In fact, Arc’teryx has faced criticism for shifting its focus away from its core consumer, mountain athletes. By returning to this, Arc’teryx aims to win back long-time outdoor consumers and benefit from the brand’s affinity with a broader fashion demographic due to its outdoor feel.
This is now at the core of the brand’s expansion strategy. “The focus on these metropolitan centers is how do we introduce our brand beyond just a niche mountain athlete community, and we can’t afford to lose that in any way,” Haselden said. he says.
Deliver directly to consumers
Arc’teryx opened 33 new stores in 2024. “That’s kind of why I’m here,” Haselden says of this DTC double-down, or what he calls the “vertical reinvention of Arc’teryx.” He says he knows much more about DTC than wholesale, especially from his nine years at J Crew.
In both 2021 and 2022, the focus was on developing the brand’s retail expression. The past two years have been spent refining the presentation and opening more outposts. At the time of Haselden’s addition, the brand had fewer than 20 retail stores in North America and average sales of $1.3 million. This year, average sales at the current 60 stores in North America are expected to reach nearly $3.5 million. “We still have a lot of ways to go to improve on these numbers,” the CEO said, noting that a total of 200 stores (14 to 15 store openings per year) is an “easy goal.” Beyond the US and Canada, the goal is to achieve similar in-store productivity across Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific and Australia.
Arc’teryx, outside the Courrèges show during Fall/Winter 2023 Paris Fashion Week.
Photo: Melody Jen
Frank Ocean of Arc’teryx.
Photo: Edward Berthelot
DTC is not a new strategy for sportswear. Nor is success guaranteed. In recent years, Nike has relied too heavily on the DTC channel, and its revenue has suffered from it. We are now returning to a better balance overall. So why is Haselden so sure this is the right strategy for Arc’teryx?
“We’re still relatively small. This isn’t a case of a big company trying to reinvent itself by ceding some of its wholesale industry position to create this DTC representation,” he said. I say. “We’re inventing it near the early stages.” Arc’teryx’s brand awareness is relatively low, so DTC is a strategy to introduce the brand to consumers, he added.
increase innovation
At Arc’teryx, innovation takes time, in part because of our technical products. “More than half of our revenue comes from outerwear, so we have to maintain our leadership position in this world,” Haselden says. For that, a lot of testing is done at our headquarters where there are lots of machines to facilitate fine-tuning of the products. The machines themselves have been fine-tuned (or “Frankensteined,” as staff say) by in-house engineers to meet the brand’s specific needs.
