Brand Matters More Than Ever: How FIGS Is Turning Purpose into Profit in Healthcare Apparel

The $500M Brand That's Not Playing the Discount Game Anymore

In a retail environment tightening under the weight of tariffs, rising acquisition costs, and global uncertainty, FIGS - the premium healthcare apparel brand - has made an audacious move: it's scaling back promotions.

In its 2024 earnings, FIGS signaled a strategic pivot: fewer discounts, more brand investment, and rapid expansion into Asia, retail, and institutional sales via its TEAMS program. The message from CFO Sarah Oughtred was clear: "We see an incredible opportunity ahead for the brand and believe these actions and discipline are paramount to driving our growth ambitions."^[1]

This strategic pivot unfolds against a backdrop of modest overall top-line growth, reported at +2% year-over-year for 2024. However, this growth appears heavily dependent on the rapid expansion of its international business, up 31% YoY. The data suggests a challenging reality: if international sales (representing 15% of total revenue) grew at 31% while overall growth was only 2%, it implies that the remaining 85% of the business—primarily the mature domestic market—may be experiencing stagnation or even slight decline.^[2]

This is not business as usual. In a sector long addicted to flash sales and discount wars, FIGS is betting big on long-term brand equity—and they're not alone. Challenger brands like Jaanuu, Fabletics, and Mediclo are investing in storytelling, community building, and top-of-funnel marketing. But there's a catch: the marketing funnel has become increasingly opaque.

Without precision insight into which brand activities drive actual sales, CMOs are flying blind—and CFOs, understandably, want proof.

Why Brand Is the New Growth Lever—If You Can Prove It Works

The DTC healthcare apparel market is evolving. With over $555.6M in 2024 revenue (up 2% YoY), FIGS continues to showcase the power of direct-to-consumer models in specialized markets. But the playbook has changed dramatically since FIGS disrupted the medical uniform industry in 2013.^[3]

Today, FIGS faces competition from multiple angles:

• Jaanuu, the physician-led brand positioning itself as the "Nike of scrubs," tripled revenue during the pandemic and secured $75 million in funding in 2022^[4]

• Fabletics entered the scrubs market in 2023, leveraging its activewear expertise and celebrity backing to reach 500,000 customers within a year^[5]

• Medelita, now part of Careismatic Brands, continues targeting upscale customers with premium lab coats and tailored options^[6]

• Mediclo carved out a sustainability niche with scrubs made from eucalyptus fiber and recycled plastic bottles^[7]

In this increasingly crowded market, FIGS' commitment to quality, innovation, and brand-building has become its key differentiator. But with that commitment comes the challenge of proving ROI.

Inside the FIGS Playbook: Community, Global Expansion, and Brand Discipline

Under the leadership of CMO Bené Eaton and her team, FIGS has continued to prioritize authentic community building and storytelling. Their success stems from understanding that healthcare workers don't just need functional clothing—they need apparel that reinforces their professional identity and makes them feel confident.^[8]

FIGS' approach to growth relies on several key pillars:

1. Elevating the core DTC business through brand-building and reduced reliance on discounting, reinforcing the brand's premium positioning while protecting margins in the face of potential tariff impacts^[9]

2. International expansion, with international sales now representing 15% of revenue (up 31% YoY) and plans to enter Asian markets like Japan and South Korea in 2025, requiring navigation of entirely new media landscapes and consumer behaviors^[10]

3. Omnichannel growth through Community Hub stores, creating physical brand touchpoints that bridge online and offline experiences, fostering community engagement while adding complexity to customer journey tracking^[11]

4. B2B channel development (TEAMS) targeting hospitals, clinics, and larger healthcare organizations with an outbound sales team and platform strategy, introducing longer sales cycles and different attribution challenges^[12]

5. AI & data optimization signaled by the strategic appointment of Jerry Jao (founder of AI-driven marketing platform Retention Science) to the board, indicating FIGS' recognition that advanced data science capabilities are now mission-critical for navigating their next growth phase^[13]

The simultaneous pursuit of these initiatives dramatically increases the complexity of FIGS' marketing ecosystem. What began as a relatively contained set of digital channels now spans distinct media mixes in new countries, B2B sales cycles, and offline retail interactions—all requiring sophisticated measurement approaches to optimize effectively.

The Measurement Blind Spot: Why Leading CMOs Need New Tools

For Jessica Clary, Sr. Director of Growth and Acquisition, and Scott Edwards, Senior Director of Data Analytics & Strategy, the central challenge has become connecting upper-funnel brand activities to actual sales results. This isn't just a FIGS problem - it's an industry-wide issue.^[14]

The fundamental measurement challenge confronting FIGS stems from its business evolution: moving from a relatively straightforward, digitally-centric DTC attribution framework to a highly complex, multi-channel ecosystem spanning direct-to-consumer, business-to-business, international operations, and physical retail. Standard digital attribution methods break down when faced with:

1. Brand marketing's delayed impact - In a less promotional environment, justifying substantial brand investments without compelling performance data becomes increasingly challenging, especially when these initiatives may influence purchases weeks or months later^[15]

2. International market expansion complexity - Entering markets like Japan and South Korea means operating with limited historical data and potentially vastly different media consumption habits, making it risky to optimize media mix without reliable cross-channel measurement^[16]

3. B2B attribution challenges - The TEAMS channel introduces longer sales cycles requiring tracking across both marketing touchpoints (LinkedIn campaigns, content downloads) and sales team interactions, which traditional last-click attribution models cannot adequately capture^[17]

4. Online-offline measurement gaps - Community Hubs create interactions that influence digital purchases and vice versa, introducing "halo effects" that are notoriously difficult to measure using conventional models^[18]

The core issue is the absence of a unified, cross-channel view capable of accurately modeling the incremental contribution of all marketing touchpoints across different business lines and geographies. This measurement gap directly impacts critical strategic decisions around budget allocation, channel optimization, and ROI demonstration.

explains Sam Carter, CEO at Fospha, the leading marketing measurement platform "Marketing teams know that investing in brand-building campaigns is essential for long-term growth, but they struggle to demonstrate the link between brand spend and business results. So, when budgets are tightened, brand spend tends to be the first to ger cut, because its contribution to the bottom line isn’t always clear. This is where measurement is key- brands need to be able to quantify the impact of brand spend on business outcomes like conversions and average order value (AOV), to secure budgets for always-on brand campaigns.”

This need for clarity is especially critical in three areas:

1. Justifying brand spend during margin pressure: With FIGS planning to reduce promotional activity to protect margins amid global tariff pressures, the marketing team needs to show which upper-funnel brand investments drive real revenue.^[19]

2. De-risking international expansion: As FIGS expands into markets like Japan and South Korea, they need ways to measure effectiveness without historical data baselines.^[20]

3. Connecting B2B and DTC marketing: For FIGS' TEAMS program to scale efficiently, they need attribution that can track both lead-generation and brand-building across institutional sales.^[21]

How Competitors Are Responding: Lessons from the Field

FIGS isn't the only brand confronting these challenges. Within the increasingly competitive healthcare apparel market, brands are employing diverse strategies to capture market share while facing similar measurement hurdles.

FIGS vs. Key DTC Healthcare Apparel Competitors

Jaanuu has invested in marketing leadership, hiring former Nike executives Dan Alder as CMO and Scott Shepley as VP of Brand to elevate its brand strategy.^[22] Their physician-led heritage and significant funding position them as a direct challenger to FIGS in the premium segment.

Fabletics leverages its membership model to collect first-party data that informs its scrubs marketing, offering VIP pricing that makes its scrubs more affordable while gathering valuable customer insights.^[23] Their pre-existing retail presence and celebrity-driven marketing present a unique competitive angle.

Medelita, now backed by scrubs giant Careismatic Brands, continues to focus on high-end, tailored lab coats and professional styling, while Mediclo differentiates through a commitment to sustainability and eco-friendly practices.^[24]

This intensifying competitive landscape means FIGS cannot afford strategic or operational missteps. The ability to precisely understand which marketing investments drive profitable customer acquisition and foster long-term retention—across all channels and markets—is transitioning from a competitive advantage to a fundamental requirement for maintaining market leadership.

The Future of Healthcare Apparel Marketing: What's Next for FIGS

With the appointment of Jerry Jao (Retention Science founder) to the board, FIGS has signaled its commitment to data-driven marketing. But translating that commitment into practical capabilities requires new approaches to measurement.

How Fospha's Marketing Measurement Platform Drives Results

Fospha has emerged as the measurement partner of choice for leading DTC brands looking to solve exactly the challenges FIGS faces. Their platform provides unified, cross-channel marketing measurement that connects upper-funnel brand investments to actual revenue.

says Fospha's CEO Sam Carter. "Fospha's marketing measurement platform provides a single source of truth across all marketing channels, helping brands understand which media investments actually drive sales. When we partner with ambitious brands in growth mode, we typically see 15-30% efficiency gains in their media spend within the first quarter. That's why platforms like Meta and TikTok are now co-funding Fospha measurement trials—they know that brands with better measurement ultimately spend more effectively."

Carter added, "For a company like FIGS that's balancing international expansion, B2B growth, and brand building during economic headwinds, having precise visibility into marketing ROI is about confidence. Fospha helps marketing leaders prove what's working, protect strategic investments during budget reviews, and scale globally with less risk. Our privacy-first approach also means brands can maintain measurement excellence even as third-party cookies disappear."

As FIGS continues its mission to empower healthcare professionals, its marketing challenges mirror those facing many premium DTC brands:

• Protecting brand equity while proving ROI

• Expanding globally with efficient channel strategies

• Connecting online and offline touchpoints in an omnichannel world

• Justifying upper-funnel spend during economic headwinds

For Sabrina Tager, Senior Director of Brand Marketing, and Kristen Valaika, Director of Innovation, the path forward requires balancing creative excellence with analytical rigor. The brands that thrive will be those that can connect these two worlds—telling powerful stories while precisely measuring their impact.

Conclusion: The Cost of Confidence in Brand Decisions

As FIGS navigates its next chapter of growth, its success will depend not just on product innovation and creative marketing, but on the ability to measure what matters. The cost of flying blind—of making multi-million-dollar marketing decisions based on incomplete data—is simply too high in today's environment.

In this demanding new reality, strategic vision, while essential, is insufficient on its own. Profitable execution hinges on the foundation of robust, unified measurement. The capability to accurately quantify the downstream revenue impact of upper-funnel brand investments, to optimize media allocation efficiently in nascent international markets, and to fully comprehend the intricate journey of a B2B customer is no longer a "nice-to-have" analytical function.^[25]

It has become the essential compass required to navigate uncertainty, make investment decisions with confidence, and ensure that FIGS' bold strategic bets on brand strength and market expansion translate into sustainable, profitable growth. For the leadership teams steering marketing, growth, and data strategy at forward-thinking companies like FIGS, investing in next-generation measurement capabilities is not merely about generating better reports; it is about securing the data-driven clarity needed to confidently chart the course for the future of the brand.

Leading brands are recognizing that marketing measurement isn't just an analytics function—it's a strategic capability that enables confident decision-making in uncertain times. For FIGS and its competitors, investing in this capability may be the difference between efficient growth and wasted opportunity.

This article was produced by ClickZ in partnership with Fospha. Want to test your brand efficiency like leading DTC brands? Fospha offers a co-funded pilot with platforms like Meta and TikTok. Contact them to learn more.

Appendix: Sources

[1]: FIGS Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript, CFO Sarah Oughtred commentary on strategic priorities.
[2]: FIGS 2024 Annual Report, Revenue breakdown and segment analysis.
[3]: Business Insider, "Figs and other brands transforming the $10B scrubs market," Healthcare apparel market overview.
[4]: Fast Company, "Jaanuu scrubs could be your new favorite athleisure brand," Details on Jaanuu's $75M funding round led by Eurazeo in 2022.
[5]: Retail Dive, "Fabletics launches first scrubs collection," February 2023; GlobeNewswire, "Fabletics Scrubs Partners with Ken Jeong," Customer acquisition data.
[6]: Business Insider, "5 medical-scrub companies fighting Figs for dominance," Medelita acquisition by Careismatic Brands.
[7]: PRN Healthcare, "3 Sustainable Scrubs for Medical Professionals," Mediclo's environmentally-focused manufacturing and mission.
[8]: FIGS Corporate Website, Company mission and brand positioning.
[9]: FIGS 2024 Investor Deck, Section on tariff impacts and margin protection strategy.
[10]: FIGS 2024 Investor Deck, International expansion roadmap.
[11]: FIGS Corporate Newsroom, Community Hub retail strategy announcement.
[12]: FIGS Corporate Website, TEAMS B2B division overview.
[13]: Business Wire, "FIGS Appoints Jerry Jao to Board of Directors," Background on Jao's expertise in AI-driven marketing.
[14]: LinkedIn profiles of Jessica Clary and Scott Edwards, FIGS executive team responsibilities.
[15]: Harvard Business Review, "The New Science of Customer Emotions," Research on brand marketing's extended impact timeline.
[16]: McKinsey & Company, "The Next Normal: Retail's Digital-Led Recovery from COVID-19," Challenges of international market entry with limited data.
[17]: Gartner Research, "B2B Marketing Attribution: Strategies for Multitouch Measurement," Analysis of B2B attribution challenges.
[18]: Journal of Marketing Research, "Measuring the Impact of Offline Advertising on Online Conversions," Research on cross-channel halo effects.
[19]: FIGS 2024 Investor Deck, CFO commentary on promotional reduction strategy.
[20]: FIGS Earnings Call, Q4 2024, Discussion of Japan and South Korea entry strategy.
[21]: FIGS Corporate Strategy Document, TEAMS growth objectives and challenges.
[22]: Business Insider, "How Jaanuu is positioning itself as the 'Nike of scrubs'," Details on executive hires from Nike.
[23]: Retail Dive, "Inside Fabletics' strategy to disrupt healthcare apparel," VIP membership model analysis.
[24]: Los Angeles Business Journal, "Healthcare Apparel Players See Premium Growth," Medelita and Mediclo competitive positioning.
[25]: Fospha marketing measurement white paper, "The Future of Marketing Measurement in a Post-Cookie World."