Look from Buck Mason collection.
LOCALLY MADE JEANS & TEES
After a Pure Play E-Commerce Debut, Buck Mason to Open Abbot Kinney Store
The Los Angeles–headquartered Buck Mason brand has found success in every forum that uses electricity and screens.
It launched two years ago by retailing its jeans and tees to the creative classes on its pure-play e-commerce site (www.buckmason.com). Sales have grown steadily, according to the label’s founders, Sasha Koehn and Erik Schnakenberg. The Buck Mason founders jumped from computers to TV screens when they appeared this year on “Shark Tank,” the ABC network reality show focusing on entrepreneurs.
But the next step for the brand is based on concrete. It will open a Buck Mason bricks-and-mortar location.
This fall, the downtown LA–headquartered brand is scheduled to open a boutique at 1638 Abbot Kinney Blvd., the high-profile shopping street in Los Angeles’ Venice section. It will take possession of the 650-square-foot space in July. Currently, fashion brand Freenote is running a pop-up shop at the address.
The Abbot Kinney space will offer a more detailed picture of the brand compared with the low-key, 380-square-foot boutique that the label has run as a retail space at 580 Venice Blvd. The small space was modest and tucked behind a bus stop, Schnakenberg said.
“It was more of a showroom,” he said of the space, which was remodeled for $895. “It was a great way for our customers to experience the physical product. … We were surprised at how much of our online following drove traffic to the store.”
Buck Mason was not merely interested in a larger space. It intends to use the Abbot Kinney address as a billboard on a high-profile street that has become a tourist stop in Los Angeles. “We weren’t getting that traffic from behind the bus stop,” Schnakenberg said. He also forecast that the shop would put the brand higher on the local radar screen. “The new space will allow us to serve the local clientele. We are excited about local exposure,” he said.
Koehn and Schnakenberg will shape the look of the new store with an architect. They will keep the Venice Boulevard store as a retail space. It is a one-minute or so walk away from Abbot Kinney, according to Mapquest.
The Buck Mason collection is manufactured in Los Angeles. Since 2013, the company has sold a basics collection for men, including crew-neck and V-neck T-shirts, denim and chino pants and knitwear as well as oxford and chambray woven shirts. Buck Mason does not wholesale its products to other stores. Retail price points range from $24 for T-shirts to $135 for pants.
Prices are kept low at the label, Schnakenberg said. “From the beginning, value was important to Sasha and me. If we don’t feel we can make product and offer it at retail at a great value, we choose not to make it. Margin is important, but delivering value to customers is the No. 1 focus,” he said.
The Buck Mason chiefs gave little thought to marketing and advertising throughout their venture. The brand caught on through word of mouth, and according to the label chiefs, it is popular with the technologically astute creative classes in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, where Buck Mason enjoys its highest sales. Schnakenberg declined to state the company’s 2014 sales. However, the company hired five staffers in 2014 and added more than seven positions in 2015.
Buck Mason’s appearance on “Shark Tank,” which features investors such as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and FUBU co-founder Daymond John, was broadcast on April 24. Sales skyrocketed after the broadcast. It also introduced Buck Mason to the Midwest and the South.
“Roughly 65 percent of online traffic came from consumers in the middle of the country,” Koehn said.
