Sportswear chain Columbia Sportswear Company (COLM) has launched its branded store in New York to tap the upcoming holiday surge in traffic. Located at 345 W. 14th St., between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in New York's Meatpacking District, the store offers Columbia's outerwear, apparel and footwear.
Although Columbia Sportswear’s products are already available through its retail shops, this is the first time that customers will be able to shop in stores exclusively offering its brands in the region.
The store will offer men’s, women’s and kids’ apparels, ranging from formal women’s Minx boots to freestyle new ski jackets. Moreover, the store came up just in time to feature Columbia Sportswear’s latest Performance Enhanced Down (PED) insulating jacket — TurboDown launched in Oct 2014. (Read: Columbia Sportswear Launches PED TurboDown Jackets)
The store opening is part of the new retail strategy outlined by management during the recently concluded third-quarter earnings conference call under which the company will open its own stores throughout the country.
The store at New York is the first of newly differentiated store formats featuring Columbia Sportswear’s Performance Fishing Gear collection, the Sorel brand, as well as broader Columbia brand assortments. .
During the third-quarter conference call management announced that it plans to open six stores in the fourth quarter. It already opened a Performance Fishing Gear store near Atlanta. It also expects to open another similar store in Dallas and two Columbia stores in Chicago.
Retailers nowadays are opening their own branded stores to increase profit by circumventing the wholesalers. Moreover, it gives retailers more control over how the products are displayed as well as customer interaction.
Columbia Sportswear carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other stocks in the textile/sportswear apparel sector that warrant a look includes Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI), Michael Kors Inc. (KORS) and Nike Inc. (NKE). While Hanesbrands and Nike sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Michael Kors carryies a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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