer season after season. Is

Kara Goldin 17:26
there a product that you talked about the yellow board shorts, but is there a product that you in the men’s style that you were that you’re really, really excited about, or was kind of a tougher one to create. You

Kerry Docherty 17:44
know, Mike, you mentioned your husband loves the flannels. Mike, my brother in law, I mean, he’s so obsessed with fabric. All of our fabrics are custom made. It’s almost like a chef like, what ingredients, how much stretch, what’s the wash? And so he really invented the legend fabric, which is it almost feels like a cashmere sweater. It’s soft and stretchy, and we were able to do it still with low impact materials, so recycled, poly with a little bit of organic cotton. And that’s been a real staple to the men’s the men’s collection.

Kara Goldin 18:17
That’s awesome. What’s been the most unexpected part of this journey and building the brand something that maybe has surprised you or challenged you in ways you didn’t anticipate. I

Kerry Docherty 18:30
think that you know the interpersonal, relational part of it. You know we so often we talk about, you know, our personal lives and our work lives, and as chief impact officer, I’m very focused on culture and on our people team and how people relate to one another, and I’m just fascinated by how much

Kara Goldin 18:53
like childhood and

Kerry Docherty 18:55
inner like inner family systems affects how we show up on a day to day basis. It affects the types of people that we hire. It affects organizational health. I majored in psychology in college, and I don’t think that I was going to be as fascinated by how much like personalities affect the success of a business. So, yeah, I would say it’s like the softer things that are more surprising, versus the business thing. I mean, I always joke, from a business perspective, we only ever have three problems, which is, like, Are Are we making our money losing on this is, are we going to meet our deadlines? From a production perspective, and then, like, what’s the marketing campaign? I mean, obviously there’s so much more than that, but I actually find that the business problems are very consistent and regular. But it’s the softer skills that are, are things that I’m most fascinated by and can cause the most stress

Kara Goldin 19:52
when you’re interviewing people. What’s What are some of the things that you really look for when you’re building. Out your team, because I do think there’s a vibe that, especially the longer that you’re in business, right, it’s there’s a responsibility too, when you’re bringing in people that you know, there’s a lot of trust, especially if that person isn’t interviewing with everybody in the whole company. But is there something that you really look for when you’re adding members to your team.

Kerry Docherty 20:23
I mean, we are very candid that Faherty is a hard place to work in the sense that it’s very fast paced. There’s three founders. We like to move fast. We have high standards of working. It’s also a very kind place. It’s not your typical, like fashion competitive. It is so collaborative. Alex, Mike and I were all athletes in college, and so it’s very much like one team, one dream. So the things that we really look for is collaboration, people who are self assured. So I think if you know people who can take feedback and not take things personally again, we think about a sports team like, I might not be having a good game one day. And it’s like, Hey, you didn’t play. You didn’t play great. It’s like, Yeah, I know. Dang sorry I got you next time we need that. That type of mentality versus I messed up. I’m a bad person. Everyone hates me. It’s like, we really look for, like, a mental agility, of being able to take feedback and want to get better, and having people who whose stress, I think, isn’t super contagious. It’s a fast paced environment, but we all really care about each other. And it’s like, you know, moods are contagious, so if someone’s having a hard day, can you have, like, the acumen to be able to be like, I’m having hard day. I’m going to be vulnerable about it, but I’m not going to spread my stress to

Kara Goldin 21:49
you? Yeah, no, I think that’s really, really critical. So storytelling obviously means a lot to you, and that certainly has changed over over the years, I think it’s gotten more and more important for consumers to really understand people behind brands. You know, as you mentioned, Patagonia is probably at one of the top of my list of brands that has really done it right, and you guys have as well. But can you share how storytelling really is kind of an important part for Faherty, and it’s not just about the products, because you can’t, I don’t think today you can just go launch a brand and expect people to come or try the product, if you don’t really have some kind of why behind it.

Kerry Docherty 22:45
It’s funny, when we launched in 2013 really, to 2019 so much focus was on, like, online, digital, D to C, Instagram ads. And we were actually very traditional in the sense that pretty quickly into starting the brand, after all these big brands had stopped their catalogs, we wanted to have a catalog. And the reason why we wanted to have a catalog is because we wanted to be able to tell stories about people we loved, inspiring people, real people wearing the clothes, interesting locations. Yeah, good people doing good work, and we continue to really focus on that, season after season. I think a lot of catalogs have come back, but we’re, we’ve actually, we don’t call it a catalog anymore. We call it a journal or Verity Chronicles, because it’s not just product. It’s really featuring real people doing good work from all around the world. We just did a collaboration with Surf Ghana. We traveled to Costa Rica this past trip to talk to activists and surfboard shapers down there. We’re doing a catalog with the amazing photographer Chris Burkard in Iceland for the holidays. So that’s the thing that really brings the brand alive, is, you know, featuring good people doing good work in the clothes. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 24:10
no, I love it. What other collaborations have you done where you’ve just been so excited about, I mean, you’ve done so many you just mentioned, we

Kerry Docherty 24:19
love artists. We love writers. We do a lot with musicians. We’re an ongoing sponsor of the Newport Folk Festival. We do a lot of events. We do a lot with Surfrider, who’s we’re corporate sponsors too. It’s a nonprofit that focuses on ocean conservation, so it’s been all over the place. It’s and again, it’s organic. So we did one with the Tourism Board of Ireland, because we have roots in Ireland. And we thought, why not? Why not go back to the homeland and and do a product collab with them and shoot us looking at other family run factories in Ireland? So. Much of it’s, like I said, is so organic based more than like marketing strategy, I love

Kara Goldin 25:05
it, and I love the fact that you’ve brought in so much of your interests, right? To show people, I mean, you’re showing consumers some of the cool things that are out there that maybe they hadn’t imagined, right? And in it, you’re also educating them, whether it’s with Native Americans or or different surfers, just kind of going back to your roots of how you develop this brand. So when you think about maybe it’s a friend of yours, or somebody that you’re that you’re mentoring. Maybe you don’t even know you’re mentoring them, but they want to go and create a brand rooted in purpose. What’s one piece of advice that you would give to them in in any industry, as they start to think about creating something? I’m

Kerry Docherty 25:58
so under the belief that what’s good for one person should be good for all. And so really thinking about what are the Win? Win, wins. And that can be from a factory perspective to a collaboration perspective, but I love it when Yvon Chouinard says, Every time we’ve prioritized the environment, it’s been a win for the business. And I do believe in karma a little bit and like if we prioritize the environment and we prioritize ethical manufacturing, like that too, will be good for business, even if it means our costs are higher, the longevity and the energy that we’re putting out of the brand will inherently lead to

Kara Goldin 26:41
good business. No, I love that. As we’re closing out this conversation, what is that one thing that you want them to remember about the company in the brand?

Kerry Docherty 26:51
I think, for me, we want to leave behind a legacy of feeling. And I think that can be both from like, a tactile perspective, that fairity feeling of the fabric that is like so cozy and comfortable, but it’s also the feeling of how you feel when you walk into one of our stores. We have an amazing team of store people. They make you feel comfortable and welcome, and we want to involve like, what is that fairly feeling that that you associate with the brand beyond just the clothes. And I think that sometimes is hard to describe, but I want you to feel it when you’re wearing the brand. I love it or think about it even if you don’t own it. But when you just think about it, it gives you a sense of like, okay, they’re they’re focused on making things better. Kara,

Kara Goldin 27:40
thank you so much for joining us, and your story is such a powerful example of what’s possible when you build with heart and leave with purpose and refuse to compromise on values and your legal and human rights background in Building. Faherty’s rise as a sustainability or as a sustainable lifestyle brand, I should say you’ve really shown that family can work together, and bringing in fashion and impact doesn’t just coexist. They fuel each other. So you guys have done such an incredible job on building ferrity. Everyone needs to check it out. I encourage everyone to go into one of their stores, definitely. But also you can visit them [email protected] and as always, if you love this episode, please don’t forget to share it with a friend. Drop a review and hit subscribe, and I’ll see you next time on the Kara Goldin show. Thank you so much for joining us. Kara Doherty, co founder and chief impact Officer of faradi. Thanks, Kara, thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit, and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast, just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint, we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now. You.

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