American Women Make It Here Men's Athleisure Grows up the Modern Art of Retailing
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FALL 2016 • A FORMULA4 MEDIA PUBLICATION american women make it here men’s athleisure grows up the modern art of retailing sportstyle Executive Editor Mark Sullivan [email protected] 646-319-7878 Editor-in-Chief Cara Griffin [email protected] Senior Editor Bob McGee [email protected] Creative Director Francis Klaess Art Director Mary McGann Contributors Jennifer Ernst Beaudry Suzanne Blecher Leslie George Emily Walzer Publisher Jeff Nott [email protected] 516-305-4711 Advertising Troy Leonard [email protected] 352-624-1561 Jeff Gruenhut [email protected] 404-849-4156 Katie O’Donohue [email protected] The Modern Art of Retail 828-244-3043 Sam Selvaggio [email protected] I was always taught that great art numbers and business plan, but back it up with 212-398-5021 Christina Henderson endures and it’s hard to argue with that logic. an artistic approach to their buying, merchandising 516-305-4710 [email protected] Over time, however, I have come to believe and customer service. This issue of Sportstyle Production includes two very different retailers Anthym in Brandon Christie that modern art evolves. Here’s my recent case in 516-305-4712 point. I was in Amarillo, TX recently and visited Philadelphia and Bodega in Boston who are masters [email protected] Cadillac Ranch which was created as a public art of the modern art of retailing. Subscriptions store.formula4media.com installation and sculpture in 1974 by an art group If you believe your store excels at the modern Business Manager arts, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line or Marianna Rukhvarger which called itself the Ant Farm. 516-305-4709 The original installation featured junk Cadillac send us some photos and let us know what you’re [email protected] automobiles from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose- doing that’s different and what’s working on. In my first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to travels across the country, I am struck by how many great stores I see and how many wonderful retail that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The PO Box 23-1318 artists I see creating great experiences every day. Great Neck, NY 11023 artistic statement spoke to the car worship culture Phone: 516-305-4710 Fax: 516-441-5692 in America and what the artists saw as the pending We will “curate” these stories in the pages of www.formula4media.com death of the luxury automobile. upcoming issues of Sportstyle, online and in-person Formula4 Media Publications Sports Insight at The Sportstyle trade show in June 2017 in Florida. Outdoor Insight Forty plus years later, the American car culture Footwear Insight South Florida has become known for The Art Inside Insight and Cadillac are as strong as ever and Cadillac Ranch Team Insight Textile Insight has evolved, too. Visitors are now encouraged to Basel fair every December. We’d like Sportstyle Running Insight sportstyle bring spray paint to the installation and add their to be known as a showcase for the Modern Art Trend Insight of Active Retailing. sportstyleTM is a trademark of Formula4 own flourishes to the original design. It’s a vital, Media, LLC. ©2016 All rights reserved. The opinions expressed by authors and exciting attraction that is now a celebration. contributors to sportstyle are not necessarily those of the editors or publishers. sportstyle As a young cub reporter many years ago at is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or artwork. Articles appearing in WWD, I was taught that fashion retailing was sportstyle may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher. sportstyle is published quarterly: part art and part science, I’ve never forgotten that Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. lesson, which has endured over the years. Subscriptions: One year, $20.00 (U.S. Funds) The best retailers have the science of their [email protected] in the United States. All other countries, $54.00 (U.S. Funds). Postmaster: Cover: Streamlined performance fabrics make Reebok’s latest collection ready for the gym and everything that comes before and after. Send address changes to sportstyle, P.O. Box 23-1318, Great Neck, NY 11023 6 sportstyle SPORTSTYLEMAG.COM RETAIL sportstyle HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT Nearly 200 colleges and universities when the two worked for an online apparel start-up are back in session and Boston is brimming with in 2003, recently told the Los Angeles Times that students, tourists and businessmen. Southern California may expose Bodega to a more Stroll up Newbury Street from the Public Garden, adventurous and Avant garde customer as it relates a mile-long thoroughfare dotted with its eclectic mix to fashion, giving the retailer more latitude to try new of boutiques, brand stores, eateries and brownstones brands or expand existing lines. before you reach Massachusetts Avenue. Turn le and Mak says the new store will be an evolution of what walk a few feet before reaching one of the city’s hidden, Bodega already does well in Boston with its mix of retail fashion-forward playgrounds on a quiet avenue esoteric, “under the radar” cool brands in footwear across from the Boston Conservatory. and apparel/accessories, a current ratio of 60-40. You may not realize it at rst because the storefront “Performance will inuence fashion but our core resembles a typical urban convenience store. But DNA has always been about fashion, street culture once you step inside, you have entered one of North and style,” proclaims Mak, remembering the store’s America’s most revered sneaker and apparel boutiques. inception “came at a tipping point in terms of the mass Welcome to Bodega. market’s understanding of sneakerhead as a culture.” “Our product mix [when we opened] in 2006 solely It is a society borne out of a number of subcultures focused on the upper tier of lifestyle, curated from ranging from music and art to hip-hop, punk rock Tokyo and Amsterdam. Just the stu you couldn’t and grati. get here,” remembers Oliver Mak, 37, a partner and “Because we were perceived as the cultural leaders co-founder of Bodega, LLC, named a Top 10 menswear of our specic city,” Mak continues, “we were able to store in North America by GQ. have the ‘X Factor’ authenticity that came through in In Summer 2017, Bodega will spread its fashion how we presented the product. Understanding the wings westward as the rst retail fashion tenant in market is about the subculture and that it’s okay for the 30-acre Row DTLA re-development project in us to be hidden from the street. And to be a clubhouse the downtown Los Angeles’ Arts District. that’s a place for wild things to exist.” Bodega principal Jay Gordon, 44, who met Mak e Bodega partners have adhered to a business 8 sportstyle BODEGA IS BEANTOWN’S GEM BY BOB MCGEE HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT strategy of zero marketing and advertising spend to and contemporaries in the art world for key items. build store trac, instead relying on word-of-mouth Currently, an estimated 200 SKUs of footwear and among Beantown’s diverse, young demographic. apparel for 190 on-oor hangers are drawn from a “We created a retail setting that was so compelling range of 74 brands. e mix includes Cav Empt, an that people come regardless of their specic interest apparel collection from a Tokyo art director only sold in fashion,” Mak notes. by three North American retailers; Minotaur out of He also admits a bit-of-luck and hard work in Japan; and outerwear from Acronym, a cult brand curating merchandise and collaborating on special that sells $1,000 so shells and a $1,065 drop-in jacket collections with key footwear brands has been crucial. within its collection. e store’s highest priced foot- Over the last decade, Bodega’s principals have wear currently is a Rick Owen line from Adidas that been leaned on as design collaborators by the likes ranges between $800 and $900. e ow of on-oor of Adidas, Nike, Converse and Saucony. merchandise benets from Japanese collections that Bodega has also shown nerve and bravado by are typically introduced at retail about 45 days aer making design suggestions to sportswear brands, their U.S. and European counterparts. in many cases suggesting they “step outside what Bodega wanted to maintain all of its selling and they’re known for by taking a risk and experimenting merchandise experiences at the brick-and-mortar level, with a design.” but its customer base felt otherwise. So since 2012, In that case, Bodega acts as the test kitchen for the retailer has had an ecommerce presence complete the new design recipe and most often gets retail with a Boston warehouse to hold merchandise and distribution exclusivity. fulll orders from. In apparel and accessories, the Bodega approach With all of it, Mak says the quest remains to keep focuses on “special, special products” that consumers its customers intrigued, happy and always searching would unlikely nd anywhere else in North America. for unique footwear and apparel. is oen means taking on “cult brands” from Scan- “When you create a space and you hide it, you dinavia, Europe, Japan and Korea and scouring the have to have the product to back up the experience,” collections of independent designers, the underground he says. : sportstyle 9 USA! sportstyle AMERICANWOMEN Fighting Spirit JLEW Bags is the brainchild of Jamie Lewis, a former Wall Street executive who couldn’t nd the perfect bag for her “urban on the go life.” “I leave my apartment around 6 a.m.