The activewear brand is set to open a pop-up shop at The Grove.

Active brand Outdoor Voices Inc. is testing the Los Angeles retail market.

The New York company on Thursday is slated to open a pop-up shop at The Grove. The store will be located in the shopping center’s dedicated pop-up space, which has hosted Rebecca Minkoff and Clique Media Group’s Obsessee, among other brands. The roughly 200-square-foot space is a glass pod located in the center of The Grove.

“The Grove is one of the busiest malls in America and for us, it’s really a nice mindshare moment to be right in the mix,” said Outdoor Voices chief executive officer and founder Tyler Haney. “L.A. really has been a big market for us online and we’ve really allowed our customer to help tell us where to go next [at retail].”

Outdoor Voices, which most recently closed on a $13 million Series B round last July, positions itself in the market as the outfitter of choice for anyone involved in a recreational activity, and not just serious athletes.

The Los Angeles store will be stocked with the company’s apparel line, along with exclusive towels and a tote in a limited-edition pink colorway.

The six-week pop-up is focused on driving engagement off-line, Haney said, which means the company will utilize the shopping center’s outdoor space to host activities.

The L.A. pop-up adds to Outdoor Voices’ base of temporary shops in Dallas and Aspen, along with permanent doors in Austin and New York on the Upper East Side and NoLIta. Aspen, in particular, has performed particularly well in the two weeks since its launch, notching three times more revenue than any other store opening.

“We kind of looked at it as a souvenir of the summer,” Haney said of the concept behind Aspen. “Texas is our second largest market from both an online and an off-line perspective. So when it’s really hot, a lot of people go to Colorado. We said, ‘Wow, it’d be cool to follow that [customer] journey.’ It is a small town, but there’s so much happening during the week and on the weekends. It’s a really diverse and culturally relevant spot with a lot going on and it’s quite global.”

Haney said the company’s retail strategy is to test into markets it’s not yet fully committed to and that, to date, it has not left a pop-up site without converting to a permanent shop.

“It’s nice as an activewear brand to see that retail is doing so well at a time when retail for a lot of companies is kind of hurting,” the ceo said.

She indicated there are additional plans for retail in the future, but declined to provide specifics.

 

By Kari Hamanaka