Spirit Of 608: Fashion, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability + Tech

It’s the 250th episode of the Spirit of 608 podcast! For this milestone episode, I’m getting all analytical on you and checking in on the status of the first 25 brands to be on the show. I tallied up how many are still operating, who has shut down, who’s pivoted or shifted and who’s IPO’d — and it’s more than one! That would have been pretty unbelievable to me back in 2015 when I started the show. But the FEST space has come a long way, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. Want to know how business in FEST has performed versus business in general? Oh yes! Then listen to this episode — I was really surprised at some of the things I found when I compared the fates and current states of the first 25 businesses I covered, and I think you will be too! With that in mind, after dropping the numbers on how many businesses persisted, pivoted, IPO’d — and how that percentage stacks up against businesses across industries — I break down the common characteristics of the ones thriving today and the reasons I see fo