Oct 26, 2026 · 1h 12m
FIGS turns rejected scrubs into a healthcare apparel powerhouse
FIGS: Trina Spear and Heather Hasson. The $2.5 Billion Scrubs Brand That Investors Said Would Never Work
The founders’ story shows how product insight, community trust, and resilience can overcome investor skepticism, litigation, and volatile public markets.
- 1FIGS found a large market by treating medical workers’ functional and aesthetic frustrations as a product opportunity.
- 2Community word of mouth powered growth after hundreds of investors questioned whether healthcare professionals cared about appearance.
- 3The founders separate personal worth from valuation after surviving a costly lawsuit, COVID disruption, an IPO, and steep stock swings.
Don't miss
Trina reflects on appearing on and later falling off a wealth ranking as FIGS’ stock price changed, separating paper wealth from personal worth.
The brief
Heather Hasson began with mission-driven clothing ventures, selling accessories to fund school uniforms in Kenya before noticing healthcare workers lacked functional, well-fitting scrubs.
Trina Spear joined after testing the market herself, bringing finance experience to a partnership that combined Heather’s product instincts with operational discipline.
FIGS built demand through direct sales and healthcare-worker feedback, while hundreds of investor rejections pushed the founders to create a market rather than merely measure one.
The company’s growth brought a four-year lawsuit, roughly $40 million in legal costs, and a pandemic supply-chain crisis—but FIGS won the case and kept operating.
After the 2021 IPO, Trina watched her paper wealth rise and fall with the stock, reinforcing the founders’ argument that valuation is transient and personal worth is not.
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