How Darn Tough Vermont's loyalty program drives 13% of total revenue

We spoke to their Ecomm Experience Manager, Kevin Dean, to discover his strategy

Darn Tough Vermont holds the number one rank in Hike socks (Circana), with a community of hikers, runners, tradespeople and skiers. Over 90% of people finishing the Appalachian Trail do it in Darn Tough Vermont socks.

The brand spent two decades building that reputation through retail. They only launched darntough.com in 2016, and saw DTC as a major growth opportunity to support sales across all channels and build direct relationships with the customers who already loved the brand.

Darn Tough Vermont had wanted a loyalty program for years. The thing holding them back was an assumption that running it properly would need a dedicated hire, and that hire wasn't on the cards.

So, adopting a program kept getting pushed. Eventually, Kevin Dean, Ecommerce Experience Manager at Darn Tough Vermont, took it on alongside the rest of his role.

They launched with LoyaltyLion in June 2024, and the workload turned out to be a fraction of what the team had feared.

The program runs across three tiers named after sock heights: Quarter Club, Boot Troop, and Over The Calf (OTC). Spend more to climb the tiers and you unlock:

• More points per dollar, scaling from 5 at entry to 9 at OTC

• Bonus points on birthdays, referrals and reviews

• Early access to new launches, ecom exclusives and sales

Want the same for your brand? Let's chat.

LoyaltyLion's integration with Klaviyo pulls tier and points data straight into Darn Tough Vermont's email flows, powering personalized comms that convert better.

The LoyaltyLion program channels this genuine passion into reliable revenue growth, advocacy, and even stickier customers.

This passionate customer community readily shares ‘Darn It’ stories - the outstanding moments that Darn Tough Vermont socks have helped customers through tough treks and trying times!

Darn Tough Vermont are number one in Hike, and want the same in Run, Work and Lifestyle.

Visiting key collection pages like Merino Wool and Run earns points, helping nudge existing fans toward categories they might not realize Darn Tough Vermont make socks for.

Quality is central to Darn Tough Vermont's reputation, and that reputation drives both retention and acquisition. The loyalty program is built to keep that flywheel turning, by rewarding the customer feedback that fuels product iteration:

• The sock quiz earns members points while educating them on which sock fits which activity, and surfaces useful intent data on what customers are looking for

• The consumer panel earns members points for answering detailed questions on their preferences, pain points and what they own, feeding directly into product development

That feedback loop helps Darn Tough Vermont keep refining best-sellers like the Micro Crew Midweight Hiker, which has gone through close to 30 iterations over the years. Better socks bring customers back, and bring new ones in.

Darn Tough Vermont customers were already telling friends about the brand on trail.

The referral program puts structure around that behavior and rewards it: $5 off for the new customer, 600 loyalty points for the referrer.

This approach has brought 8,000 new customers to the brand, at a fraction of the cost of paid acquisition.

For brands with durable products, strong retail presence, or loyal communities, a loyalty program can do more than chase a second purchase.

It can fuel category expansion, formalize word-of-mouth, and capture the feedback that improves the product.

Design your program around the behaviors that actually grow your business, and pick a platform flexible enough to support them. LoyaltyLion can help - let's chat.