Bella+Canvas, Los Angeles, announced that it launched a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform. Previously, Bella+Canvas apparel was only available via wholesale channels, but now end-buyers can directly purchase blank men’s and women’s styles from a curated assortment of products.
Furthermore, the company said it will start online, but plans to open pop-up physical stores starting next year.
“We’ve [been] making retail-quality tees since we started making apparel over 25 years ago,” Danny Harris, co-CEO and co-founder of Bella+Canvas, said in a press release. “We’ve always prided ourselves on doing wholesale different—perfecting our craft and making the most exceptional quality tees possible. For us, a move into the retail space has never been a matter of if, but when, and we’re excited to announce that time has finally come.”
https://twitter.com/BellaCanvasLA/status/1181295450197876736
The company said that the decision to add a retail offering came “after years of requests from people” who were fans of its hoodies and T-shirts they received as promotional items.
“The main reason we decided to launch a retail extension of the brand is because of all the requests we’ve gotten from commercial consumers that discovered us and wanted to buy the blanks for themselves,” Summer Barry, creative and marketing director for Bella+Canvas, told Promo Marketing. “Our social media presence has gotten really big, and we get requests all the time through that channel.”
When asked if Bella+Canvas has received any pushback from competitors or colleagues in the promotional apparel industry, Barry said that all of the feedback has been positive.
“This will only help promotional marketers as Bella+Canvas becomes a household name,” she said. “It will help drive end-customer demand and increase perceived value, and promotional distributors understand that.”
The company is following the example set not only by apparel businesses that cater to both the wholesale and retail markets—like Hanes and American Apparel—as well as purely retail-focused brands.
“Of course we looked at the wholesale manufacturers that have done it before us, but even more so we looked at all the e-commerce basics companies that really made a name for themselves online, like Buck Mason and Mac Weldon, and could see how huge the retail demand for high quality, eco-friendly basics really was,” Barry said.
