Surviving D2C's Boom and Bust

Surviving D2C's Boom and Bust

From Ecommerce Conversations by Practical Ecommerce

April 24, 2026 · 38 min

About this episode

Chris Wichert shares his journey of building and exiting his luxury shoe brand Koio amidst the challenges of the D2C market.

Chris Wichert is an investment banker turned direct-to-consumer entrepreneur. His luxury shoe brand, Koio, launched in 2015 and quickly scaled. Then the pandemic hit. By late 2022, he says, the D2C hype and funding had collapsed. He slashed costs, stabilized cash flow, and successfully exited the company. In this episode, he shares his story of boom, bust, and survival. For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/surviving-d2cs-boom-a...

People in this episode

Guest: Chris Wichert

Topics covered

  • direct-to-consumer
  • entrepreneurship
  • business strategy
  • financial management
  • company exit

Keywords

  • D2C
  • luxury shoes
  • business exit
  • cash flow
  • entrepreneur

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Koio

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