Is The New OV Going To Challenge The Rhythm Of Sports And Leisure Chiefs?

Sports and leisure are already in the wind.

The market has been active for several years, but in the past two years, it has gradually become the "foundation of many brands".

Sports and leisure is a synthetic word, and the corresponding English word is athleisure. Literally, it can be seen from the word "athletic" and "leisure".

This means that, whether for sports brand or not,

Leisure brand, this is a draught.

Trying to dig gold in this field is not just about the big businesses that we are familiar with. Some of the new players in shoe and clothing industry are also eyeing this fat meat, and they are emerging in the industry with personalized products and marketing methods. Outdoor Voices is one of them.

Strictly speaking, sports leisure does not have an absolute positioning, so it is difficult to specifically classify Outdoor Voices.

However, judging from the original intention of its brand creation, the elements of sports are still very obvious.

The founder of the brand is a girl named Taylor Hani (Tyler Haney), who is only 27 years old this year, and the Outdoor Voices company was founded in New York in 2013.

She grew up in Baird, Colorado. She was a very athletic place. She was also a sports man. She hiked, hiked, basketball and hurdles.

Taylor Hani's family had a great impact on her life plan. Her parents were all engaged in design work, so she chose to go to the most famous clothing in America.

College - Parsons Design Institute for design and management.

Speaking of the creation of the Outdoor Voices brand, Taylor Hani said that in the past few decades, the slogan "faster, higher and stronger" had a deep-rooted influence on the sports brand, but she could not agree with it.

She realized that there was a strong correlation between sports and the display of femininity, but no brand could show that.

"I used to wear Nike, but I was tired of those black or fluorescent sports clothes.

I realized that there was a great opportunity to neutralize the appearance of sportswear that advocated the idea of "faster, higher and stronger" and replaced it with a more pleasing way of socializing.

This is what Outdoor Voices wants to show.

Taylor Hani said so.

Frankly speaking, Outdoor Voices is entering a fast growing and saturated market. Nike, Under Armour and even Lululemon are already fighting here. Even many entertainment stars are beginning to develop products with their own labels under such a trend. No Outdoor Voices can release enough attraction.

Since its appearance in London boutique, J. Crew, the famous fashion retailer, put it in the "favorite brand" area in the spring of 2014. Since then, Outdoor Voices has begun to see a group of enthusiastic followers.

Of course, Outdoor Voices was primarily based on social media gathering fans and building brand awareness through online marketing.

Up till now, Outdoor Voices's Instagram account already has more than 70000 fans, and they will also organize some offline sports activities, such as yoga, basketball match and short distance travel.

This also confirms its core concept of brand, that is, "doing something is better than doing nothing".

In May last year, the company launched an online activity called "doing something" on social media. People uploaded photos of themselves in Outdoor Voices costumes, from actress Alison Williams to editor in chief John (Voices).

And Taylor Hani also said that the brand will further focus on digital operation.

Speaking of the status of e-commerce in commodity marketing, Taylor Hani still holds a relatively cautious attitude. She believes that it will take several years to observe the trend of e-commerce, but it is indispensable to build a brand that covers a wide range and keeps pace with the trend.

Nike and Lululemon also have their own online sales channels, but their focus is still on retail business.

Online is the place where we resonate with the younger generation of consumers, as well as their important consumption scenario.

According to reports, Outdoor Voices achieved a 30% month growth rate last year without spending too much money on marketing. It was also voted the most cool fitness clothing brand in New York by male magazine.

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If you want to expand your brand, combining online and offline is still very necessary.

In October 2014, Outdoor Voices opened its first physical store in Austen, Texas.

This summer, second shops in Manhattan, New York also opened.

By the end of 2017, two new stores will meet with consumers.

But up to now, 80% of Outdoor Voices's sales come from e-commerce.

Outdoor Voices had been rejected by more than 50 investors in the early years of brand building.

So far, Outdoor Voices has completed a total of $22 million 500 thousand in financing.

Last year, Outdoor Voices received a total of $9 million 500 thousand in financing, and this year, another 13 million of the financing.

These funds will be used more for store opening and product supply chain construction.

Behind this, a Frenchman named Jean Touitou played a vital role.

He is not a professional investor himself, but the founder of the French fashion brand A.P.C..

Jean Touitou, an investor, thinks that it will take longer to make decisions with big brands, and that will be a very difficult process because there are too many levels to decide.

On the contrary, speed is crucial to Taylor Hani.

"We need to react quickly, which is what many fashion brands lack."

Taylor Hani said.

In addition to the investment level, A.P.C. has also carried out more business cooperation with Outdoor Voices.

Earlier this year, the two sides launched a series of costumes.

In this series, we can find that designers integrated A.P.C.'s minimalist design style and precise tailoring with the sports elements that Outdoor Voices was good at, and used gray, brown and black to render them, bringing us a series of single items such as jogging pants, hooded hoodies, windbreaker, artificial fur jacket, coats and shoes.

In July of this year, Outdoor Voices also opened a store with A.P.C. in San Francisco, and the product launched by the store was called A.P.C.O.V..

This series of products met with the public for the first time in New York fashion week last month.

Although the company has only been established for three years, Taylor Hani is well versed in the marketing way of sports and leisure products, and the Outdoor Voices is also actively carrying out the road of Adidas, Puma and other brands.

The average selling price of sportswear tights has dropped by 9% in the first quarter of 2016, and sales of such products have dropped by 6% during the first quarter of 2016, according to data provided by research firm.

It is enough to see that competition in sports and leisure market has become fierce, and the market impact of Outdoor Voices will also increase.

But Taylor Hani is still full of confidence. She thinks her brand positioning is different from the traditional sports brand, which can keep her independence in competition.

Fast Company, the eighth most popular Creativity Inc in the year, ranked Outdoor Voices in the fashion category.

Taylor Hani has also entered the list of the top 20 young entrepreneurs you should know about this year's Inc. website.