California Apparel News

Hard Tail owner Dick Cantrell is from an era that valued honesty, integrity and the American dream—a time, perhaps not so long ago, when business was done on a handshake and clients became old friends.

Cantrell also has a sentimental streak, which he parlays into a definite nostalgic quality, with T-shirt graphics based on military and tattoo motifs that evoke days gone by. But Cantrell is quick to acknowledge that in order to stay ahead of the game, he has to join the rest of his apparel brothers and sisters in the information age.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company’s official Web site, www.hardtailforever.com, which is scheduled to launch at the end of July, is the company’s foray into the World Wide Web and B2B business. The site will allow buyers to view and order styles from the latest season and will provide consumers with up-to-date information about the Hard Tail line. The company plans to include its entire collection for the current season on the site.

“Right now it’s hard to find any one retailer that has the same exact [Hard Tail] shirt as the next,” Cantrell said, “but I’m hoping that having this Web site available will make it easier for consumers to locate stores that carry specific Hard Tail items.”

Currently, Hard Tail’s women’s and children’s styles are selling exceptionally well, according to Bob Serf, owner of Fred Segal Sportswear and Kids on Melrose, which has carried the line for about three years. “Comfort is [the] main thing people can rely on [with Hard Tail],” said Serf, noting that Hard Tail is currently seeing particularly strong sales with its drawstring pants for women.

Track record is another quality the company possesses. Its sales “are always very consistent and the line has a following that buys merchandise on a continuous basis,” Serf added.

Cantrell declined to release company sales figures, but said his brand of streetsmart-meets-casualwear receives about 2,000 orders each season. Hard Tail’s sales volume this year is up 40 percent over last year, when the company reportedly earned more than $25 million.

The company is constantly adding new pieces to its sportswear collection, an extension of the label that also appeals to legions of fitness fanatics (particularly those who practice yoga) because of its use of soft stretch fabric that makes the clothing a unique combination of casual sportswear and fitness apparel.

Cantrell’s focus was to get Generations X and Y familiar with the brand before taking it to the next level. Before long, people were catching on to Cantrell’s concept and Hard Tail’s branded sportswear stuck.

“The line has been performing well for a long time,” he said, almost puzzled by the brand’s growing popularity among buyers and consumers.

Recently, the company was nominated for the 2001 D.I.V.A. Designer of the Year Award by the Americas Mart in Atlanta.

The Right Stuff

The company got its start nearly a decade ago when Cantrell, a former Air Force pilot who served in Vietnam in the late ’60s before opening a denim retail store in San Francisco, decided to launch his own line of sportswear. He said the original concept behind the label was to incorporate military-inspired tattoo logos into T-shirts and tank tops. Even the company’s logo—a red star with wings in the shape of a military pin—has a connection to Cantrell’s past.

But there’s another side to Hard Tail that boasts a hip and edgy line of denim, called Hard Tail Jeans. The collection, with wholesale price points starting at $35 for a pair of basic denim, also includes novelty styles as well as basic and sleeveless denim jackets.

For Cantrell, reuniting with novelty-treated denim is part of the nostalgia factor, but also his overall vision for the company. Cantrell said the denim world of the late 1960s was not lackadaisical; rather,it was entrepreneurial, with a “do it yourself” approach to business. “Selling bell-bottoms and novelty-treated denim was a respectable business,” he explained. “And aside from the Gap, there were only a few specialty retailers doing it.”

Unlike some denim brands, Hard Tail Jeans is not feeling the impact of the economic slowdown. Marie Kennedy Shaffer, a company rep and owner of Blue Tattoo Jeans Inc., which has held an exclusive license to Hard Tail’s denim division for the past two years, said the division makes up 30 percent of Hard Tail’s overall sales, adding that the denim line is selling “extremely well right now.”

Shaffer said one of the reasons the brand is selling so quickly is because buyers are noticing a consumer demand for comfortable clothing. The company fuses a combination of fabric blends, including ribbed rayon/Lycra and cotton/Lycra, in its knitwear collection. Hard Tail’s collection includes 30 bodies made with a combination of cotton fleece, cotton thermal and sherpa are also used to make tops and bottoms.Seventy percent of the company’s business is in dyed-to-order garments. A portion of Hard Tail’s collection is tie-dye-treated.

“[Tie-dye] will get quiet for a while and then it will come back,” Cantrell explained. “It’s definitely not the major force it used to be, but it should [continue to] be something of a fashion staple.”

Otheritems that sell well are the fly-away tank, a tank top with a slit that exposes the nape of the back; soft, fleece bottoms for men; and brightly colored button-up vest tops with matching four-button fleece miniskirts for women. Price points for the knitwear collection range from $8 for a tank top to $40 for a fleece jacket.

For Summer/Fall, Cantrell added more bright, medium and military-inspired colors to the line. Olive, brown, deep purple, cobalt blue, magenta, army green, pumpkin and oxblood are some of the shades featured in the collection.

Deliveries begin 7/31 to specialty retail stores such as Nordstrom, Fred Segal, Henri Bendel, M. Fredrick and National Jeans.

Buyers got a sneak preview of the company’s Fall collection last May at New York’s Intermezzo Show where, Cantrell said, “Business was great.”

Last month, the company doubled its East Coast showroom space by moving its men’s, women’s and kids’ collections into a 2,000-square-foot showroom at West 39th Street in the heart of New York’s fashion district. The company also has showrooms in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, and Amsterdam.