California Apparel News

Susan Nethero is said to be a prodigy in matchmaking women with the best bras that flatter their bodies and fit their lifestyle. Her track record, she claims, is perfect.

“I don’t think we’ve had anyone we couldn’t fit,” said Nethero, the founder of Intimacy, a fleet of lingerie shops started in Atlanta in 1992.

Intimacy stores stock between 8,000 to 10,000 bras at any given time in a range of 90 sizes. During a 30-minute personal fitting, if the bra doesn’t precisely mold to a customer’s shape, Intimacy will alter it for free and continue to offer alteration services throughout the bra’s life.

Taking those extra steps to ensure customer satisfaction is how Intimacy got the attention of the ultimate shepherd of womanly topics—Oprah Winfrey. Nethero first appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in May 2005, when she explained solutions for common bra problems.

The nationwide attention helped accelerate Intimacy’s plans for expansion. Since 2004, Intimacy has opened stores in New York, Chicago, Boston, Houston, Miami and Dallas. Last year, Intimacy headed to California, opening a store at Fashion Valley shopping center in San Diego, followed by stores in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., and the Westfield Century City shopping center in Los Angeles.

Smart business sense

Even though Intimacy stores have been growing quickly and are located in major shopping centers, the store’s attention to personal customer service is meant to duplicate what shoppers expect from their neighborhood specialty boutique.

The growth has been helped by Susan Nethero’s husband, David Nethero, who has taken the company from one store in Atlanta to a fleet of stores.

“I was clearly [intent] about trying to bring world-class business practices to an entrepreneurial setting,” said David Nethero, who worked at British Petroleum before joining his wife’s business in 2001. “What we’d seen [is] when the big-box retailer comes in, like a Home Depot or WalMart, the smaller independents can’t survive and they’re gone. What I truly want to do is build world-class business processes and worldclass culture into a retail entity. We want it to be recognized as an example to retailers across the globe. What really made America great was the entrepreneurial spirit, and our passion is to bring that back.”

Detail oriented

The majority of Intimacy’s fitters have logged at least four years with the company. The average tenure of a manager is five to six years. Every fitter at Intimacy undergoes “bra boot camp” training led by Susan to learn the technical aspects of each of the product lines carried and the “holistic” method of fitting, which does not use tape measures.

Fitters from existing stores are relocated and promoted to manager positions in Intimacy’s new stores. “I’d like to think the reason we have such great tenure and low turnover is [employees] do feel fulfilled working at Intimacy. They do appreciate the entrepreneurial and family culture. They get psychic income. But also I realize they probably enjoy working here because they are well-compensated,” Nethero said.

Fitters earn a commission based on their sales. Bra prices range from $60 up to the $250 level.

Laura Greco, a wholesale-sales representative for Van de Velde brands, which are sold at Intimacy, said the store’s one-on-one fitter approach works because customers get what they came to shop for—a bra that fits.

“The sales technique and the layout of the store lends itself to higher sales hellip; because you can’t really go through drawers. Once you are in the fitting room and you put a lot of the bras on, it’s amazing,” Greco said.

Belgium-based Van de Velde’s stable of lingerie brands includes Marie Jo, Prima-Donna and Andres Sarda, all of which are known for attention to fit detail.

Van de Velde was such a supporter of Intimacy that in 2007 it purchased 49.9 percent of the retail chain. In April, that was upped to 85 percent.

Susan and David Nethero continue to manage the company from their Atlanta headquarters.

The more the merrier

As Intimacy expands into new territories and gains more market clout, is it becoming like that big-box retailer and shutting out existing local boutiques?

Jenette Goldstein, who owns Jenette Bras in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, doesn’t think so.

Goldstein believes there is room for everyone and has seen her business grow, especially after the Wall Street Journal interviewed her for an article in April. In the story, she explained the mechanical construction behind full-cup-size bras. Though Intimacy and Goldstein both service an overlapping niche of customers in bras larger than D cups, Goldstein said her store is a destination.

“People are willing to go a long way to the store because of the service I give,” Goldstein noted. “This is a specialty shop owned and operated. It’s in a neighborhood. It’s a different customer.”

Even when Intimacy opens a new location, Van de Velde bras continue to be stocked at key specialty boutiques (such as Jenette Bras), regardless of whether a new Intimacy store comes into town.

“In every new territory where Intimacy’s opened a store, a nearby store has never suffered,” Greco said. “It’s a very European mentality—the bra fit, the fitting-room experience, the relationship.”

The more women wearing bras that fit properly, the better for all bra retailers, Goldstein said.

Spreading the idea of “the problem is not with your body, it’s the product,” Goldstein said, results in pushing manufacturers to make a superior product to fill customers’ demands.