Dockers Testing Stores for Retail Rollout
For more than 20 years, Dockers San Francisco has been a key vendor for retailers such as Kohl’s and JC Penney. But the casual label will soon serve its easygoing, mainstream appeal in a boutique setting.
The brand will finish a rollout of test boutiques in September, when it debuts a boutique in Horton Plaza in San Diego, Calif., and another in Pembroke Pines, located near Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The casual-clothing maker has rolled out nine Dockers stores since August 2007, when it opened a boutique in the Westfield San Francisco Centre in San Francisco. Dockers is owned by venerable denim company Levi Strauss & Co.
After Dockers evaluates the successes and areas where these stores could perform better, it will roll out a target of 20 stores annually, said Duncan Eastwood, Dockers’ director of retail stores. There is no schedule for the beginning of the rollout.
While the new stores might provide some competition for Dockers’ retailers, the label hopes to attract an aspirational client to its branded stores. Eighty percent of Dockers stores’ inventory is made up of fashions not available at its retail partners.
The company anticipates serving more female clients at its boutiques in the future. An estimated 60 percent of Dockers store sales are for men’s clothes. Because women shop more, women are expected to make up 60 percent of sales, Eastwood said.
The stores will offer four Dockers fashion groups: work, weekend, golf and dress (or suiting).
Levi’s currently runs 200 stores selling its Levi’s, Levi’s Signature and Dockers San Francisco brands. The stores made up 8 percent of the company’s net revenue in the first quarter of 2008, according to Levi’s financial statements released in April.
The Dockers stores were designed by the giant retail architecture firm Gensler, also headquartered in San Francisco. Gensler designs all of its clients’ stores with eco-friendly materials, and the Dockers store is no different.
Floors are built out of reclaimed teakwood from demolished buildings in Southeast Asia. The wood in the boutique’s cash wrap is made out of wood reclaimed from wine barrels once used in Northern California’s wine country. —Andrew Asch
