An Atlanta underwear company is putting it all out in the open.
After years of selling its products in department stores, boutiques and on the Internet, Buckhead-based Spanx Inc. is opening its first stores.
Three locations will open this November in upscale shopping centers in Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The goal is to open another five to 10 stores in 2013, said Spanx CEO Laurie Ann Goldman.
“We always thought that having our own stores was kind of inevitable,” Goldman said in an Oct. 30 interview with Atlanta Business Chronicle. “Women now really just want to shop whenever, wherever and however they want to. This gives them another option.”
The move speaks to the strength of the brand, which debuted in 2000 and has made its founder, Sara Blakely, the youngest, self-made female billionaire in the world.
“This is a longtime dream coming true for me,” Blakely said in a video about the new stores on the Spanx website.
Spanx manufactures more than 200 products, such as slimming bodywear, bras, pantyhose and swimwear.
Blakely invented the first product – a footless pantyhose – when she needed something seamless to wear under her white pants. Blakely wrote the patent herself and, in the company’s early days, Blakely would do in-store rallies to sell her products.
Spanx took off when talk show host Oprah Winfrey recommended Blakely’s footless pantyhose as one of her “Favorite Things.” It wasn’t long before she was gracing the cover of Forbes magazine.
Today, Spanx sells products to more than 12,000 stores in 50 countries. Forbes reported this year that Spanx nets about 20 percent of its nearly $250 million in revenue, valuing the company at $1 billion. A Spanx spokeswoman would not confirm those figures.
Spanx sees the time as right to open its own stores, Goldman said, so it can better reach customers. Also, there was a limit to the amount of its products that could be displayed at department stores.
“As the retail landscape continues to change, we were really just kind of busting at the seams,” Goldman said. “I think it gives us a new way to connect with our fans. We really get to meet her live and in person, and hear her feedback directly.”
The first store is slated to open in the upscale shopping mall Tysons Corner Center in Virginia on Nov. 2. The boutique will be about 1,200 square feet, decked in “Spanx red” and feminine furnishings. A lighted display called the “Tower of Power” will be a feature to help women select the proper hosiery for their bodies.
“We worked really hard to try to find great locations that felt right to us,” Goldman said. “About a month or so after we signed the lease [at Tysons Corner], we found out that it was Apple’s first location. So, we thought that was really good karma since they are such a great retailer.”
Other stores will open at Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in New Jersey on Nov. 9 and King of Prussia mall in Pennsylvania on Nov. 16.
“Those are all really strong developments and markets,” said retail expert Ray Uttenhove with the Atlanta office of SRS Retail Estate Partners.
A Spanx store also opened in October in the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. But, that store is not owned by Spanx Inc. It’s run by airport concessionaire The Paradies Shops. Future markets for new stores could include the company’s hometown of Atlanta, as well as Texas and Florida, Goldman said.
Spanx is following in the footsteps of other brands that went from purely wholesale and Internet businesses to opening their own stores.
“That’s a common trend,” said Dewayne Herbert, Phipps Plaza mall manager. “It’s a strategy that a lot of brands take … It’s more brand exposure, more opportunity.”
For example, Lilly Pulitzer, an upscale collection of women’s and girl’s dresses and other products, opened a 2,500-square-foot store at Phipps earlier this year – the first store in Georgia for the more than 50-year-old brand.
“Traditionally, wholesalers and brand stores are slow to roll out and expand as they are testing demand in the market,” said Mike Neal, senior vice president for Colliers International-Atlanta’s retail services group.
Swiss luxury watchmaker Hublot also opened its own store at Phipps in October. It was the brand’s eighth boutique in the United States.
Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe said in October that adding more stores was an attempt to better connect with their customers.
“When retailers open their branded stores, it raises the awareness significantly,” Uttenhove said. “It just takes it to a whole different level.”