Working at the NFL gave Rhone CEO Nate Checketts a pretty good lay of the land as far as men's activewear went. And what he saw was a big hole in the supply-side of the market. "Lululemon was really leading the charge" in marketing premium workout clothes to women, he said. "And then you had all of these brands that were there going after the same customer." But no one seemed to be doing that for men. "If you were to look at the men's side -- at, call it a 40% price premium to the Nike, Under Armour, Reebok, Adidas of the world -- it was crickets. It was nobody."

So Checketts co-founded Rhone, a clothing company meant to give guys threads that they can wear at the gym, in social settings or often both.

In this week’s episode of Making Marketing, Checketts talked about just how far back the DTC model goes, why it's easier than ever to go small (but harder than ever to go big) and the tough standards venture capitalists often judge brands by.