The Brand Substack Directory

A cultural and style digest exploring Gen Z through trend insights, guest editors, and AE's perspective. Launched with Casey Lewis (After School) as guest editor, then handed off to Tariro Makoni (Trademarked) for additional installments. CMO Craig Brommers has described the goal as making it "feel like a group chat" — Gen Z-targeted, behind-the-scenes data, and zero promo codes. The "rotating known Substack voices" model done at scale — and the most explicit acknowledgment from a major retailer that Substack is a different channel than social, requiring a different content strategy entirely.

Notable because it's a platform bet on a sub-brand, not the mothership. Anthropologie is treating Maeve as a full standalone brand with its own social, influencer, TV, and Substack presence. Watching whether Substack gets used for true editorial or becomes a glorified catalog.

A free music discovery newsletter from Bandcamp. The recurring "Cool Band Alert" series spotlights one artist per issue with a structured RIYL ("recommended if you like") format. Posts also include playlist of the week features, links to Bandcamp Daily editorial, and "The Helpline" — a monthly music advice column. The format is so well-suited to Bandcamp's mission of direct artist support that it almost reads like the most natural extension of the brand's existing editorial work, just delivered to inbox instead of website.

A daily chart analysis newsletter from Billboard's team of chart analysts and data experts. Spotlights the closest battles for No. 1 across Billboard's 200+ charts — Hot 100, Billboard 200, genre rankings, global rankings — plus the data and narratives behind viral moments and comeback stories. One of the few legacy media brands using Substack to extend its core editorial product rather than promote it. The proprietary chart data is the moat — no other publication can write this.

Arguably the best-in-class B2B brand Substack. Blackbird is a restaurant loyalty platform, and The Supersonic reads like a trade magazine: features, profiles, essays, interviews for the restaurant professional. Proof that brand Substacks can work outside fashion and beauty.

The visual inspiration app's bi-weekly cultural digest, tracing happenings across art, fashion, design, and "an odd number of heists." Editorial in tone — written like a curated gallery walkthrough rather than product marketing. Smart match between brand and format: Cosmos is a tool for slow, contextual visual curation, and the newsletter extends that same ethos into reading rather than scrolling.

The newsletter from Diem — a less-biased AI search and community app built for women. Tagline: "The Things We Don't Talk About." Weekly essays on technology, gender, and power, plus a twice-weekly roundup ("The Briefing") highlighting the most-discussed conversations in the Diem app. Edited by Kate Lindsay (Embedded), with regular essays from Diem co-founder Emma Bates and other contributors. One of the strongest examples of a brand publication where the editorial voice and the product voice are fully aligned — every newsletter pulls directly from real conversations happening in the Diem community.

The newsletter from Eadem, the beauty brand with skincare formulated for melanin-rich skin. Self-described as "more than just a newsletter — a space for conversations about hyperpigmentation, cultural beauty rituals, and everything in between." Recurring "Laying It Bare" interview series profiles women across the broader beauty and creative ecosystem. Builds community around the brand's stated purpose rather than treating the newsletter as a product channel — the editorial voice is squarely about who Eadem's community is, not what Eadem sells.

Smart because the newsletter isn't trying to stand alone. It's part of a literary series that extended into a hardcover book and book club partnerships. Hinge isn't using Substack to move product; it's using it to say something about love. That's the move.

Transmissions from "the little oyster farm, tinned fish cannery, caviar packer, and restaurant group that could" — the Duxbury, MA-based seafood operation. Niche by design, for the people who care deeply about where their oysters come from. An example of how small specialty food brands can use Substack as both a customer-loyalty channel and a tool for educating new audiences without needing scale.

The emergency contraception brand from Julie Schott (also co-founder of Starface) running an unusually committed editorial publication on sex, dating, and relationships. Tagline: "a dedicated space for discussing sex, love, relationships, and dating brought to you by your friends at Julie." Schott has cited the xoJane era as the reference point — voyeuristic, personal writing that takes the category seriously enough to write about it well. Features writers like Ivy Wolk. The clearest example of a women's-health brand using long-form editorial to carry brand work the product alone can't — destigmatizing through storytelling that fits the same playbook as Julie's broader Gen Z marketing.

The cultural-history play. Dispatches on the history of the pillow, beds in art, sleep news. Feels closer to a literary magazine than a product newsletter. Template for how a category-adjacent brand can own a larger cultural conversation.

The benchmark. The number cited anytime someone argues that brand-owned newsletters can build real audience. Career-focused women, interviews, work advice. Runs on a creator-collaboration model alongside in-house writing — external contributors like Maayan Zilberman (Red is Best) and Alison Cheperdak (Elevate Etiquette) regularly publish in The M Dash, bringing their own audiences with them. One of the few brand publications that has built scale by treating Substack's network effects as the strategy itself.

Tagline: "Made by us, for you." Madewell rotates known Substack writers as collaborators (including Sprezza's Clayton Chambers and Clare Richardson), running posts under both bylines. The collaboration model lets the brand borrow editorial credibility from established voices while keeping the brand byline on every issue. Smart middle path between in-house writing and pure guest editing.

The made-to-order shoe brand's Substack, focused on craft, fit philosophy, and the team's editorial point of view on style. Margaux has a small but loyal customer base; Substack is a natural fit for the kind of brand-building that doesn't need to convert immediately to drive long-term loyalty.

The fine jewelry brand's editorial Substack. Mejuri has consistently invested in long-form brand storytelling across blog, video, and now newsletter, which makes Substack a natural extension rather than a fresh start. One to watch for how DTC jewelry translates an aesthetic-driven brand voice into the Substack format.

One of the few brand Substacks aimed at parents, a massive underserved audience on the platform. Recent posts include "Diary of a Dad," profiling creators on their parenting routines. Smart angle: not about the monitor, about the life the monitor is part of. Also smart for a product category where trust and authenticity matter more than performance media.

"A bi-weekly publication dedicated to new sports writing." Launched quietly in June 2025 with zero promotion and almost no brand intrusion — the only Swoosh anywhere on the publication is on a flyer on the about page. Features outside contributors like Robert Cordero (Business of Fashion), Sean Thor Conroe, Sarah Cristobal, and Emma Carmichael writing personal essays on identity, fatherhood, motherhood, and sport. Matthew Kneller, Nike's global senior director of storytelling communications, has publicly described the strategy as a response to readers "increasingly craving depth and intentionality." Part of new CEO Elliott Hill's broader return to more culturally engaged marketing. The closest thing on Substack to a Players' Tribune model — a brand-owned publication where the brand itself is almost invisible. Tests whether absence of branding can do more brand work than presence.

News and insights from the world's largest prediction market. Twice-weekly publication: a roundup of the most interesting market movements at the start of the week, plus a midweek deep-dive on a single event or market. The thesis from launch was that data produced on Polymarket's exchange has value for everyone — even readers who never make a trade. In February 2026, Polymarket announced it was "doubling down" on the platform, deepening its Substack-native strategy. One of the most ambitious examples of a brand using proprietary data as the basis for editorial — Polymarket isn't promoting a product through The Oracle, it's making the platform's data legible to a much broader audience than would ever trade on it.

Ramp's editorial layer, written by Lead Economist Ara Kharazian. Focused on AI, business spend, and economic analysis drawn from Ramp's proprietary dataset. Reads more like a research publication than corporate content. Smart use of proprietary data as the basis for editorial — Ramp is one of the few companies whose product generates enough proprietary economic signal to make this kind of newsletter genuinely useful.

Celebrity-founder brand, but notably not Selena-led. Written by Director of Creative Strategy MacKenzie Kassab under the pseudonym "Rare Insider" — billed as "a (semi-authorized) look behind the scenes at a bestselling beauty brand." The pseudonym is intentional: Kassab has said the goal is to keep focus on the brand and community rather than a single voice. Early posts focused on product development backstories (the Soft Pinch Bouncy Blush post was an early hit and reshaped the editorial calendar). Tests whether a big-name brand can sustain a smaller, more intimate voice on Substack — and a useful case study in how brand publications can use authorial framing to create informality without sacrificing accountability.

Anonymous first-person voice. Described as DKNY PR girl meets Gossip Girl. Of the 21 product links in their first send, 10 sold. The numbers are real but modest. Substack isn't an email marketing replacement. The launch is widely credited with kicking off the current brand-Substack wave.

Recipes, wine videos, activism notes. Small business Substack done with a point of view. Proof the format scales down.

One of the first and still one of the most committed. Saie hired a full-time Substack editor, which signals real investment. Content ranges from voter education to sustainability to staff recs to founder conversations. Founder Laney Crowell has emphasized that brands need real bandwidth to make Substack work. In other words: you can't dabble.

The biggest public company on Substack at launch ($224B market cap). Authored by a four-person communications team led by newsroom lead Dayna Winter, with named bylines that make the publication read more like a magazine than corporate updates. Tagline: "Real stories from the front lines of entrepreneurship." Recurring features include "Decoded" — a series breaking down the strategies of Shopify merchants. Notable because it signals that Substack is no longer just for consumer brands. Platform and infrastructure companies are now using it to build authority with the communities their products serve.

Written by brand consultant Emma Apple Chozick, who also runs her own Substack (gr8 collab, 4,400+ subs). ShopMy is the affiliate platform many Substack creators already use to monetize, and signals reads more like B2B content for the creators who are their customers than consumer storytelling. Another example of the "bring in a known Substack voice" launch playbook, following American Eagle and others. Platform companies are using Substack to build authority with the exact communities their product serves.

The travel agency's Substack covers buzzworthy openings, hotel development projects, travel trends, airline updates, and intel from SmartFlyer's network of advisors. Uses Substack to validate travel expertise in a way that's distinct from its existing email program. Smart separation: Substack for editorial, the existing email program for everything else.

The publicly-traded social media management platform's Substack, tagged as "a haven for social marketers who need a source of joy, inspiration and validation." Sprout has also publicly written about the playbook they used to launch — long-form, personality-driven editorial pitched as a hedge against fading traditional search traffic. Both observer and participant: Sprout writes about social media trends for a living, which makes their own Substack experiment one of the more self-aware case studies in the B2B brand category.

Named as an homage to Claire McCardell's 1956 book (reissued in 2022 with a foreword from Tory). Mixes product stories, fashion week recaps, and the "Women at Work" interview series. Tory herself has been publicly engaged in the Substack strategy conversation. Generously links to other Substack newsletters, which is the move that signals a brand actually gets the platform.

After 14 years at Parachute Home, Kaye left to write about the liminal space of post-founder life. Not a brand newsletter in the conventional sense, but Parachute's recognizable identity gives Second Story View its reach. Watching this as an early example of a new category: former founders writing publicly about exit, reinvention, and what comes after the thing you built.

The legendary makeup artist and Jones Road Beauty founder, on Substack. Tagline: "More than Makeup: the Hows, Whys, Whos, and Hacks of Living a Fabulously Normal Life." Covers beauty, travel, wellness, and lifestyle — and notably, all proceeds from paid subscribers are donated to Reaching Out Montclair, a local nonprofit. One of the most recognizable beauty founders on the platform, and a meaningful proof point for how second-act founder brands are using Substack to deepen relationships with longtime customers.

The founder of Beekeeper's Naturals (launched 2016) on what a decade in the wellness industry has taught her — "the exciting, the terrifying, and the eye-opening." More commentary than founder-diary, with takes on the messier realities of the wellness category. A different mode for founder-led newsletters: less personal-brand-extension, more industry critique from someone who's been inside it long enough to have opinions.

Clare has said Clare V. really started with a blog back around 2007, so the format is a homecoming. Substack courted her explicitly as part of building out the founder-led brand newsletter category.

Frequently cited as the A++ example of founder-led brand Substack. Tagline: "the art of becoming who you are." Beauty, design, founder life reads, building slowly and intentionally. In a recent interview, Dianna listed her favorite reads on the platform: Melanie Masarin, Jess Graves, Hillary Kerr, Laurel Pantin, Courtney at Unpolished. Small thing, but paying attention to other writers is how founders should behave on Substack.

The Loeffler Randall co-founder and chief creative officer (she founded the brand in 2005 with her husband Brian Murphy) running a tightly-paced personal newsletter every other Thursday. Mixes outfit posts, behind-the-scenes from collection launches, deep-dive product picks, and craft project recommendations. Substack has publicly cited Jessie Loves as one of its exemplary brand-adjacent founder newsletters. A clean version of the founder-led playbook: the brand stays the brand, the newsletter is unmistakably Jessie's voice, and the alignment between the two does the work without forcing it.

The SET Active founder/CEO's paid Substack ($5/month) covers the business and personal sides of building a DTC brand from $20K of credit card debt to a recognized activewear company. Posts read like business school lessons — "What I would do differently if launching my DTC brand today," "The hidden weight of success" — alongside more personal essays. Charging a small subscription has been part of the strategy from day one: paid subscribers are the people invested enough to read the harder, more honest stuff.

The original template. Travel recs, founder thoughts, renovation stories, recipes, skincare, framed as "me off duty," though she does lift the curtain on building Ghia. Affiliate links are present but honest. She's been publicly reflective about the identity risk of being "Melanie IS Ghia" and using Night Shade partly to carve space around that. Probably the single most influential founder newsletter for how other brands are thinking about this.

The Oregon-based interior designer behind Molly Kidd Studio, which expanded in 2025 from a design firm into a full shop selling vintage finds, home goods, and apparel. Newsletter mixes home builds, outfit posts, the recurring "FAVE FIVE" curation series, and personal essays. Currently ranked #15 Rising in Design on Substack. Same playbook as Nell Diamond at Hill House Home: founder builds a brand around a distinct point of view, then uses Substack to extend that voice into territory the brand's website can't comfortably hold.

The Hill House Home founder's personal newsletter — described as "the most private time of day, after the kids are in bed." Mixes weekly wishlists, travel notes, theater recs, and the occasional brand glimpse. Notable because Nell deliberately keeps Hill House Home content separate ("Visit my other child at hillhousehome.com"), positioning Goblin Hour as the personal voice rather than the brand channel. Same playbook Melanie Masarin uses with Night Shade.

Twice-monthly musings on life, routines, and product recommendations. After watching High Sport sell out from a Substack mention, Minkoff bet that building a platform presence could create the kind of personal connection that drives eventual purchase. A good case study for how founder newsletters can work as slow-burn brand investment rather than direct-response.

Casual, funny, and punchy. The creative director's personal voice extends brand identity through Paris travel recs, styling tips (aka "SomHACKS"), and late-night internet finds ("inSOMnia"). Reads like a text from a friend. Example of how a creative director can humanize a brand without making it a performance.

The Nasty Gal and Girlboss founder, now running early-stage fund Trust Fund. Her newsletter — "for people who work for themselves" — covers entrepreneurship, investing, work habits, and her oblique view as someone who "still considers herself an outsider." A different model than most founder-led newsletters in this directory: Sophia's brand is herself across multiple ventures, not any single product. Worth watching as a category of its own — multi-chapter founders using Substack as the connective layer across what comes next.

The founder of Milky Oat — a Bay Area organic postpartum meal delivery service — on the broader motherhood continuum. Newsletter is described as "storytelling the motherhood continuum" rather than promotional content for the service. Early-stage but worth tracking: postpartum and motherhood is one of the most underserved categories on Substack, and founder-led newsletters from operators in the space are how that gap eventually fills.

A case where the founder's name and the brand's name are the same thing. Weekly recipes, behind-the-scenes from the Ottolenghi test kitchen, and two new recipes per issue (one free, one paid). The rare brand Substack that charges for access and it works, because the founder built the audience long before the newsletter existed.