California Apparel News

Next year, Swim ‘n Sport will celebrate its 60th anniversary as a family-owned chain of swimwear stores that has survived when many of its competitors floundered during the recent economic downturn.

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Swim n Sport

Later this year, Swim ‘n Sport will open its 33rd outpost in the high-end Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio, and then it is on to Indianapolis, where store No. 34 will debut before Thanksgiving. It’s the company’s first venture into Indiana.

This is quite a feat for a retail chain whose many competitors have either drowned in a sea of debt or vanished due to consolidations. At one time, malls were filled with nameplates such as Just Add Water and Water Water Everywhere. But both chains have disappeared in the years since they were acquired by Everything But Water, which has weathered its own rough surf. (The 29-year-old company was purchased in 2006 by Bear Growth Capital Partners and then went on to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009. The Orlando, Fla.–based company emerged from bankruptcy and today has more than 70 mall-based stores.)

“There is something to be said about longevity,” said Los Angeles swimwear designer Rod Beattie, who last year introduced his new Bleu/Rod Beattie label at the Swim ‘n Sport store in the Aventura Mall near Miami. “The stores that are on top have been able to adapt and continue. Swim ‘n Sport has good locations.”

But it’s not just about location. It’s about selection and service, which was instilled by the founder, Merle Sidle, who opened his first swimwear store in 1954 in Miami. Merle Sidle operated a few juniors department stores in Florida, but it was a struggle. He noticed that the one department that always did well was swimwear. So he shuttered the department stores and concentrated on swimwear with a special focus on merchandise and customer service.

“He wanted to give the consumer a lot to choose from and make sure there was somebody there to fulfill their needs, whether it was to help them select a suit or bring them another size in the fitting room,” said Mark Sidle, the founder’s son and now the president and chief executive of the retail chain. “We spend a lot of time and energy and money in making sure that we have a staff that is knowledgeable. We put them through a training program and a selling strategy that is consistent for every employee working with a customer.”

That has helped the company grow. When Merle Sidle passed away 17 years ago, the company had nine swimwear stores in Florida. Now the company is in 13 states, as far west as Colorado and as far north as Boston with the heaviest concentration in Florida. Indiana will be the 14th state.

Customer service is king in a world where annual swimwear sales are in the billions. According to The NPD Group, a New York retail-research group, women’s swimwear sales in the year ending April 2013 totaled $2.88 billion, up slightly from $2.87 billion in 2012 and $2.8 billion in 2011. Unit sales totaled 144.7 million in 2013, a bump up from 144.2 million in 2012.

So the challenge is to grab a piece of a market that isn’t growing by leaps and bounds. “I think they have been in business so long because they know what they are doing,” said David Shalom, chief executive of the Los Angeles–based swimwear line 1 Sol Swimwear, a 5-year-old label stocked by Swim ‘n Sport. “They buy what the public wants. Their merchandise is good, and their prices are good, too.”

Swim ‘n Sport takes the attitude that fit is key and finding the right swimsuit is a process. “Our customers spend a lot of time trying suits on. Some people will take 10 suits into the dressing room. It’s not like buying a pair of shoes, where you slip it on and say, ‘That’s good,’” Sidle said. “It’s work. So we make sure the dressing rooms are cool and comfortable.”

Sidle also makes sure there are plenty of labels hanging on the racks—whether it is a new brand or a designer collection. The chain stocks swimwear collections such as Lauren Ralph Lauren, Red Carter, Nanette Lepore, Body Glove, La Blanca, Badgley Mischka, Trina Turk and Kenneth Cole New York. The average retail price for a suit ranges from $125 to $140 with the company’s core customer being between the ages of 25 and 50. “We don’t do a lot of juniors, but we do have young contemporary all the way up to misses,” Sidle noted.

The average retail space for a Swim ‘n Sport location is 1,500 square feet, and 95 percent of the emporiums are located in upscale malls. Keeping stores up-to-date is another key ingredient. “This year we have done several remodels,” Sidle said, noting that being fresh and looking new is essential when appealing to a discerning customer. One recent remodel was at the Houston Galleria, where soft lighting that accents off-white walls creates an inviting ambience. The Aventura Mall store is decorated in cool colors and the countertops are lined with a wavy design. Indirect lighting makes the customer feel more at ease.

The retail chain’s biggest competition these days are department stores, rather than other swimwear retail chains. Department stores carry huge volumes and discount their swimwear as soon as the Fourth of July holiday rolls around. “But we are getting in a lot of new product that they don’t carry by mid-summer,” Sidle said. “The industry makes two to three swimwear lines a year, and department stores don’t bring in suits as frequently,” he said.

In his more than 35 years in the business, Sidle has seen the swimwear industry change drastically. It used to be populated with labels that made their bathing suits in the United States and were able to supply merchandise within a month. Now it takes 90 to 120 days to get reorders.

Decades ago, there were more labels to choose from, and fabric and prints were better. “I think the creativeness of the product has become limited due to where the goods are being manufactured,” Sidle said, noting that most swimsuits are now made in Asia. “I miss the days of Italian fabric.”

But Swim ‘n Sport will continue carrying multiple swimwear labels and forging its way as one of the largest family-owned swimwear chains. Whether that is passed on to the next generation is still a question.

Sidle’s 17-year-old daughter, Alexis, has been to four Miami SwimShows and will attend again this year. His 14-year-old son, Andrew, went to his first Miami SwimShow last year and will be back for more. “He enjoyed seeing the models,” Sidle said.