MONKEY SPORTS
Fashion Meets Function in New Men’s Collection Designed by Henry Duarte and Pepper Foster
Most people don’t think “hockey” when they think of Southern California, but with the Los Angeles Kings celebrating their Stanley Cup victory over the New York Rangers, perhaps they should. And most people probably wouldn’t mix high fashion with hockey either, but Pepper Foster, Henry Duarte and sporting-goods retailer Monkey Sports are looking to change that, too.
“When you look at all the action-sports brands, they’re all surf-driven,” Duarte said. “This is driven by hockey.”
Set to debut in September, the Monkey Sports menswear collection will include more than 200 styles, including denim, T-shirts, hoodies, jackets, woven shirts, sweats, shorts, track pants and underwear. Described by Duarte as a sports-minded lifestyle collection, Monkey Sports features technical pieces such as wind- and waterproof hoodies and athletic compression garments, as well as cold-weather gear such as puffer coats and lumberjack jackets and fleece-lined outerwear.
“So the kid in the Midwest can wear it and go skating,” Foster said. “We’re hitting a whole different customer here.”
Equal parts sports and fashion, the collection features drop-crotch bottoms, an indigo denim hoodie, and a puffer coat made from lambskin and Canadian down. There are boardshorts printed with hockey and lacrosse sticks, a nod to Monkey Sports’ focus on those two sports. And there are four denim styles available in eight washes.
“You can wear it to the rink and then go to dinner,” Foster said.
Foster is well-known in the action-sports and premium-denim markets largely through Chip & Pepper, the brand he designs with his twin brother, Chip Foster, which is currently sold exclusively at Belk. Duarte has a long history designing denim and edgy leather couture for rock ’n’ roll royalty such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, Lenny Kravitz, Dave Navarro and Steven Tyler.
Hockey connection
The new line came about over a game of hockey. Pepper Foster played hockey with a group that includes employees of Monkey Sports, the Corona, Calif.–based retail chain that bills itself as the largest online retailer of hockey equipment.
The timing was perfect. The retailer was preparing to open four more stores, relocate and expand its distribution centers, and grow beyond its core hard-goods base into its own apparel collection.
“We do a lot of things very well, but when it came to apparel, I have not been pleased with the way we’ve dealt with it in the last few years,” said Thomas Arnold, Monkey Sports’ president, chief executive and general counsel. “We decided to really up our game in apparel and try to make it something special. Then we talked to Pepper and it all came together and we went full speed ahead.”
For Foster, who grew up playing hockey in Canada, the concept blended two of his areas of expertise.
“It’s not just that I’m creating a line. I’m emotionally attached,” he said.
Foster brought in Duarte, and the two put together a small team that works out of Duarte’s studio in downtown Los Angeles.
“The vibe right here in downtown is hot,” Foster said. “LA is the epicenter of fashion sportswear. We don’t wear suits. We wear jeans and T-shirts.”
Creative freedom
Foster and Duarte say they appreciate the creative freedom they have been given to design the line—as well as the sophisticated infrastructure at Monkey Sports.
“Usually, when you go into a big company there are always roadblocks,” Duarte said. “[With Monkey Sports], there are no roadblocks to stop us. They just let us go and allow us to get it done. The day after Thanksgiving I went to China and put this together.”
The new collection is designed in Los Angeles and made overseas to keep prices low and meet the volume Monkey Sports requires. Retail prices for denim will range from $79 to $89, and jackets will be priced from $149 to $189.
The apparel line brings Foster and Duarte’s fashion backgrounds and apparel-industry experience to a company that has been specializing in hockey and lacrosse equipment retail since 1999.
“We have the retail experience and the marketing piece,” Arnold said. “With all of the skills and talents we have, I wouldn’t put fashion design as one of them. We really needed that critical piece of the puzzle, and that’s what Pepper and Henry have been able to bring to the table. I’m really happy with what we have so far. For Spring and as time goes on, we’ll introduce more.”
In the last few years, Monkey Sports has invested heavily in the company’s infrastructure, Arnold said.
“We are now capable of growing significantly without skipping a beat,” he said.
For the first four years, Monkey Sports was strictly an e-commerce operation.
Monkey Sports opened its first store in Santa Ana, Calif., in 2002. In 2010, the company opened a store in Woodbridge, N.J., followed by stores in Norwood, Mass., in 2012, and Irvine, Calif., in 2013.
Dubbed Superstores, the Norwood facility is 36,000 square feet, and the Irvine store is 26,000 square feet.
The company is currently building four more stores in the U.S. and ramping up its distribution network.
“We already have the properties. We’re just going through the process of turning them into retail stores,” Arnold said. “So by this time next year, we might have eight stores in the United States.”
Monkey Sports is also in the process of relocating its headquarters and 150,000-square-foot distribution center from Corona, Calif., to a new 261,000-square-foot space in Allen, Texas. The company also has a 10,000-square-foot distribution center in Massachusetts and plans to open a 25,000-square-foot distribution center in New Hampshire and a 20,000-square-foot DC in the Denver area within the next 12 months.
The expanded distribution network will allow Monkey Sports to quickly fill online orders across the country and replenish inventory at its stores.
“If someone orders something, instead of always having California provide that, we have other options to service them much quicker,” Arnold said. “And if one of our stores back East realizes we’re out of something, we have a distribution center relatively nearby.”
Although Monkey Sports has what Arnold describes as a “healthy international business, the vast majority is in the U.S.” Online sales for Europe are handled out of Monkey Sports’ office and retail store in Sweden.
