Outdoor Voices To Close All Stores This Week (nytimes.com) 54
Outdoor Voices, an athletic apparel company, is closing all its stores on Sunday, The New York Times reported this week, citing four employees at four different stores. From the report: In an internal Slack message reviewed by The New York Times, some employees were notified on Wednesday that "Outdoor Voices is embarking on a new chapter as we transition to an exclusively online business." Products in stores are going to be discounted 50 percent, according to the Slack message. The news came as a surprise, two of the employees said, adding that they were not offered severance.
Outdoor Voices, which lists 16 retail locations on its website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Founded in 2014 by Ty Haney, the brand became popular for its muted tones and highly Instagrammable aesthetics. Think matching crop tops and leggings in pale shades of earthy tones. Its hashtag and company mantra, #DoingThings, became popular on social media, where brand loyalists would regularly share images of themselves participating in athletic activities like running or hiking or spinning. The company often hosted events, like group exercise classes, and even built an editorial platform called The Recreationalist. Many Outdoor Voices customers weren't just shoppers; they were devotees. The company was a chic athleisure brand perfectly positioned to attract millennials, but it was also selling a lifestyle. A lifestyle that helped the brand raise millions in funding.
Outdoor Voices, which lists 16 retail locations on its website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Founded in 2014 by Ty Haney, the brand became popular for its muted tones and highly Instagrammable aesthetics. Think matching crop tops and leggings in pale shades of earthy tones. Its hashtag and company mantra, #DoingThings, became popular on social media, where brand loyalists would regularly share images of themselves participating in athletic activities like running or hiking or spinning. The company often hosted events, like group exercise classes, and even built an editorial platform called The Recreationalist. Many Outdoor Voices customers weren't just shoppers; they were devotees. The company was a chic athleisure brand perfectly positioned to attract millennials, but it was also selling a lifestyle. A lifestyle that helped the brand raise millions in funding.
Never heard of it (Score:5, Insightful)
Chic athliesure? And this is on Slashdot why?
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Well they had 16 locations, so this was obviously a really large operation that will affect dozens of us. And they're Highly Instagrammable with the aesthetic lifestyle they're selling. Definitely news for nerds. Good jorb once again, slashdot editors.
Re: Never heard of it (Score:2)
Highly Instagrammable
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Highly Instagrammable
what does that mean?
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I guess it means that outdoor voices are very loud and screaming "Look at this picture of me, please, please, look at me and acknowledge my superiority and how much better I am than you because I bought this shirt."
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I assumed it was Sports Casual (TM).
https://youtu.be/bOE6v8sPHac [youtu.be]
Re: Never heard of it (Score:2)
It means their core customer was influencers. So yeah, nothing of value being lost here.
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Highly Instagrammable
Synonymous with highly flammable
Re: Never heard of it (Score:2)
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Same here. Never heard of it.
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Chic athliesure? And this is on Slashdot why?
Maybe to show that tech companies don't have a stranglehold on raising millions before they flame out? Seriously, it must be a slow news day. I'd guess most /.'s attire trends towards the cool T-Shirt from the last conference than overpriced tight clothes that say "Look at me." Having 'devotees" means you automatically can charge 2x for the your stuff than if you just have customers. Actually, that sounds like. a lot of tech companies as well, or at least some...
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They could always post the story about the increase in swatting directed at election officials [slashdot.org] which has been made easier by technololgy, but that relates to technology and similar stories already posted, so maybe not.
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Ditto. News for nerds? Stuff that matters? I'm not seeing it.
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Chic athliesure? And this is on Slashdot why?
I think it's to add the balance that significant business closures aren't unique to San Francisco and happen in Texas. In Texas, they cannot blame the "libs" or progressive policies for businesses failing however.
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They can if it's Austin.
Re: Never heard of it (Score:1)
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I'm unclear how this company is different than any random-ascii-company-name company out of China selling $5 whatevers that can be found on Amazon.
Ultimately, these companies are just marketing and branding companies. They don't sell anything unique or identifiable, they all source their shitwares from the same factories.
There's no practicable difference between your $5 thermal "underarmor" and the $80 ones (and at that price - why aren't you buying wool?).
Never heard of them (Score:1)
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I don't work out at all, but I do love how athleisure companies have made it more acceptable to wear sweat pants to most occasions. My sweatpants look nearly as nice as my work slacks, to the point where I feel like I'm slumming it when wearing jeans instead of sweatpants. It may sting to pay $125 for sweatpants and $100 for a polo shirt, but they sure are comfortable.
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The 5 seconds of research I was willing to do indicated that this store also has almost nothing to do with "athletics" in any sense you might understand it. It's a niche fashion store that sells spandex pants to people who never go to the gym, never play baseball, basketball, football, hockey, do not go hunting or fishing, and have never even seen, much less been to, much less participate in, a track meet. It's "sportswear" for the Kim Kardashian set.
But absolutely everyone is correct that *i
News for nerds. Stuff that matters. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Who?
Ronnie F*cking Pickering...
Non Brits probably won't get the reference, I'm making it for a reason, I had no idea such a brand existed and even less inclination to care now I do as I suspect it was 16 locations in the US only, probably just one part of the US. The summary sounds like marketing blurb written by a 12 yr old... Why does anyone need to know the "company mantra" of a company that is destined to be a minor inconvenience for a liquidator?
This is a terrible slashvertisement and I at least hope
Why is this here? (Score:3)
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It's going fully online.
Other than that I got nuffin'.
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I'm guessing the tech angle is that they are closing all their brick and mortar stores, and becoming an online-only retailer.
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I'm guessing the tech angle is that they are closing all their brick and mortar stores, and becoming an online-only retailer.
I mean, that's ostensibly the case, but usually when that happens it's a death knell for the brand before it fades into obscurity. Case in point: Lord & Taylor. Their customer base largely died, but they moved "online" so that they could push random clothing products like any other e-commerce clothing site using a seasoned domain and brand to help with SEO.
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Macy's and Kohls will be next. Macy's will go first, probably in about five years.
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slashvertisement of their online store
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Spinning is what happens when you rotate around an axis. I believe in this context, it's an exercise where people spin around in an effort to "rebalance" their internal fluids.
> And what does chic "athleisure" mean?
Well, you know how people go out jogging wearing clothing? A subset of those people insist that their jogging clothing is more stylish than practical/utilitarian. Those are the same people who will not do various normal things out of fear of the chance of being judged by some higher socioecono
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Spinning, oh so its not when you boil a potato and spin it until the skin peels off?
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It's pi day, so I guess spinning is something you do around a circle
Re: WTF is "Spinning" (Score:2)
Wouldn't that be orbiting?
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https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
A hig outdoor clothing store? (Score:1)
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"Big" is relative. The local IHeart station wouldn't include their closure notice for "just" a few stores. A hundred? Five hundred? A thousand? Yeah. Sixteen is just a local retailer.
Crop tops and leggings (Score:2)
I don’t think msmash knows the slashdot reader base too well.
NO LOGIN BUTTON ON SLASHDOT (Score:2)
Sorry to hijack this but I have no login button on the slashdot home page? Anyone else have this problem? I had to view a section in the FAQ to find a login link to use.
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I thought it was just me. Even after having logged in the usual link to your comments is just gone, and disabling advertisements still leaves a banner ad for Google Cloud and a search field in its place.
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Yep, same here.
Makes sense to me. (Score:5, Interesting)
Although it's not specifically called out in the summary, and the article is paywalled, there are lots of reasons why any retailer would simply walk away from having brick and mortar stores.
- Stores are expensive, whether it's leased or owned
- Stock to fill the shelves in a physical store is a huge operational cost, and turnover is uncertain
- Delivery, formerly too expensive to entertain in general, has evolved to be both socially and fiscally acceptable
- Physical stores are magnets for theft at scales previously unheard of
- People suck. (yes, that's related to the one just above, but even if they aren't actually stealing, people still suck)
If I was selling services, fine. But if I'm exclusively selling goods, I wouldn't even for one second consider brick and mortar in 2024.
That's why I don't bat an eye when I hear about companies pulling up stakes and leaving "deserts" due to theft and violence. Those neighborhoods are earning their desert status. Some people say, "They're just using it as an excuse to close stores that aren't making enough money!" Maybe. But exactly how many dangerous incidents are needed to tip the perception?
More reasons (Score:2)
According to the Wikipedia article (a store with 16 shops is worthy of a wiki?) the ex-CEO sounds like she was difficult to work with which led to high-level distribution deals falling through and a bunch of staff leaving.
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Well, his last bullet point did specify that people suck.
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https://www.bizjournals.com/au... [bizjournals.com].
I have no idea what they thought they were going to accomplish, but after a year or so of that I was pretty sure this company was starting to circle the drain.
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Who cares besides those directly impacted? (Score:1)
I mean, it stinks for them, for sure. However, this isn't really even a blip from a macroeconomic scale.
1. It is a relatively new retailer (founded in 2014)
2. They only have 16 stores
In reality, this is probably a very positive move for the company. Only have 16 stores is a rather limited market reach. Scaling to more stores would be extremely risky, take a ton of time, and maybe doesn't align to their core mission. Moving online only allows them to focus on the products and drastically scale their mark