Dive Brief:
- DTC bra brand ThirdLove has made its first acquisition. The company is scooping up Kit Undergarments, the "cult favorite intimates brand" founded by celebrity stylists Jamie Mizrahi and Simone Harouche, according to details emailed to Retail Dive.
- The brand will relaunch on Tuesday as Kit Undergarments for ThirdLove, and will be available on the ThirdLove website. A ThirdLove spokesperson said the company is not disclosing the price of the acquisition.
- "We wanted to create a sub-brand that targets a younger demographic," Heidi Zak, co-founder and CEO of ThirdLove, said in a statement. "Rather than leveraging our team's time and effort on creating a new brand from scratch, our solution was to find an incredible existing brand we could scale through the backing of ThirdLove."
Dive Insight:
ThirdLove is ready to scale.
The brand's first acquisition is aimed at expanding its reach to a younger set of consumers, which also comes with lower price points. Kit Undergarments' prices range from $18 to $55, according to the companies, a good deal lower than some of ThirdLove's products. The ThirdLove Classic T-Shirt Bra, for example, sells for $68 and its Lace Balconette Bra goes for $74.
Kit Undergarments will be "fully integrated" into ThirdLove's operations, but Mizrahi and Harouche will head up design for the brand. They will be part of the ThirdLove leadership team and will "bring their expertise to other parts of the ThirdLove organization to accelerate new opportunities to connect with consumers," the company said.
ThirdLove also has its sights set on brick-and-mortar expansion, opening its first West Coast store in February, as well as a store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, California. The brand expects to open between six and 10 stores by the end of the year. Although there is no plan to sell Kit Undergarments in its stores for the moment, a spokesperson said the company is "continually evaluating opportunities to meet our consumers where and how she wants to shop."
It's been a busy year for ThirdLove — over the past 12 months, the company has executed a brand revamp focused on comfort, sexiness and fit, and entered the activewear space with a selection of sports bras. The activewear space is a focus point going forward, a spokesperson said, with the company hoping to grow its foothold in the category.
As a whole slew of DTC brands begin to mature, many are embarking on more ambitious plans, including IPOs (especially popular last year) and acquisitions. Razor company Harry's, which has since incubated a series of other brands, made its first acquisition at the end of last year, while other DTC brands are finding scale by merging with a larger company.
via https://www.aiupnow.com
Cara Salpini, Khareem Sudlow
