Vuori Global President: Cracking DTC, Physical Retail & International Expansion

[00:00:00] International markets tend to be ahead of trends. When we are in those markets, we're able to see things that we may not be seeing yet in the U.S. And so whether that's a leg-shaped shift and going from more slim fits to baggy fits, you'll see that sooner in the international market. The other thing is, and I'll use London as an example, lots of tourism there, right? So we do have the advantage of getting new customers into our Regent Street store or our locations in London that end up falling in love with the brand,

[00:00:27] coming from different countries that are experiencing the brand for the first time, or they may even be U.S.-based and we're acquiring customers internationally into the U.S. market. Welcome to Retail Disrupted, a podcast that explores all the trends shaping the future of retail.

[00:00:52] I'm your host, Natalie Berg, and today we're going to hear from a brand that has genuinely been one of the most exciting growth stories in retail. That brand is Viore. Now, there is so much to learn from this brand. Not only have they cracked the direct-to-consumer market, which let's face it, is not easy. There's a whole D2C graveyard out there, but they've cracked D2C and then they have successfully moved on and taken that model into bricks-and-mortar retail.

[00:01:20] And not only that, they're scaling it internationally. So I think there is so much for anyone in retail to learn from this brand. We're going to get into all of it on today's episode. I'm joined by Viore's global president, Ashley Ketchter. We had the opportunity to sit down at Shop Talk Europe and really get under the hood of what it is that makes this brand so special, how it differentiates in a very crowded market.

[00:01:47] And we're also going to spend a lot of time talking about international. There's always this delicate balancing act between global consistency and authenticity while staying locally relevant. So we're going to get into all that. But first, a little bit more about Ashley. Before she joined Viore, she was the global president of e-commerce, retail, wholesale, and international for Fabletics.

[00:02:13] And she's also held leadership roles at Banana Republic and Restoration Hardware. Now, a quick word from our sponsor, Manhattan Associates. While customer expectations continue to rise, consistent execution is now the real differentiator. Manhattan helps retailers deliver on the promises they make to shoppers across stores, e-commerce, fulfillment, and customer service. From AI-driven operations to unified commerce, Manhattan works with many of the world's most recognized retail brands

[00:02:42] to help turn every customer interaction into a moment of trust. Now, one final thing before we come on to our discussion with Ashley. If you haven't already, please do subscribe to the Retail Disrupted channel over on YouTube. We are working really hard to build the channel. We are releasing content every week. And you will find exclusive clips from each episode. You'll find full video episodes.

[00:03:07] And as we are an independent channel, every subscription really does help it to grow. Okay, let's dive into our discussion with Ashley Ketchner. Ashley, welcome to the podcast. It's great to have some time with you before you get on the main stage tomorrow. So, yeah, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. No, it's great. It's great to have you here. I'm conscious we have a lot of international listeners.

[00:03:33] So, for those maybe a little bit less familiar with Viore, can you tell us a little bit about the business and your role? So, the brand was founded by Joe Kudla about 11 years ago in 2015. It was founded in the town of Encinitas, which is a small coastal town in Southern California. And at the time, Viore took a lot of inspiration from the vibrant community that's there, an active community.

[00:03:57] So, it was a brand that was built on values and with the mindset of movement and community, living an extraordinary life, investing in happiness, and then bringing together highest quality fabric, fabric first mentality to bring a new perspective to performance wear. So, that's kind of the ethos of the brand and where it originated from. That's interesting. And I know that this is a very crowded market.

[00:04:21] So, I think as a challenger brand, it must have been really tough to come in and sort of disrupt the market, and especially D2C as well. So, I'd love to know a little bit more about what is it that makes Viore differentiate from its competitors? You know, what is it that makes the brand special? I think what makes Viore special is it's not just in one lane in terms of active wear or performance wear. It's really intended to be worn throughout life.

[00:04:47] It's, you know, he always says a new perspective on performance wear or built to move in, styled for life. And I think what that means is it's not one-dimensional in terms of the product. The product can be worn to the gym. It's the highest quality, highest functioning product, but it's versatile enough that you can wear it to work. You can wear it to and from the gym and wear it across different aspects of your life. And so, I think that's what makes Viore unique. I think the other thing is it was founded as a men's brand.

[00:05:14] So, it started as men's and then moved into the women's space. And so, what I love about the brand is it does a really amazing job of balancing men's and women's and making sure that both are somewhat equal in terms of space in our stores or presence of our assortment. And a lot of the brands were the opposite, where they started as women's and then moved into men's. And so, I think for us, it's a very balanced perspective on both sides of the house. That's interesting.

[00:05:43] So, I'd love to get your thoughts on global operations, especially given your role. Can you give us a sense of how international Viore is today? Absolutely. So, we're early in our international journey. I mean, we have a lot of stores internationally relative to only being an 11-year-old brand. We're in China. We're in the UK. We have stores in Korea. We just opened in the Middle East and then we're opening in Mexico later this year.

[00:06:10] So, a broad store base for the size of the brand and where we're at, but rapidly growing international. So, it's one of our key initiatives for growth. Yeah. And I guess one of the challenges for any retailer or any brand when they expand internationally is that you need to be consistent. You need to be authentic, but you also need to be relevant and maybe adapt to the local customer. So, how do you go about balancing that? Yeah, it's a great question.

[00:06:37] I think we spend a lot of time talking about what do we need for international customers to take from the brand that are really authentic to the brand. And so, thinking about what I spoke to earlier around inspired by coastal California, that kind of light and that airy aspect of our stores. That's something that you feel when you're in the stores internationally.

[00:06:59] The product, our mentality around fabric first, function and soft product, you're going to feel that internationally. So, we really hold true to those values, whether you're in the U.S. or you're in our international locations.

[00:07:13] I think what is unique is we take our local markets and we really think through the community aspect of that and how do we bring Viori in a local way, whether it's through store activations, different events we do within the cities that we're located, as well as the partners that we work with. So, we have a lot of partners globally and we'll have global partners that resonate in all markets.

[00:07:37] But then for our international markets, we will find creators and influencers or athletes that are really authentic to those markets. And so, bringing them into the spaces or working with them gives us a way to connect to the community at a more local level. Yeah. And I guess just on the topic of creators and influencers and social media more generally, do you find that going into a new market today is a little bit easier because that brand recognition is already there through social media?

[00:08:04] You know, we're so connected today. So, there's the recognition, but I guess also the trust, which is an important angle. Is that something that you're seeing? I think that when you do work with partners, that's an advantage where you've got awareness in other markets because of who you may be working with. But what I would say is also unique about Viori is they didn't start in the partnership space. We are not a celebrity brand or a partner brand. We are really a brand that is product first.

[00:08:30] And then we leverage certain partners like Tom Holland or a Jack Draper who have a very authentic connection to Viori, who are brand fans. And then we'll amplify that or leverage it in a sport to maybe show that that category is really relevant in that space. But we're not a celebrity brand. So, I think for us, it's more about building that love for the product and then finding the right partners that will help you get the awareness and the reach as we expand.

[00:09:00] Yeah. And just to go back to stores, because you mentioned stores earlier. I'm always so fascinated by brands that started life online and then moved into bricks and mortar. And, you know, the kind of luxury of being able to create a physical retail environment from scratch, knowing everything we know about how customers shop today. So, I'd love to know a little bit more about your stores and kind of the role of the store. Because obviously, it's not just a place to buy product, but probably to experience the brand as well. Yeah.

[00:09:23] So, I would say the role of our store is very much centered around community and being a space for our customers, for our communities to gather, to build the relationships, to learn from what they are seeing within the, you know, we get a lot of feedback from our customers as they come in the store. Our sales associates love to talk to the consumer and to really understand what they love about the product or what they need to see more of or maybe where they're having struggles.

[00:09:49] Right. So, I think for us, it's about leveraging those spaces to have a more authentic relationship with the customer and to leverage what they're telling us about what they need in performance apparel to really fall in love with the brand. Yeah. And do you find that customers are using stores for, you know, very like basic things, but like trying stuff on and especially in fashion where, you know, it's amazing convenience to be able to order stuff online.

[00:10:15] But also, sometimes those kind of perennial challenges still exist and physical retail kind of solves that problem in a really simple way. So, is that something that you're seeing as well, the convergence of physical and digital? How are you seeing that blend? Yeah. So, I think that, you know, for us, we are very focused from an omni-channel lens to make sure that the customers experience the brand cohesively across every channel.

[00:10:39] But I think the stores do give us that advantage of being able to connect with the customer and to really get them in the product. Because our product's known for being soft and like very high quality, you can really experience that if you touch and feel it, which is harder to convey online. And so, I think that's kind of the perfect marriage for us, which is we acquire a lot of customers through our stores. And then they become omni-channel customers as they fall in love with the brand and the product.

[00:11:07] And so, it's a great way for them to experience the quality of our product when they're in our store spaces. Yeah. And I guess related to that, when you go into a new market, what's your strategy? Do you launch online first? Do you launch stores? How do you do? So, we are in over or almost 30 countries. So, we're in a lot of countries from an e-com standpoint. And so, that has given us the advantage to understand performance by market and to help us pinpoint where we might be the most successful when we open up internationally.

[00:11:34] The strategy, our head of international, his name's Andy. He's done a tremendous job of leading a very focused strategy around creating density within a market, creating a lot of stores and clusters within one market or two before diversifying and creating a wide breadth of stores. And so, I think the advantage of that is as we open multiple stores in a market, we can learn and then take those learnings and expand upon it versus scattering stores all over.

[00:12:03] And then we end up with stores potentially that we haven't gotten the right mix of product or the right balance of how we've opened. And so, it is really more about density within markets before we go to the breadth strategy. Yeah, that makes sense. And it's really interesting to hear what you guys are doing in that space. Are there any learnings globally that you've been able to take back to the U.S.? Is that something that you can share? Yeah. So, I think there's a couple of things. I mean, my mind always goes product first.

[00:12:29] I think, you know, international markets, whether it's Europe or Korea or certain Asia markets, they tend to be ahead of trends. And so, I do think that when we are in those markets and learning from the product trends, we're able to see things that we may not be seeing yet in the U.S.

[00:12:48] And so, whether that's a leg-shaped shift and going from more slim fits to baggy fits or different leg silhouettes, you'll see that sooner in the international markets than what you'll see in the U.S. And so, I think that's one advantage is just understanding those product nuances because sometimes it's related to how the market's shifting and trend. And then I think the other thing is we're in markets, and I'll use London as an example, lots of tourism there, right?

[00:13:15] And so, we do have the advantage of getting new customers into our Regent Street store or our locations in London that end up falling in love with a brand that maybe didn't find the brand in the U.S. but then became a customer internationally. And so, I think that's the other advantage where we're able to meet customers all over the world.

[00:13:34] And oftentimes, they're either coming from different countries that are experiencing the brand for the first time, or they may even be U.S.-based, and we're acquiring customers internationally into the U.S. market. That's so interesting. Ashley, thanks so much for coming on the podcast, and hope you talk as well. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you for listening to Retail Disrupted.

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