Big Strike Announces New Creative Team
After a major investment last year by a private-equity fund, juniorswear maker Big Strike is on the move.
The $4 billion private-equity fund The Gores Group invested a significant but undisclosed amount in Big Strike in 2011. It will give the Gardena, Calif.–based Big Strike the juice to expand. The juniors company makes labels Tracy Evans, Halo and HeartSOUL.
On Jan 11, Big Strike announced the hiring of fashion veterans Renée Thomas and Billy Curtis for its Tracy Evans juniors label. Thomas will serve as the creative director. Curtis will serve as the sales manager. The label has been sold at mid-level retailers such as Dillard’s, Kohl’s and JCPenney.
Thomas and Curtis intend to boost the quality, fit and fashion appeal of Tracy Evans. “They were known for a basic trouser,” Thomas said. “We’re going to bring new bodies to the label. We’re going to give it a more contemporary edge but stay at juniors price points.”
Thomas and Curtis started their careers in juniors fashions. But in 1998, they founded the contemporary bottoms line Billy Blues, which was sold at retailers such as Nordstrom and Fred Segal during the label’s 13-year run. The company closed in December.
“Billy Blues stood for fit and quality,” Curtis said. “We’re going to bring to the juniors level the same standards we had at Billy Blues.”
Big Strike President and co-founder Lars Viklund said Thomas and Curtis would give the Tracy Evans label a new, fashionable edge. “Billy Blues, like Tracy Evans, has built a long lasting and respectable reputation based on impeccable fit, attention to detail and, most importantly, styles that sell,” Viklund said.
Last year, The Gores Group bought a controlling interest in the company, which had revenues of about $100 million. As part of the deal, Paula Schneider, former president of Speedo and Laundry by Shelli Segal, is coming on board as Big Strike’s chief executive.
Schneider said Tracy Evans’ look would appeal to young women and women who had recently graduated from college.
For the rest of the company, she forecast, Big Strike’s 2012 sales will grow 20 percent over 2011 revenues. “There’s an opportunity to use Big Strike as a platform to acquire new businesses,” she said. Any new venture would stay close to Big Strike’s strength of sportswear-driven business.—Andrew Asch
