INCH2: The Brand That Had Everything Except A Foundation

They say that the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. But the second worst?

Watching something never reach its full potential. Like a runner hot out of the starting blocks, only to fall during the first leg of the race. I’m not talking about a person, I’m talking about the now-defunct footwear brand INCH2.

THE RISE

Launched in Latvia in 2014. It was a small operation, handcrafting leather boots. From the outset, this brand was doing what many of their contemporaries were still trying to figure out: building demand online first. Their made-to-order model was not simply a clever production choice. It was a strategy that reduced inventory costs while allowing the brand to learn exactly what its customers wanted.

On paper, it was smart. As demand reached a fever pitch, production moved to Portugal to keep up. Suddenly, the brand was appearing throughout European fashion circles. They appeared at Riga Fashion Week and started expanding into multiple markets across Europe and the Americas.

From the outside, the brand appeared to be thriving.

WHEN IT ALL FALLS DOWN

But by the late 2010s, the momentum began to stall. Then the conversation around INCH2 began to change. Customers across Europe and the US began reporting delayed orders and undelivered purchases. Refunds were moving at a glacial pace, if they were processed at all.

When complaints begin to accumulate across multiple channels, they are difficult to dismiss as isolated incidents. The pattern was a sign that the brand’s operational problems were becoming impossible to ignore.

By March 2022, the company’s operating entity, SIA Anima Forti, had entered insolvency. The complaints? Longer than a CVS receipt.

INCH2’s rise was remarkably brief.

Rapid growth sounds like a dream, until the infrastructure underneath the business cannot support it. Ask any founder whose website crashed the morning after a celebrity wore their product.

INCH2 didn’t need a celebrity endorsement to boost popularity. Its demand was organic, but the lack of adequate systems exposed the same underlying vulnerability.

THE LESSON

When a brand grows faster than its systems, demand can become a liability rather than an asset.

INCH2 had the vision. The product. The demand.

What INCH2 demonstrated is that systems and execution are non-negotiable. Customer relationship management is not separate from the brand experience. It is part of it.