UPDATE: This post was published in 2016. Miki Agrawal did step down from THINX as “SHE-EO” after sexual harassment allegations but seems to have a more behind the scenes role.
When menstruation makes the news you can bet that THINX, the company that made period panties a household name, will be mentioned. (We’re sure there’s a drinking game in here somewhere.) The success of the company is thanks in part to risqué visuals and a rabid fan base who turned their own passion for the products into “blood money.” Last month those fans found their blood money banks robbed — one losing as much as $22,000 in gift cards earned by referring blog readers to the product. Let us fill you in on how THINX used their most loyal fans to build their brand and then turned their backs on them.
2015 has been called The Year of The Period, and for good reason. From Donald Trump’s off-color remarks and women live-tweeting their periods to a boom in menstrual cup brands and the rise of the period panty, people of all genders are beginning to question why the word “menstruation” carries so much taboo.
The times really are changing – and fast.
All of this momentum came to a peak in the fall of 2015 when a new company hit the menstrual market and the media circuits in a big way. THINX period panties were e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e, and it seems that they’re still successfully riding every menstrual related viral wave as it comes. Articles have been published on a laundry list of major websites (Bustle, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Refinery29, and Glamour to name a few) and founder Miki Agrawal has appeared on several news shows sharing her entrepreneurial story. It wasn’t long at all before blogs picked up the story and reviews began to flood in, with headlines like “I Tried ‘Period-Proof Underwear’—and It Actually Worked” and “Screw Tampons! I Tried Thinx Period Panties“.
If the buzz wasn’t enough to get people trying their products, their enticing referral program was.
It seemed that THINX wasn’t holding back on making their mark. They generously offered customers the chance to give a friend $10 off of their first order while being able to earn panty money for their word-of-mouth advertising. “When they make a purchase you’ll also get a $10 THINX gift card as a reward! Pretty straightforward. Go on, now. Get that guap. You deserve it.” read the email.
Considering that their underwear run $24-$38 a pop, the ability to earn a free pair or two sounds great. Bloggers were quick to shell out their own money to review these buzz worthy new period underwear and, as bloggers tend to do, they used the referral program made available to them. (Who doesn’t love free underwear that rocks and that has been credited for “revolutionizing periods”?) THINX also actively recruited blog and vlog reviews through a PR agency.
“I had been asked about THINX several times by readers so when their PR person asked for a call to discuss a review and giveaway I figured ‘why not’. I spent 30 minutes chatting and the PR person was quick to offer free THINX for me to review, and she wanted a video review. When I mentioned I had fees for a giveaway she didn’t seem as pleased, but asked me to send that information. I didn’t hear from her again for 6 whole months, by which time I’d already purchased a pair, published a review, and earned hundreds of $10 gift codes.” — Kim, Dirty Diaper Laundry
As you might imagine, one only needs a certain quantity of even the most comfortable underwear. Period or otherwise.
As posts went menstrual-viral THINX sales were beginning to roll in. Lauren of lo-wren.com has received more than $37,000 in THINX codes to date. She was one of the earlier reviewers who also saw huge traffic on her review. In fact, she was so impressed with the marketing that she included them on not one, but two articles on her professional website about brands to follow with great marketing strategies.
As the sales rolled in, it was quickly becoming clear that their affiliate program and marketing strategy had a fatal flaw.
Kim said that she had reached out to THINX in an attempt to find a good solution before things got out of hand. She realized that if she used all of the codes she had amassed, along with the possibility of others doing the same, THINX would quickly be out tens of thousands of dollars in product. She decided to consult with them regarding the possibility of a more traditional affiliate program, where referrers typically earn 5-10%, which should be a far cry from $10 per sale regardless of the order value.
With their program a new customer would receive $10 off of their order (plus free shipping) and the new sale would earn the referrer $10 as well. With their cheapest product being just $24, THINX is very nearly in the red on a single purchase, and most of the new customers we’ve heard from bought just one of the product to try them out. THINX was likely hemorrhaging money on this program, and they must have known it.
@SheTHINX Thanks to your referral program, I’ve/you’ve been able to donate over $1600 in #periodpanties to the women @LaurelPA serves! 🙂
— Lauren B. Stevens (@LaurenBStevens) December 30, 2015
“I used to run a blog as a hobby, but like so many others I found a way to turn it into a career. It afforded me the ability to stay home with my kids and it truly became my livelihood. I look for ways that my blog can work for me, including adding affiliate links to the products I write about.” said Kim. She explained that she had written to THINX when she began seeing a surge in traffic to her blog review. “In early April I emailed THINX and asked them if they were considering, or would consider, an affiliate program for bloggers. I knew that their current model made financial sense for their company for those who shared the link with friends on Facebook but for me, and other blogs, it didn’t. After all, we can’t eat panties, and we can’t pay bills with ‘blood money’. I wanted to see if we could make a mutually beneficial program that wouldn’t cause them to lose money.” THINX replied that they were discontinuing their current program, and said they would be in touch if other opportunities arose.
The $10 referrals didn’t stop immediately. They continued to arrive for two and a half weeks, sometimes as many as 20-50 per day, and then something changed. THINX revamped their referral system, with one noticeable change.
Something had changed…
As of April 28th, and this writing, those referring friends and fans to THINX earn a $10 coupon code, but only towards a single purchase. Codes are no longer considered “Gift Cards” and are no longer combined nor accrued in user’s account to be combined (which is standard on ecommerce sites that utilize social referral programs). The change effectively made it impossible to even earn a single pair of underwear. It essentially made the program useless to the referrers – blogger or not.“What can I do with over 100 $10 off coupons? I don’t even have that many friends who could/would order to share them with.” said one referral program user.
“I sent about $100 in Thinx codes from my bank of codes (my email where each individual code is sent once earned) to my hairdresser. The next day she messaged me to say they wouldn’t work and showed up as disabled. I was confused but when I started clicking the codes in my email each one showed up as disabled, every single one I clicked. I was so embarrassed about the situation and apologized to my hairdresser. Later 3 other friends I had sent codes to came to me with the same story and again I had to apologize. I was humiliated and felt robbed by the company I’d been shouting from the rooftops for months.” – Kim
Writer Lauren shares, “I received a call from Maria Carreon on the evening of Wednesday, May 4. She introduced herself and said that she was calling because the THINX website had been hacked, information had been leaked (not mine, though) and that they had to change the referral program as a result.”
“She asked if they could donate the over $22k I had amassed in [now deactivated] gift codes to both of my charities, in an equivalent amount of product, and she asked for the sizes both of my organizations needed and for me to send her my contacts at both agencies so that she could arrange shipment with them. I sent an email, asking if THINX would consider giving a small monetary donation to my local women’s shelter, in lieu of panties, as they’re currently embroiled in a legal battle and could use the money. She never addressed that nor did she confirm that donations were sent. I was told to let her know the gift code amount I needed to satisfy the two blog giveaways I had going on. The next morning, I went in to see if I could just purchase those with gift codes myself, but none of my over $22k in gift codes worked, as they had been disabled. Maria did re-issue the gift cards I needed [for the giveaway], but that was the last I heard from her.”
Lauren was not alone in her experience with THINX. When the program was changed, blogger Kim had approximately $2,000 in gift cards deactivated and nearly 120 $10 unstackable coupon codes accrued before she could even get an email out to THINX. Even as of this writing, friends and bloggers are just now discovering that the codes they earned are no longer valid.
Even as recent as this week THINX is actively reaching out to bloggers and customers, encouraging them to join their now defunct program. This email makes the program seem worthwhile without disclosing any of the “fine print”.
Now you may be wondering how this applies to you and why you should care that bloggers aren’t making panty money.
We, consumers, love to support brands that have strong ethics and generally ‘do good’ in the world. We like to feel that we can trust the brands we support and trust that they’ll honor our patronage with integrity.
The thing here is that, like companies have done since the dawn of time, THINX utilized word-of-mouth marketing to build their company. This is a legitimate method of marketing and the internet offers a social twist that is highly effective — and brands know it. That’s why companies offer such lucrative referral programs. First time buyers are enticed to buy their products with a significant discount while the people referring them (the word-of-mouth sales people) are compensated by sharing their love of the products – driving sales in big volumes!
“While Agrawal won’t share specific sales figures (Thinx is a private company), she says it has sold “hundreds of thousands of pairs” of period panties “for multiple millions of dollars.” The staff has grown from five employees to 30 in the past six months.” – a quote Agrawal in from NY Magazine’s The CUT
As you can see, word-of-mouth advertising can add up to big results, especially in THINX’s case. When the product has to be used to be believed, a first hand referral from a trusted friend or blogger means everything to the average consumer.
Consider this….
America’s number one coffee destination is Starbucks. Whether you’re a fan or not, you’ve likely been there at least once. Starbucks offers a rewards program where members have the ability to earn stars which can be used to purchase free drinks or treats. As it happens, Starbucks also recently changed their rewards program. Thankfully Starbucks had the integrity to honor their current system and loyal customers while making the change.
Imagine for a moment that they had not and caffeine addicts all across America had lost out on their earned shots of espresso and deliciously crumbly pastries. People would have been rightfully upset that what they had been given, and had made a conscious decision to earn, had been taken away. Whether it’s panties, coffee, or actual money – what has been earned and given should not be taken back. It shows a lack of integrity, ethics, and respect for their customers.
Agrawal’s cunning marketing prowess and business savvy has made THINX a household name, but at what cost?
Menstrual hygiene is a 20 billion dollar a year industry and THINX is spending big bucks – just not by honoring the customers whose backs they built their brand on. They’re currently running ads in Union Square, Google Adwords (and other networks) — there’s even a good chance you may be seeing one of their ads now. We’ll take their pennies.
While the catalyst for this article was their deceptive referral program, THINX isn’t afraid to bend the rules. As many consumers have pointed out, THINX heavily advertises their product as a way to truly manage periods – even going so far as to say that they can be a replacement for tampons and pads and illustrating how many tampons worth of blood each panty holds. Yet their less obvious print suggests that it’s ideal for backup and you should “#knowyourflow”.
Additionally, Agrawal was the host of an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit and users were quick to point out what they perceived as deceptive practices and plain old bullshit.
Another component that this AMA brought into question was their charitable aspect. Speaking on their partnership with AFRIpads in an I AM MARIE interview, Aragwal says, “When we first started talking to them they had 25 employees and now they have 165 so we’ve helped over 45,000 girls go back to school.” THINX is quick to claim AFRIpads’ success as their own, yet several companies have been helping to support them long before THINX was in existence — including Aisle, who has long offered period panties as a menstrual care option.
I’m honestly not sure where this leaves bloggers like myself, customers, or THINX.
I have been advocating for reusable menstrual products for years, and as exciting as it is to see safer, reusable menstruation products becoming more mainstream I can’t help but feel that we’ve all been betrayed… and I didn’t even use their program. I give props to THINX for their part in blowing the menstrual conversation up, but it’s disheartening to watch them build their company on the good faith of consumers and writers, and then turn them away because they were no longer needed. Commutations attempts have been ignored and trust has been broken.
When speaking to Kim and Lauren, the bloggers whose experiences sparked this, we weren’t even sure if this should be shared. I’m not into calling out people and stirring drama, but at the end of the day this is a community that I – we – care very much about and we feel that consumers have the right to know the ethics of the companies that they choose to support, especially when the company is so good at painting themselves in a good light.
I was the recipient of a few pairs of THINX, gifted to me by Kim, and they are a product that I found to work for me, but the brands I choose to support and share need to be more than a good product. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that THINX is not on my list.
63 Responses
What would your other options be?? I am allergic to both absorbent material and adhesive in all pads but the organic ones which can’t be found where I am, tried multiple cups and have no success due to anatomy issues and the organic tampons I use aren’t available here either. Was just about to buy some Thinx and was hoping you had another suggestion.
I’ve been using Thinx, but based on this article I checked out the Lunapads site. Here’s the link. http://lunapads.com/?geoip_country=CA
This was another link I found from following a link in this article, I think you might find it helpful too, and it has links to the products. http://www.refinery29.com/alternative-period-supplies
I really like Thinx. I like that they help women. At the end of the day, the service they offer to women in need and the product itself is amazing– as a backup or no. Sorry some privileged people got embarrassed that their coupons didn’t work. Seems trifling to whine about it. Instead of trying to promote division and negativity, let’s appreciate the bigger picture, which is that there’s FINALLY a variety of products that help women live their best lives during menstruation.
Dear BB — I have no pony in this race but I am betting you do. Why else support abusing hard working people who supported this company and say they should just suck it up when they have been lied and cheated. There are other great companies that help women live their best lives during menstruation and because I believe in morals and ethics I will instead support them rather than Thinx.
I am also appalled at your post. It seeps of jealousy and negatively. Thank you for writing this so now I know not to buy any of your products and support your business.
When bloggers share such things that give clear reasons why they have turned their backs on a company I take notice. I will not be supporting that company in any way at this point because if they can’t honor their promise to those who helped promote them, then I am would bet quality of their product and promises to the customer will be horrible as well at some point.
On eBay, a woman had bought the wrong size, and thinx wouldn’t take them back, even though they hadn’t been opened. Typical business people with a socialist mindset. It never sinks into their thick little heads that customers can go somewhere else. Or worse yet, start their OWN business making underwear that’s as good. Right now, thinx really is light years beyond the competition and so they think they are the cats meow. When, and not if, a real competitor or two comes on the scene, they’ll be in for a rude awakening.
I had purchased 7 pairs for my daughter and they ended up being too small. They gave me credit to repurchase in the correct size and told me to gift or donate the smaller ones. I had a positive experience.
I also had a positive experience! I ordered 5, 4 of which were too large, and they told me to keep all of them, donate or give away the ones that did not fit, and issued me the full amount back as a credit to get the correct size, and gave me a free shipping code. I re-ordered in the smaller size and have been happy with the product, and the customer service I received on each of my (now 4) orders.
This article is awful. Whining about not making thousands of dollars off of referral clicks. Really. Entitled. The company would go bankrupt paying that all out and it would ruin their mission to donate to girls in Africa who can’t afford to buy menstrual products, and can continue going to school because of those donations.
Does the blogger really feel that she is entitled to that money more than the girls are entitled to receive donations so they can stay in school- the girls that Thinx has committed to?
This article is in extremely poor taste. Even the woman who was “embarrassed” because the codes she gave her hairdresser did not work…. *eye roll*.
agreed. well said. Thanks for sharing. eeycee in Australia. I’m gonna give them a go 🙂
I have been using reusable menstrual products for over ten years – a combination of cloth pads, a menstrual cup, and the period underwear from LunaPads; so when a new product came out I was definitely interested. However, the steep price tag (I’m in Canada) always kept me from actually buying, though I followed them on social media. I went from being curious and excited by a new type of period underwear to completely turned off by their antics. From serious failings in customer service (orders not being delivered for months, questions being ignored via email and Facebook) to their insistence in every article I read that they alone have “revolutionized” period care with their products (such a shameless lie! and shame on all the bloggers and writers who didn’t even perform a cursory fact-check before posting their gushing articles. The endless shilling, hustling and stumping felt gross and forced to me. I stopped being interested in trying their product when I realized that they were misleading people into believing that Thinx could be worn without any other protection. $40 is a lot of money for something that’s just “back-up”.
Anyway thanks for posting this. Very affirming to read that my instincts about this company were actually correct.
I wear them all the time without any other protection, on my heaviest days.. and never had a problem :/
Women’s cycles vary considerably. What one woman might consider heavy, is light for another. Our body shapes, flow etc are all different. I have two pairs and they are certainly a ‘back up’ for me. I so wish they were more but I tried without any other protection and i soon got leaks (where traditional pad wings would be). They are a very expensive ‘back up’ product for me.
I wont be chucking them in the bin because 1) I paid so much for them, 2) they provide a ‘comfy’ backup. But I wont be recommending them and I wont be a return customer.
I’m really turned off of you by this article. I get that it’s an opinion piece. But the whole refer a friend thing was obviously not intended to be used in your own media for personal gain. You took advantage of this company to get more hits and now that it’s backfired on you, you’re trashing this company. That’s trashy.
Seems you didn’t read the article. The author clearly states she is writing about what other bloggers experienced. She even correctly has quotes from the other bloggers. She also clearly states she tried contacting the company and was ignored.
It’s sad bloggers write to people who can’t comprehend the text.
agreed. racking up thousands of promo bucks is ridiculous! Ripping off a start-up is really poor taste.
I agree, this article comes across as being in poor, grabby taste.
I think the bigger issue here is that you are trying to divide a great community. Instead of calling them out on their mistakes as a brand new company, why can’t you as a community offer to help them out. Clearly they have issues, but so do a lot of startups. I think this is really in poor taste and makes you seem lower because you feel the need to share to the world what they did.
She did try “helping them out” by reaching out to them but she didn’t get any response from them after multiple attempts….as stated in the article.
Miki Agrawhal’s behaviour deserves no respect or support. As CEO it is her responsibility to treat employees with dignity and for sure not implement marketing plans without the money to back it up. Like all CEOs sitting with staff, investors, and hearing from CFO what’s not working, she knew what was going on. She is not a victim.
Her company after all was only 35 people.
Exactly. This post came up in my Google search results and as a repeat customer of Thinx I think it’s in a very poor taste. Way to shame and criticize a good company while plastering your blog with massive amount of ads that make reading the page almost impossible. This whole blog is in poor taste. You should be ashamed of your entitled attitude.
It sounds like maybe Thinx got in over their heads with their promotional program and just really didn’t understand how they had messed up until it was too late. I never would have thought one person would refer over 2,200 different first time customers.
$10 off a purchase not to be combined with other offers vs giving people $10 in general towards product is a huge difference. Embarassing, but maybe they’d have been better off issuing an apology and admitting they couldn’t stay in business while handing out $ just for referrals.
Great write up! “The brands I choose to support and share need to be more than a good product”.
I wholeheartedly agree!