Xlarge Poised for Growth

With a new line, new distribution focus and even new licensing deals, Los Angelesbased clothing design firm Xlarge is poised to grow even bigger. That’s the mission for the company, which currently has about 300 wholesale accounts and two U.S. and 14 international stores, according to chief operating officer and partner Cindy Wylie.

“We’d like to double our accounts and expand our presence into more regional stores where there’s a good fit,” Wylie said.

Not a newcomer to the business, Xlarge was founded 11 years ago by Eli Bonerz and Mike D of the Beastie Boys—now 10 percent owner of the company—as a music-influenced line catering to the hip-hop and rave enthusiast. The brand, which consisted of the Xlarge men’s line and the x’e junior line, stayed mostly underground in the U.S. but was widely received abroad, primarily in Japan, where there are nine stores alone.

In the last few years, the company has spent more time and money beefing up the quality of its clothing and its systems in order to roll out a bigger push. In the last year, it hired New York multishowroom sales representative Robert Allex, after he propelled the company’s recent entry into Bloomingdale’s, its first department store account, and former GUESS? executive Robert Martin, who’s overseen domestic and overseas production. Recently, Xlarge spent about $50,000 upgrading its computer systems, as well as purchased a 10,500-squarefoot office building in Glendale, Calif., where it’s relocating in December.

With its house in order, executives turned to ways to take the $20 million company to the next level. First, Xlarge realized there is a demand for more doors judging by the business from its Web site, which receives 2 million hits a month. Shoppers buying from the Web were from different parts of the country, not just coastal regions.

Then, to make its pricier clothes more attractive to broader wholesalers, such as department stores, Xlarge last fall moved about 50 percent of its production offshore to South Korea, which decreased wholesale price points by 20 percent to 30 percent, Wylie said. To maintain production quality, the company devotes one factory to each clothing category.

“Now our pants sell retail for about $60, which is more competitive with other brands,” Wylie said.

Since spring, Bloomingdale’s has carried the line at its California stores in Newport Beach, Palo Alto and Los Angeles’ Beverly Center mall. The retailer’s Lexington Avenue store in New York will begin selling the Spring 2003 line next year.

Xlarge hopes to branch out into other Federated Department Stores divisions, including Macy’s. Most of the stores that currently sell Xlarge are boutiques and skate shops, including Indigo Flower in Santa Monica, Calif., 118 Boardshop in Granada Hills, Calif., True in San Francisco and Concepts in Boston.

“We’ve come to terms that to reach more people, it’s a whole lot more efficient through department stores and chain stores,” Wylie said.

Xlarge is also reaching out to the skate customer with its new XLA line, which had a strong debut at the MAGIC International show in Las Vegas in August. Designed by skater Billy Vales, the line’s baggier pants, sweat shirt and Vans co-branded skate shoe are geared to the more high-end skate customer, Wylie said.

“We think there are skaters out there who care about fashion, and that’s what we embody,” she said. “We hope that this will be a bigger brand than Xlarge itself.”

On the retail front, Xlarge is remodeling its New York store and plans to reopen it in mid-October. The Los Feliz store in Los Angeles was redone last year with 30-foot ceilings, color-blocked linoleum and hanging wall cubicles for a cleaner, less cluttered presentation, according to Maurice Menares, Xlarge public relations director. Menares, who said the U.S. stores bring in $750,000 in annual sales, added that there’s room to grow domestically with three more units in the next three years.

Another way Xlarge is stretching itself is by seeking out new licensing deals with upand- coming designers. The company recently inked a licensing deal with the Los Angeles- based line Daggers Drawn to help manufacture its T-shirts, coats, pants, shirts and accessories.