How SpiritHoods Generated $50M Using SEO-Driven Product Development With Latif Hamilton

Latif Hamilton is the Founder and CEO of SpiritHoods, a leading fashion brand known for its festival-inspired faux fur products. Under his leadership, SpiritHoods has generated over $50 million in revenue and achieved top-three search rankings across major product categories by strategically aligning product development with SEO. A creative entrepreneur at heart and fractional CMO, Latif specializes in bridging operations and design to drive exponential growth. He is also the Founder of The Growth Operative, a consultancy focused on brand growth and business development. In this episode… Many ecommerce brands rely heavily on intuition and creativity when deciding what products to launch. While this approach can work, it often overlooks a valuable source of insight — how customers are actually searching online. Could aligning product decisions with search behavior lead to more consistent growth? Latif Hamilton's answer comes from his experience as a creative entrepreneur and fractional CMO, where he connects product development with marketing strategy. He explains that instead of guessing what customers want, brands should use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to identify high-volume, low-competition keywords — and then design products specifically to match that demand. He emphasizes focusing on depth within a single category to build authority, aligning product naming with actual search behavior, and prioritizing long-tail keywords to capture niche opportunities. Latif also cautions against overreliance on agencies, encouraging founders to develop a working understanding of SEO so they can guide strategy effectively. Ultimately, growth comes from intentionally combining creative direction with validated demand signals. In this episode of Minds of Ecommerce, Raphael Paulin-Daigle talks with Latif Hamilton, Founder and CEO of SpiritHoods and Founder of The Growth Operative, to discuss SEO-driven product development. Latif discusses strategies for aligning product design with search behavior, how to build authority by dominating a niche, and avoiding common SEO mistakes like agency overreliance.