Kuiu Article

elkyinzer

WKR
Joined
Sep 9, 2013
Messages
1,257
Location
Pennslyvania
Hunting Brand Kuiu Raises $50 Million to Fuel International Expansion | Fortune.com

Uh oh, the K-word. Hopefully this stays civil.

The part I found interesting about this article and wanted to discuss, the following quote:

"Instead of working with big retailers, Hairston wants to launch a chain of brick-and-mortar shops so customers can browse Kuiu merchandise, work with a tailor for a custom fit, and “experience” the brand. The first location is tentatively slated to open in Denver, Colo., in June of 2018."

Custom fit, tailoring? Thoughts on that concept? In an era of super-custom everything I've kinda thought that's long overdue in the high end camo space.
 

SHTF

WKR
Classified Approved
Joined
Feb 4, 2013
Messages
5,094
Location
Colorado
ohh wow. This is crazy

Instead of working with big retailers, Hairston wants to launch a chain of brick-and-mortar shops so customers can browse Kuiu merchandise, work with a tailor for a custom fit, and “experience” the brand. The first location is tentatively slated to open in Denver, Colo., in June of 2018.

Very curious on why Denver......
 

WyoElk

WKR
Joined
Mar 11, 2014
Messages
683
Interesting indeed. I'm not a fan of Kuiu but the idea of getting stuff custom fit sounds nice. At 6'4" it's tough to find sleeves and pant legs that are long enough.
 

Ipkus

FNG
Joined
Oct 3, 2012
Messages
3
Very curious on why Denver......

Just my opinion;

1.) Sales data shows that they sell a lot of product to Colorado hunters.

2.) Large town/airline hub located in the central part of the country...lots of business travel to/through.
 

SHTF

WKR
Classified Approved
Joined
Feb 4, 2013
Messages
5,094
Location
Colorado
Just my opinion;

1.) Sales data shows that they sell a lot of product to Colorado hunters.

2.) Large town/airline hub located in the central part of the country...lots of business travel to/through.

I say this with the lightest of care and not to cause any issues with this thread going south but my first thought was because its home town for Kifaru.

Its kind of like the CVS building a store across the street from Walgreens by my house.

But I suppose you could be right. We do have alot of hunters here in Denver and it is mid point between the East and West.\

P.S. Dont hate I know alot of others thought it too :p
 

ericF

WKR
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
628
Location
CO
Denver makes sense as it is the gateway to the mountains for a lot of people. With the biggest elk herd in the country, we have the highest number of elk hunters including out of staters. It is centrally located within an hour distance of the next three biggest towns in Colorado. It is also on the I-25 and I-70 corridor so it is easy access for those travelling from out of state along with the airport as someone else mentioned.
 

SHTF

WKR
Classified Approved
Joined
Feb 4, 2013
Messages
5,094
Location
Colorado
I will be checking out the store when they move in here. Kind of excited to see how this turns out actually. Their clothing line is pretty nice.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2016
Messages
906
I'm guessing it's strictly a numbers game... It's the gateway to the rockies for many, between the way CO manages tags for non res hunters, to the hunter population of denver to the amount of people coming through Denver I'd say its a smart starting place.

Hats off to him, hope he does well....
 

Jskaanland

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 19, 2016
Messages
1,700
Location
Washington
I say this with the lightest of care and not to cause any issues with this thread going south but my first thought was because its home town for Kifaru.

Its kind of like the CVS building a store across the street from Walgreens by my house.

I think building near Sitka would be more of a walgreens vs CVS. I know Kuiu makes packs, tents and bags but it doesn't seem like they overlap as much with Kifaru as Sitka

Why not Bozeman? I would choose there of Denver.

If he is building more, I could totally see Bozeman. With sitka in Bozeman, I think Denver makes more sense.
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
1,836
Location
Casper, Wyoming
I think building near Sitka would be more of a walgreens vs CVS. I know Kuiu makes packs, tents and bags but it doesn't seem like they overlap as much with Kifaru as Sitka



If he is building more, I could totally see Bozeman. With sitka in Bozeman, I think Denver makes more sense.

Good point.
 

ericF

WKR
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Messages
628
Location
CO
It is purely a numbers game. From the Missoulan, "Montana offers about 17,000 big game combination licenses and 6,600 deer combination licenses to nonresident hunters." From the Coloradoan "Of the roughly 575,000 big-game and small-game hunting licenses sold annually, about 86,000 are to nonresidents"

Colorado has 4 times as many non-resident hunters and the whole point of a retail store is to showcase the product to your target market. Unlike in hunting, you go where the people are.
 

Steve O

WKR
Classified Approved
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Messages
2,857
Location
Michigan
Custom fit, tailoring? Thoughts on that concept? In an era of super-custom everything I've kinda thought that's long overdue in the high end camo space.


I wonder if that is going to help "the fat guys"? Maybe there will be a laser and scale to check height and weight before the doors unlock?
 

dotman

WKR
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Messages
8,201
I didn't read all the posts so maybe this has been said but I don't see how pricing can remain where it is at once they have many retail outlets and custom tailoring.

I always thought the direct to you was to reduce markup but also to not have an overhead burden of retail brick and mortar cost driving pricing up? This will be interesting to see how it all pans out, hopefully he knows more about retail business then golite did.
 

Latest posts

Featured Video

Stats

Threads
318,346
Messages
3,339,007
Members
74,249
Latest member
xiaoxu425
Top