What does "Doing Things" mean in 2025?
In the absence of Outdoor Voices telling their own story on social media, followers have stepped in to do it for them.
When Outdoor Voices wiped their Instagram grid a few weeks back and re-followed founder Ty Haney, the speculations started swirling almost immediately. A post from popular marketing Instagram PEOPLE BRANDS AND THINGS detailed the clues that Ty might be returning, with 200 commenters excitedly writing notes like “thank god” and “she is needed, respectfully”. It’s one of the account’s most popular posts.
As expected, Outdoor Voices officially announced the return of Ty on July 27th with an engaging narrative video. It has over 21K likes and 1.5K comments. It’s a comeback followers clearly felt invested in. Musician Maggie Rogers commented “❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️”. I was excited to follow along.
Two weeks later, the engagement on the account has steeply declined. Yesterday’s Reel sits at around 180 likes. What happened?
To understand, we have to go back to 2020. When Ty left Outdoor Voices that year, so did a lot of the online fandom around the brand. A testament to her influence. It’s been a long time since people have thought about “Doing Things”, the brand slogan that became a brand movement. With Ty’s return, I think many wondered what this new era would look like. The initial announcement video felt like an opening of that door—a chance for a reintroduction.
Instead of continuing to dive deeper into this new Outdoor Voices identity, the social media presence took a sharp turn into product imagery and quick-turn trend videos. For example, the collection announcement video is a compilation of e-commerce photos set to Missy Elliott’s “Pass That Dutch”, the song from the scene in Mean Girls when The Plastics are introduced. No campaign storytelling to be found. Meanwhile, nearly half of the Instagram posts so far either show or mention Joggy or TYB, the other companies that Ty has founded. The presence so far paints a fuzzy picture of what “Doing Things” means in 2025.
To be clear, I am not calling out or blaming the social team here. As we all know, there are a lot of stakeholders that make up a strategy. This work is hard! I do think there are learnings here for brands beyond Outdoor Voices though.
Last week, Feed Me author Emily Sundberg wrote about a new kind of holy grail comment for a brand to receive on social media: “now THIS is marketing”. I’ve seen it show up on posts like this from Tracksmith, this from Skims, and this from Crown Affair. We are posting in an era where a consumer wants to step into a world. They demand to be delighted. It’s not about budget or production value—it’s about effort. Followers know they are being marketed to and they believe brands should put in the work to earn their attention. Accounts like Topicals, Merit, and Jacquemus have all excelled at this.
Outdoor Voices fans are craving a story. What inspired the new collection? Who designed it? Is there a creative through line? What kind of world are they building? Who is a part of their community?
In the absence of the brand telling their own story on social media, customers have stepped in to do it for them. Comments now call out Ty’s friendship with Elon Musk and share frustrations over the the lack of size inclusivity. Without a clear vision coming through, reach dwindles. Followers are left to collect the crumbs and craft their own narrative.
When I asked Ochuko Akpovbovbo, author of business newsletter as seen on, what she thought of the strategy, she offered a different perspective. She argued that “OG millennial diehards aren’t the brand’s focus anymore.” It’s true that many commenters note that the collection feels like a departure from the brand they loved years ago. She went on to say, “What you’re seeing—not just in the engagement drop but in the negative sentiment in the comments—is a classic case of a brand shedding its old audience before it’s built a new one. I’d be surprised if Gen Zs any younger than me even know what Outdoor Voices is—and that’s the audience they’ve got to start building.”
Regardless of the audience Outdoor Voices is either hoping to retain or gain, the energy that a brand puts into their social media can ultimately tell a consumer a lot. It’s more quiet than what a caption reads or a video visualizes. It’s a feeling. A brand that consistently posts with intention shows a follower that they are equally disciplined about how they create their product. It builds trust. It shows people you’re doing things.
Here’s what else is in today’s newsletter:
The brands are not okay on Threads
Five post formats to try this week
A conversation with InStyle about season three of The Intern and how they garnered 7M views
The job post that says “You are going to be micro-led like crazy until you’ve earned trust”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Link in Bio to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.