The Pro Files: How Designer Hila Klein Balances Her Brand Teddy Fresh and Her YouTube Career (Exclusive)

You may recognize her from H3 Podcast, or maybe you’ve visited TeddyFresh.com, or maybe you’ve seen her brand worn by fashion stars like Heidi Klum herself. Regardless, Hila Klein left an impact on both the fashion and creative community.

After rising to YouTube fame with her husband Ethan Klein — with whom she is currently expecting their third son — through their joint channel H3H3Productions, the 35-year-old Israeli-born designer created streetwear brand Teddy Fresh in 2017.

But the Los Angeles-based brand — known for high-quality products and, of course, teddy bears — started from a more unusual place.

“At the time, Ethan, my husband and I were just making YouTube videos. That was our main and only thing at one time. We just did a video a week and worked on it together. But it took off and got pretty big,” the CEO tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“But during the two weeks when the Adpocalypse happened, the revenue dropped by 80%, which was just crazy,” she says, referring to the phenomenon in 2017 when YouTube restructured its advertising guidelines, which saw many creators see drastic reduction in advertising revenue.

“And it kind of shook us because all of a sudden you realize that you’re completely in the hands of this company and you don’t know what could happen at any moment,” she says. “You always hear that you want to diversify, but it was a real moment where we felt like, ‘Okay, we have to do other ways to not have everything in one basket.'”

Gilbert Flores/Penske Media via Getty

Using a “let’s just try to do it and see what happens” attitude, Hila dove into fashion with Teddy Fresh and Ethan, 38, got into podcasting, where he’s now a podcasting mastermind running a massive H3 Podcast.

“And much to our surprise, both of them actually took to it and became our main thing now, which is pretty crazy,” says Hila.

Six years after Adpocolypse, with her Magic: The Gathering collaboration and an upcoming appearance at ComplexCon this weekend in Long Beach, California, the CEO spoke with us about all things Teddy Fresh.

Is fashion something you’ve always been passionate about?

Growing up, I always cared about it, but I didn’t have a lot of money — my parents were on the side of the problem. Mom sometimes had a little money, so I’d rather she didn’t buy me a bunch of things, but one nice thing. I always cared about that.

Daddy Bruening

Where did you start from when building Teddy Fresh?

What originally inspired me was that I just wanted to make things that I could buy – that were quite affordable, but also really high quality for the price, and just fun, colorful, playful, creative. I’ve always loved vintage things and I felt there was a world where you could combine elements of the playfulness of vintage clothing and make it more accessible. And so I just noticed that I couldn’t find what I wanted and went from there.

What challenges did you face creating Teddy Fresh?

There were all kinds of challenges. One is the growth problem of a growing company. It takes time to figure out which positions you need in the first place. At first I had no idea. I had never worked in a fashion company or dealt with anything in fashion, so I didn’t even know what a company was supposed to look like or what the different departments and positions within each department were.

Cindy Romero

So how did it work to run this company with no previous experience?

You just learn along the way. Something happens, and then you realize, ‘Oh, that’s something we have to deal with. It’s something we have to make sure doesn’t happen again.’ Quality control, testing, things that you don’t immediately think of when you just think of beautiful design — there are so many other steps that go into getting a really good product at the end, even shipping.

What is the challenge of selling clothes online compared to selling clothes in stores?

When you shop online, you don’t get to go into a store and try something on or feel it, so you’re gambling as a customer. It’s really important to give people really good customer support.

What does a typical day in your life look like as CEO of Teddy Fresh?

Today, for example, was a bunch of fit meetings. We have different sessions with different models where we just fit whatever we have that week.

What are some other days in your life like?

Sometimes it can be a costing meeting where we review, ‘Okay, we’ve sent this new monthly discounted volume to the factories,’ we get the pricing back and we review, ‘Is this even going to work?’ Or if one style has a really high price and therefore a bad margin, then we work on the idea a little bit and decide, ‘Okay, maybe we need to remove some details or maybe the wash here isn’t necessary, and we can do it without the wash and then cover the cost.’ So, there are all kinds of such meetings.

As CEO, I’m sure you’re involved in everything at Teddy Fresh — what’s that like?

I am very involved in design and all creative. I meet with the design team every time we launch a new collection and we have several meetings from concept to sketch review and actually all the way to handover, where we hand over the finished design collection to the development and production team. That’s a lot. It’s just a work in progress. Obviously there’s marketing that I’m involved in as well. I review marketing concepts and models and photoshoot ideas and social media plans, for example, I decide on new collaborations that we want to pursue. It’s really kind of endless.

How do you balance running a fashion brand while being part of a large online community?

I just optimize my schedule and know that I have a certain amount of time each week and just prioritize. If there’s something I can’t be, I’ll make sure someone else can be there or send me notes, or I’ll review it later in the evening. It all depends on the schedule, and my calendar is my weekly Bible. I check what’s on the calendar tomorrow and sort of plan the day in my head.

Cindy Romero

How do you find time for H3 Podcast?

I’ve kind of reduced my presence with the podcast since Teddy Fresh became my main thing. And so I mostly only do the podcast on Fridays, so I know I don’t work at Teddy Fresh on Fridays. It’s like my day off there and a podcast day.

I’m sure that H3 Podcast community supports Teddy Fresh — what’s it like to have that community while having a fashion brand?

It’s amazing to see and it’s kind of like our built-in marketing mechanism. It’s really great.

What are your long-term goals with Teddy Fresh?

My goal has always been to make a brand that can last for years, as I’ve seen brands come and go, especially in streetwear. You’ll find that sometimes something really gains traction out of nowhere and then disappears. I’ve always had a lot of admiration for brands that can stick around for the long haul.

How is it to see famous stars like Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandall and Heidi Klum wearing your brand?

It’s so surreal. I can’t even put it into words because I watched Project runway as a kid in Israel, and I never thought in a million years that I would have a clothing line back then, not even a chance.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Source: HIS Education