Arts and Entertainment

Alumni capitalize on JustFab opportunity with online retailer

Film-video alumni Jason Stuckey (left) and Chris Petrick use their creativity and talent to help boost online retailer JustFab. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Seven years after their graduation from Penn State, Jason Stuckey and Chris Petrick are living the dream -- the high-fashion, jet-setting global executive dream -- at JustFab, a billion-dollar premier fashion company.

Stuckey, 30, is the head of production at JustFab. He oversees all in-house commercial productions, photo shoots and manages budgets. Petrick, 29, the video creative director, directs and writes scripts for the commercials.

Together, they power JustFab’s in-house advertising and marketing department. “This is where we balance each other out. Chris drives excellent creativity, and I strive for excellent process,” said Stuckey.

JustFab is an online retailer, which, for a monthly fee, sends one pair of its own name-brand shoes to a customer. The site also sells house branded prêt-à-porter clothing, bags and accessories. Customers have the option to choose between shoes or other items for the month. JustFab has just one retail store, located in Glendale, California.

Companies like JustFab have recently developed their own in-house advertising and marketing teams instead of outsourcing the jobs to advertising agencies in order to reduce operational costs. “It’s also better because Chris and I have firsthand knowledge on the company and how it runs so we are better equipped to produce commercials and advertisements that are in line with the company’s image,” said Stuckey.

Their amalgamated skills and talents have been a boon to JustFab, which in four years has grown to become the largest online subscription fashion retailer. The company has an estimated worth of $1 billion.

With the company’s meteoric growth comes greater workloads for Stuckey and Petrick. “It’s a real challenge. We have these big projects all the time. We’re always shooting three to five commercials with 45 worldwide iterations at one time,” said Petrick. The commercials they produce for JustFab air in Europe as well, with a European language audio dub.

Both Stuckey and Petrick graduated from Penn State in 2007 and were film-video majors in the College of Communications. Strangely enough, the pair did not know each other until the end of their junior year. After graduation they decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue careers in the film-video industry.

Even though jobs with a fashion retailer are a far cry from studio sets, Stuckey and Petrick enjoy their jobs. They joined JustFab as the Web video bubble rose. “Web video at JustFab led to advertising, which I am also interested in. But at the end of it, I am still happy I get to use my creative side to make things,” said Petrick.

Before arriving at JustFab, Stuckey and Petrick worked at various Web video startup companies, including Dermstore.com, now owned by Target Corp. and Intelligent Beauty -- the parent company of JustFab. Both startup companies were created by JustFab’s founders, Adam Goldenberg and Don Ressler. 

Working at JustFab has been an empowering experience for the pair. While other companies professed to be experts in Web-video startup, JustFab allowed Petrick and Stuckey to explore various creative directions.

“The previous companies I worked for never strayed away from rigidity. People came in and claimed to know all about Web-video. They didn’t embrace change and then failed miserably. Whereas Don and Adam didn’t claim to know Web-video, left us to explore and invested money in our ideas,” said Stuckey. “They never quit on us and we never quit on them. We worked together to push things forward and that’s where they got it right.”

Their combined hard work, creativity and determination has certainly paid off. Since its humble beginnings in 2010 with just five core employees, JustFab has grown to more than 1,000 employees. The company has 36 million members worldwide and branch offices all around the European Union.

“Every week, a JustFab product ends up in a publication like People magazine,” said Stuckey.

As heads of their respective departments, Stuckey and Petrick have a number of employees under them, and they strive to give their employees the same creative freedom the company founders afforded to them. They also motivate staff members by focusing on what’s truly important: the people themselves.

“I tell my staff, ‘Don’t worry about sales.’ Instead we look at the goals and missions of what we’re producing, it’s not always about the money but about the best people who believe in what you and the company are doing,” said Stuckey.

Employees are constantly challenged to push their limits under Stuckey and Petrick’s leadership, and whenever the duo encounters a weak idea they are not quick to shut it down.

“I don’t believe in doing that because our CEOs didn’t do that,” said Stuckey. Instead, they challenge their staff to polish and expand on their ideas. “It all comes down to giving your staff the freedom to be creative,” said Petrick.  

Despite a shared major and career paths, Petrick’s and Stuckey’s decisions to attend Penn State were polar opposites. One always knew the University was his calling while the other was a rebel acting out against his parents.

Petrick hails from a Penn State family and for him there was no other option. “I always expected to go to Penn State, it was always in the cards for me,” said Petrick. He chose to study film-video because he had a strong interest in the subject and enjoyed exploring and making his own creative projects.

Stuckey came from North Carolina and even though he found a many great schools in his home state he wanted nothing to do with them. “My family believed in higher education, but I was a pretty rebellious kid who didn’t listen,” said Stuckey. He made the decision to attend college and Penn State after a campus visit.

“I came to the College of Communications on a whim. What sold me was how connected the students were with their professors and instructors. I saw students at the back of the presentation room waiting to catch a movie with their professor,” said Stuckey. Penn State’s gargantuan network of alumni also played a role in Stuckey’s decision to enroll. 

Despite their accomplishments, neither has a definitive formula for success. They believe their success comes from working hard, having faith in themselves and believing in what they set out to do.

“It’s about recognizing opportunities and taking advantage of them. The rest will take care of itself,” said Petrick. At the heart of it all, they believe finding people they can trust is the most important thing. “We wouldn’t be where we are if I wasn’t working with Jason,” said Petrick.

Last Updated June 2, 2021