Dive Brief:
- DTC athleisure brand Fabletics has gone back to school. The Los Angeles-based company opened its first on-campus retail store at the University of Southern California, according to an emailed release sent to Retail Dive.
- The 2,000-square-foot store, which opened last week in the USC Village shopping center, offers a full range of the brand’s athletic and athleisure wear for men and women. The store is planning to sell an exclusive selection of USC-branded merchandise this fall, according to the company.
- The USC location marks Fabletics’ 92nd store in the U.S. There are five other Fabletics branded stores in the Los Angeles area.
Dive Insight:
More retailers are finding opportunities opening closer to college campuses. Target in recent years has opened several small-format stores on or near campuses, including a location at the USC Village.
While many Fabletics stores have shop-in-shops of its sister brand’s Yitty collection of shapewear, there are no current plans to carry the product at USC. The company said it will continue to evolve its product offerings based on customer preferences.
In addition to Yitty, Fabletics has been introducing new products in order to grow its customer base. In the past two years the brand launched the Any-Wear collection as well as loungewear, a velour line and most recently a collection of scrubs.
Originally created as a digitally native brand in 2013, Fabletics differentiates itself from competitors such as Lululemon and Athleta with a VIP Membership program that offers exclusive benefits such as discounts on merchandise.
According to ecommerceDB, a partner of Statista, Fabletics experienced global e-commerce net sales in 2022 of $296.4 million.
Two years ago the owners of Fabletics’ parent company, TechStyle Fashion Group, were reportedly considering an IPO that would have brought a valuation of approximately $5 billion. However, the company remains private.
