A message from our Founder and CEO Katrina Lake

Posted by Stitch Fix
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  • Earlier today, Stitch Fix Founder and CEO Katrina Lake shared the following note with Stitch Fix employees:

    Hello, 

    In founding Stitch Fix, I was inspired by a very human problem: to help people look and feel their best by finding clothes they love. Ten years into this journey, I’m even more inspired by this simple mission, proud of the ways we’ve made it a reality, and incredibly optimistic about our future. 

    Now, we are embarking on a new chapter: a future more vast than just Fixes, that takes the personalization capability that we’ve created to its fullest potential. We have an enormous opportunity ahead of us — a massive share shift online and new expectations that consumers have to experience the world in a personalized and authentic way. Apparel retail is undergoing a reinvention, and Stitch Fix is exceedingly well-positioned to lead through it. This moment of transformation in our business and our industry makes it the right time to think about the next generation of leadership at our company. We need leaders who inspire us to see and create the greatest possibility and impact we can have on the world, taking us from the 4 million clients we serve today, to the many millions more I know we can delight. 

    When I met Elizabeth, I knew she was special and immediately saw the potential she had to create possibility for Stitch Fix. Since joining us as President in January 2020, Elizabeth has made a broad and significant impact on our business. She leads most of our consumer-facing and technology teams, she has defined a compelling vision for our future and accelerated the next generation of our service. Now is the right time to usher in the next generation for Stitch Fix, for our business, our people and our clients. 

    Starting in August, Elizabeth will be taking on the CEO role, and I will take on the role of Executive Chairperson of Stitch Fix. I won’t be going anywhere. I will still be, first and foremost, in service to you all and the company. I have always embraced the idea that every year my role has changed. From helping get Fixes out the door to leading us through an IPO, I’ve had to modulate my roles and responsibilities every year to make sure I’m serving the company most impactfully, and this is no different. 

    In addition to my role as Chairperson of the Board, I will remain an employee and be focusing my impact on some areas of the business I feel passionately about and am excited to help evolve: our social impact efforts (and our Elevate program), the intersection between technology and sustainability, helping to identify and enable the partnerships that will fuel future marketing and merchandising efforts, and ensuring Stitch Fix continues to hire the very best talent for its future. In founding Stitch Fix, I did so with the belief that we could generate great shareholder value while enabling positive change in the world, and I’m excited to focus my time more specifically on these efforts. 

    This succession has been in the works for some time, and while change can be hard, I also believe in its transformational power. I am deeply confident in the future ahead for us — I can’t imagine anyone else taking our company forward with such energy, passion, and optimism, and I am so excited for Elizabeth to step into the CEO role and for us to be partners in this next chapter. We are lucky to have a very experienced leadership team working alongside Elizabeth as she takes this role. Most of all, we are grateful to have all of you by our sides — grateful for your passion, smarts, for the whole self you bring to your work every day. It’s your energy and commitment to our clients that makes the future possible and makes the journey fulfilling.

    With love, excitement and deep gratitude, 

    Katrina

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