Valuation: 40 billion! This men's clothing brand is on fire

Is it hard to make money from men?

It is said that it is difficult to make money from men, and even their consumption value is placed at the bottom. However, there is a brand that specializes in men's clothing that has broken through the siege and has won the favor of capital one after another. Recently, it has won a strategic financing of US$825 million.

It can be said that it is not that men’s money is difficult to make, but that the products do not touch their hearts.

Vuori gets new financing, with a valuation of about 40 billion

The high inventory risk, high threshold and slow capital return have always been the consensus of the industry that men's clothing is difficult to sell. But if you look at it from another angle, men buy clothes mostly based on rigid demand, and as long as the seller follows the rigid demand, they can also develop good products.

Vuori, a new North American men's clothing brand , has received large amounts of financing in succession, which has also attracted more people in the industry to focus on the men's clothing overseas market.

In mid-November, Vuori announced that it had received a new round of financing of US$825 million from General Atlantic and Stripes, the former of which had invested in British fitness apparel brands Gymshark and Shein, and the latter of which was a shareholder of On.

The financing amount of US$850 million not only broke the record for the largest single financing in the sports field, but also directly pushed Vuori's valuation to US$5.5 billion (approximately RMB 40 billion).

In fact, before this, Vuori had already obtained two rounds of financing.

In August 2019, Vuori received a strategic investment of US$45 million from Norwest Venture Partners, with a valuation of US$200 million at the time. In October 2021, the company received another US$400 million in financing from SoftBank Vision Fund II, with its valuation rising to US$4 billion.

So far, Vuori has received three rounds of financing, with a valuation of approximately 40 billion yuan. According to Bloomberg, Vuori had planned to conduct an initial public offering in 2024, and did not rule out the possibility of subsequent IPO plans.

The managing director of investor General Atlantic Capital Group spoke highly of Vuori: "Vuori has huge consumer loyalty and incredible products."

It has received large amounts of financing one after another, and its valuation has continued to double. What is the origin of this men's clothing brand?

Vuori , which started out as a yoga pants brand, enters the men's apparel market

Vuori 's founder Joe Kudla had multiple work experiences before starting his own business, including accounting and modeling, but this did not hinder his obsession with sports such as surfing and yoga.

He loves yoga, but found that there was no yoga clothing on the market that met masculine characteristics. Even the popular yoga clothing brand lululemon was only popular among women. Joe Kudla decided to explore the blank market of men's yoga clothing.

In 2015, Joe Kudla raised $2.5 million and started his entrepreneurial journey in his garage, creating the brand Vuori to fill the gap in the men's yoga apparel market. His first product was a pair of men's sports shorts, which he mainly marketed in fitness venues.

But sales were not good at first. It was not until Joe Kudla shifted his marketing channels to online and began to promote the advantages of his products such as fabrics, durability, simplicity and comfort through social media such as Facebook and Instagram that he officially opened up the market.

Since its development, its products have expanded from the original yoga pants to a full set of sportswear for men and women. Opening its official website, you can find that its web design is relatively simple, and the product prices are mostly within $100, and many are as low as around $50.

"Since its inception, Vuori has maintained a 250% annual growth rate and has always remained profitable," its founder once mentioned. This is due to many factors, including the surge in online sales and Vuori's vigorous development of offline sales. At the same time, the company has set a goal of building 100 stores worldwide by 2026.

In addition to foreign markets, Vuori is also expanding in other markets. Take China as an example, Vuori opened a store on the domestic online platform under the name of "Fei Aoli", with prices ranging from 400 to 4,000 yuan, and its main products are men's sportswear.

Later, Vuori continued to open multiple offline stores in Shanghai to expand its business in China. Vuori can be found on many domestic social platforms, and Vuori has also become one of the brands favored by many domestic sports enthusiasts.

However, compared with the initial start of men's yoga clothing, Vuori is now trying to get rid of the label of men's yoga clothing alone and start to develop men's and women's clothing at the same time. This situation is not only reflected in its independent website, but also in many offline stores, where men's and women's clothing each occupy half of the store space.

Men's clothing brands are on the rise

In fact, looking at the current market, it is not difficult to find that although the development momentum of men's clothing is not as strong as that of women's clothing, it is in a steady expansion state. A previous marketing report pointed out that as early as 2022, the global men's clothing market revenue will reach 107.931 billion US dollars, and it is expected to grow at an annual rate of 2.29%.

Among the cross-border sellers going overseas, there are also men's clothing brands that are doing well. The big seller Saiwei also has men's clothing among its brands, ranking third among Amazon men's clothing. Its products are mostly daily basic styles, such as formal wear, jackets, and sportswear.

This may be consistent with the fact that there is a threshold for men's clothing styles, and the leading brands have more advantages in basic styles.

However, compared with the high explosive rate of small-order, quick-return women's clothing, the explosive men's clothing from two or three years ago may not be outdated today, and its explosive period is also longer. It took Savi five years of deep cultivation in the men's clothing track before it achieved a real explosion.

"More and more big sellers are pouring into the cross-border men's wear market," a seller shared. Although the current men's wear market is still in a state of selling overall, its growth rate is far higher than the growth of overall market traffic. After deeply cultivating women's wear and even other markets, many sellers have extended their tentacles to the men's wear market.

The well-known SHEIN has long begun to explore the new fashion blue ocean of men's wear and has opened a special shopping channel for men. Its products include high-quality men's clothing and accessories in holiday and casual styles. The weekly sales of some individual items even reach more than a thousand pieces.

In June this year , SHEIN began to focus on attracting investment in men's accessories. After that, this category achieved a GMV growth rate of more than 200% on the platform for two consecutive months, and also attracted a number of sellers who are deeply engaged in men's products.

It is not difficult to see that all major platforms are actively exploring the potential of male consumption. Although the topic of male consumption is not as hot as that of female consumption, one fact that cannot be ignored is that the purchase of products such as fishing gear, speakers, motorcycles, and Lego is all centered around male interests and hobbies. Their demand for clothing, accessories and other products is no less than that of women, which also proves the vitality of this market.

It is foreseeable that the men's clothing track will exude more possibilities in the future, but at the same time it will also usher in more intense competition.

Men's Yoga Wear

Vuori

North America