U.K.-Based $72 Million Online Clothing Brand Snag Set To Grow In Europe, Asia And U.S.

Snag, an ethically designed and inclusively sized online clothing brand with $72 million in 2025 revenue and 2.5 million consumers globally, is set to scale in Europe and the U.S. with predictions of $350 million in revenue in five years and stores on three continents. The brand’s fans buy a pair of its transformative tights every 10 seconds.

The company, which is based in the U.K., will have in 2025 year-over-year growth of 10%. “We started in 2018, and went from $0 to $72 million,” said founder and CEO Brie Read. “It’s grown quite quickly. Our next big step next year is opening shops. We’ll start in the U.K. In five years I’d like to be at $350 million in revenue and building shops in Europe, Asia and the U.S.”

This past year, Snag has been concentrating on profitability and growing its base of customers. Snag is sold on Amazon and via direct to consumer on its ecommerce site.

“Snag has exploded in growth by building one of the most connected communities in fashion,” said Juan Pellerano-Rendón, chief marketing officer of Swap. “Their powerful Instagram and TikTok presence has shaped a brand that’s radically inclusive and universally resonant. The Snag Besties community Instagram channel alone has 2,400 superfans who sign up for daily updates – community loyalty most brands can only dream of.”

In addition to tights, Snag offers a vast array of clothing, including leggings, underwear, tops, skirts, dresses, bottoms and jeans – which were three years in the making – all tested on real people sizes 0 to 34, with tights going up to size 32.

“We revolutionized tights,” said Read, whose inspiration for the company came when her tights fell down on a shopping trip in the U.K. “It was very embarrassing,” she said. “I tried to work out why tights don’t fit people properly and I found out that they are all the same width and just vary in length.”

There are 40 different novelty styles of tights alone, including those with skull patterns and snake prints. Leggings include squat-proof varieties that are entirely opaque and soft with deep pockets and a thick waistband that won’t roll down. The leggings are made from sustainable fibers and designed to fit all sizes. They’re stretchy and comfortable and won’t sag or dig into the skin.

“We really focus on getting the fit right and that means there’s less waste in landfills and less emotional difficulties,” Read said. “When it doesn’t fit it’s a really sad experience.”

There’s an economic opportunity to capture plus-size women that brands and retailers are acknowledging. “In the U.K., and I’m sure it’s the same in the U.S., 60% of people are over a size 16,” Read said. “Fashion is really going to a small minority of people. The majority of consumers are larger. We like to help people that don’t have a voice. They see themselves in product ads and they want beautiful clothes that fit them.”

Read said she’s not interested in outside investment in the business. “A couple of people invested a very small amount, a tiny fraction of what the business is worth,” she said. “We don’t have any major investors.”

“It really is a passion and I don’t want to leave it,” she added. “We don’t need the money because we’ve been profitable from day one. We can make ethical decisions, whereas if you take a lot of someone else’s money, you’re beholden to them. It’s very important for us to continue to operate with compassion and ethics and we’re making enough money so that we can do that.”

“Snag is my job and my hobby,” Read said. “It’s kind of what I do 100% of the time. I have a team and I want to make the world a better place for them as they grow up. I don’t want them to feel like their bodies are ever wrong. Clothes don’t fit because your body is wrong, they don’t fit because the clothes are wrong.”

Snag is completely virtual. The entire business is run from WhatsApp. “We don’t operate like a normal business at all,” Read said. “The business is filled with introverts who want to work from home. It’s a very different business model and has a very flat structure. We make year-over-year gains by making our customers as happy as we can.”

The company is also focusing on durability and does extensive durability testing. The products “can be washed hundreds of times,” Read said. “It’s really important that you make clothing that will continue on and last. It’s attention to quality details.”

Snag uses a special knit that’s resistant to lathering for peak performance and longevity. “We have a lot of doctors and nurses and teachers that wear our product and that’s what they really love about it,” Read said. “You don’t have to worry about it falling down. We have great compression tights, which help if you’re on your feet all day, beautiful wool tights, marino wool tights, and moisture wicking tights.”

Making consumers happy is Read’s raison d’etre. The industry average return rate is 40%, Snag’s is 2%. Take denim, for example. “Everything fits and is made with a special technique,” she said. “It’s not stretch denim, its cloth denim and it’s designed in a completely different way. They fit in a way that’s really comfortable. Finally, I understand why women wear jeans and why they love them.”

Pieces are designed in Scotland and ethically made in Italy. Despite a U.S. nationwide loyal fan base via Amazon and DTC, Snag gets more than 100 complaints a day that the models in its ad campaigns are “too fat,” Read said. “People like to talk a lot about other people’s bodies. As you start talking to people about what inclusion means, you think, why shouldn’t a fat person be able to buy the same clothes as a thin person.”