True Religion Announces Outlet, Retail Stores
True Religion Apparel Inc. is on a retail roll.
The Los Angeles–based premium-denim brand announced Aug. 9 that it would open a 3,000-square-foot outlet store at the Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon, Calif., which is about 20 miles west of Palm Springs. The outlet is scheduled to open before the Christmas 2006 season—the same time as the debut of True Religion’s recently announced stores in New York and Miami.
The company will own and run four stores by year’s end, according to a statement by its President Michael Buckley. “Expanding our retail store base is an important component of our growth strategy,” he said.
The retail rollout is a successful end to an experiment started in December 2005, when True Religion opened its first boutique, in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The company’s chief executive, Jeffrey Lubell, said that if the 880-squarefoot boutique were judged successful, a chain of True Religion stores would follow.
Since then, True Religion has reported a successful 2006. According to Security and Exchange Commission documents it filed Aug. 3, net sales for the 2006 second quarter increased 39.7 percent to $30.7 million, compared with $22 million in the same period in 2005.
Retail is not virgin territory for denim companies. Lucky Brand Jeans Inc., for example, runs 110 stores in the United States. Other denim stores such as Levi’s are common sights in high-profile shopping districts.
Market researcher Barbara Bylenga, however, said there was room for more stores and denim across America. “Premium denim seems to be trickling down to more of a mainstream market,” said Bylenga, who works for Outlaw Consulting of San Francisco.
True Religion’s 2,000-square-foot retail stores in New York and Miami will offer the brand’s full collection, which increasingly features non-denim product. It will include skirts, T-shirts, knits, cotton twill pants and down-filled parkas.
The True Religion outlet will sell slower-moving or out-ofseason apparel. The store will take the space that housed footwear brand Tod’s outlet, which will move to another section of the shopping center, said a spokeswoman for Desert Hills Premium Outlets.
—Andrew Asch
