Erin Dodd

The first decade was spent inside the fashion industry: product development, design, sourcing, and production for brands selling through Target, Macy's, and Nordstrom. Two of those years were spent in China, building factory relationships firsthand, opening sample rooms, and running the design department on the ground. That's not something you learn from a vendor list. It's how you learn to manage timelines, margins, and quality when there's no buffer between you and the production floor.

From there, the work shifted into DTC and ecommerce. Shopify builds, brand identity systems, Klaviyo, growth strategy, creative direction. The brands that needed the most help were the ones selling direct and trying to figure out the entire business at once. That's still the sweet spot.

Blonde Amazon was founded in 2016. The practice is part strategic consultancy, part creative studio, depending on what the brand needs. Senior-level on every engagement. No agency layers, no junior hand-offs.

Along the way, there was a stint at Houlihan Lokey as AVP of Global Marketing, leading content strategy and building AI systems. That's where the institutional perspective came from: how brands get valued, acquired, and positioned when real money is on the table. Most brand consultants have never seen that side.

The longest client relationship is 10 years and counting. A two-week project gets the same rigor as a year-long retainer. Scope changes. Standards don't.