Outdoor Voices’ New Soho Store Is Looking Like a Lifestyle Hub for Cool Kids
“I’m headed to Marfa for a photo shoot," says activewear entrepreneur Tyler Haney, when I ask what she’s doing for Halloween. "So it should be extra spooky.”
The founder of Outdoor Voices (OV) has become fitness fashion’s cool kid, and she’s got look books to shoot, a buzzy spring collection with French it-brand A.P.C. to put the finishing touches on, and a new Manhattan store to fill with her Millennial-approved merch, as she prepares to open her burgeoning lifestyle brand’s first New York City location on November 15.
Haney founded the company in 2013, and was knighted early on by J.Crew for her style and ethos. She runs in circles like Sweetgreen, Man Repeller (a collaborator), and the aforementioned A.P.C., which she also recently wooed into becoming a big investor. The recent $7 million infusion means Haney can create a store to showcase the lifestyle OV advocates—“approaching activity with moderation, humour and delight.” OV has a store in Austin, its “spiritual home where people really live the brand.” Performance-oriented Manhattanites, she rightly suggests, still need a little help in that regard.
So, on Lafayette and Broome in Soho, around the corner from the company's HQ (a Canal Street loft), the new store will be a several-month pop-up that Haney’s calling a retail installation. (It runs through January 15.)
The store will stock signature OV tanks, leggings, and sweats for men and women, the latter focusing on their famously restrained shades—think graphite, ash, and slate, or heather on heather, with a pop of navy or black (you know, for flair). There will be clothing bundles (or, in OV parlance, "kits") for holiday in a range of "lower price points" and plenty of store-only items, like women’s merino underwear and track jackets, a unisex bomber jacket, plus lifestyle items from hot indie brands like Newton sneakers, Earth Tu Face beauty, D.S. & Durga candles, Discraft frisbees, and Found My Animal dog leashes.
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The space was created by first-time interior designer Ana Kras, an artist whose abstract shapes, objects, and furniture have long spoken to Haney. “Ana designed the whole thing, from construction and the methodology of the handing racks to the big upholstered beautiful, tech-y fabric covered shapes that have a playground vibe and double as seating," she explains. "You can just stretch on it and bend around it when you try things on—or just hang out.”
And hanging out is a big part of the mission. “Community is really what having a physical space allows us to do,” Haney says, adding that she's already scheduled a calendar of workout happy hours, yoga classes with Sky Ting, and activities with the “girls of Dannijo” and Glossier.
“We want to have a place for our jogging club to start and end from, and our dog walks,” says Haney. “They’re kind of the perfect example of who we are as a brand.” —Melisse Gelula
199 Lafayette, at Broome, Soho, New York, NY, 10012, www.outdoorvoices.com
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(Photos: Outdoor Voices)
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