Details, brand growth statistics and more – WWD

Sporty & Rich continues its impressive growth through category expansion.

The four-year-old loungewear brand founded by Emily Oberg will launch its first swimwear collection on Monday, marking the brand’s latest category expansion. Sporty & Rich teamed up with Solid & Striped for the first time last year for swimwear.

The first sporty and sophisticated swimwear collection includes bikinis and one-piece bathing suits in a color palette of brown, white and green. Both styles include a high cut bottom and strappy tops.

The collection features pieces such as T-shirts, shorts, fitted shirts, crew necks and hoodies to match the swimwear.

“I make things that I want to wear and maybe I can’t find, or I feel like I can find them, but I want to do better,” Oberg says of her design process. “It’s all very simple. I never do any fashion pieces – nothing too risky or too creative. It’s a lot of uniform dressing and a lot of basics and staples that I want to have in my closet now and 10 years from now.

The sporty and sophisticated swimwear collection comes as the brand continues its growth trajectory, the company says. Sporty & Rich said it grew from $400,000 in 2019 to $4 million in 2020, driven by an increase in loungewear as people stay home and look for comfortable clothing options during the Covid-19 pandemic. Next year, the brand will generate $12 million in sales, and this year it is projecting $20 million to $24 million in sales.

“People are always dressed [loungewear] Before it became famous [during the pandemic]” Oberg said. “I don’t think sweat pants and comfortable clothes ever go out of style. There is a time and a place for it.

While Oberg experienced unprecedented growth during the pandemic, the rapid pace nearly destroyed her brand as she struggled to keep up with demand.

“Sometimes growth can kill a brand,” she said. “That happens often and before covid[-19]We were very young. Our sales were nothing special, but then with covid[-19] It is expanding and its growth is almost killing us. I’d say we were on the brink of that, but we figured it out pretty quickly.

Oberg kept her job growing and building her teams, such as the customer service team, and using a new logistics center and factory to set up systems to run more efficiently.

These changes come amid controversy for the founder and her label. The brand initially came under fire for an insensitive Instagram post comparing the prices of fast food items to “real food” — like an apple, instant oatmeal or a bag of salad — when the outbreak began. You don’t have to be rich to be healthy. Many called out the brand, which deleted the post, for litigiousness.

Oberg was called out for making offhand comments on the podcast and laughing at racially insensitive jokes.

“I’m a woman myself, I’m an Asian minority founder, so I’ve never faced discrimination myself, so I’m very aware of it and I’ve taken these issues on myself,” Oberg said in response to the question. Controversies. “It’s not like I need to consciously not be racist because I think that’s just ingrained in me and the way I was born. I feel like some of these other founders have to go out of their way and read all these books about how not to be racist, but for me it’s never been a problem with who I am. I would say that not everyone has access to healthy food – which is one of the main points – and making or even taking supplements. [I was] It’s not personal, but I think I wasn’t understanding enough for people. Especially with a health site – writing all these health tips and not knowing that most people can’t even do what we’re talking about. So I think from that point of view, the content is now for everyone, where it looks like, we have a lot of articles on how to be healthy with minimal resources and these are things you can do when you have zero budget. And overall from a brand perspective, I’d say it’s very accessible, the price point is on the low end compared to other streetwear brands.

Sporty & Rich sells T-shirts for $60, sweatshirts for $150 to $185, and sports bras for $85.

Oberg explained that hiring more staff and implementing new systems helped correct these missteps in the years since the controversy began.

In the future, Oberg is releasing a sports and rich coffee book and has her sights set on opening a storefront.

“It’s important to have a real-life touchpoint so people can experience the brand’s world and lifestyle,” she says. You can only meet people online. Online will still be an important focus, but I think it’s probably good to create a bigger, stronger sense of community, so a store will help with that.