Bogner Plays to America With Two New Stores
Ahead of the ski and snowboard season, Bogner has opened a store on the West Coast and another on the East Coast.
Founded in 1932 by Olympic skier Willy Bogner Sr. as an import business for skis, equipment and Norwegian knitwear, the company specialized in skiwear and evolved into other areas. The two U.S. stores — the only ones nationwide — brings Bogner’s global store count to 66. The company will unveil another LoveShackFancy x Fire + Ice drop on Thursday. Through its partnership with the James Bond franchise, Bogner has another 007-inspired collaboration for shoppers. Bogner will also be suiting up contestants for an entire episode of Amazon’s new reality competition show “007: Road to a Million,” where participants face James Bond-inspired challenges in a competition overseen by Brian Cox.
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It’s been a while since Bogner had a permanent address in California. In the ’90s, there was a San Francisco outpost. Before inking a deal for the 1,700-square-foot Los Angeles location, which rests within the Fred Segal facade, Bogner did a two and a half month test run and was pleased with the positive response. Bogner of America executive vice president Linda Ashman said, “It’s something that people there have wanted. From the stylists to the movie sets under production, that is also a nod to our heritage and Willy [Bogner Jr.’s] background in filmmaking and cinematographer.”
Years before he stepped away from leading his family’s company in 2019, Bogner, a filmmaker, Olympic skier and the company’s former leader, shot action scenes in four James Bond films.
The initial reaction from Los Angeles’ shoppers has been a combination of excitement, surprise and discovery based on conversations, during four special events tied to the opening this month, Ashman said. Many were unaware that the brand is family-owned, is more than 90 years old and the depth of its offerings beyond skiwear and puffers, she explained. Along with sports-friendly styles, there is ready-to-wear, Fire + Ice, skis, helmets, boots and other options.
Bogner’s longtime designer Gotthardin Thylmann flew in from Munich for the opening and left creatively inspired “about what could be. L.A. style is different than New York [style]. They like a lot of color,” Ashman said, adding that the ease with which shoppers can flow between Bogner and the edgier Fred Segal fosters visions of how they can blend the selections from each store. Consumers can enter through Bogner’s front door or Fred Segal’s front door. Once inside, there is another door between the two retailers that they can pass through.
The American market is an increasingly integral one for Bogner, accounting for 25 percent of its overall sales. For the fiscal year ended March 2023, consolidated sales were 175.6 million euros, a 5.6 percent increase compared to the previous year. With its two U.S. stores up-and-running, the company is not planniung to unveil any additiona ones in the near future. “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We want to really makes these two stores successful,” Ashman said.
Although digital sales are getting stronger, retail sales have risen, since people are still going into stores. “We’re still on that cusp from people rediscovering the outdoors during COVID-19. Our focus has been on our outerwear, which has helped our stores quite a bit.”
The New York store is a 2,200-square-foot Madison Avenue space, between 65th and 66th Streets. With cement floors and wood interior touches, the decor has an elevated chalet sensibility. Merchandised as vignettes, the layout and product range aren’t the only key parts of the sales strategy. The foot traffic along Madison Avenue is better than its prior location in SoHo, Ashman said. The Upper East Side boutique’s wide street front windows and entrance is more welcoming than the downtown store, which required walking up six or so steps.
The new location is near Giorgio Armani’s New York store and an Alexander McQueen is opening a temporary location nearby, while its main store is being built out. “The location is great and that is where our customer is, and always has been,” Ashman said.
As for business challenges, Bogner is retooling its ready-to-wear-collections, which had been particularly strong in the U.S. market. “We have gotten away a little bit from the global focus. We sell the specialty and novelty [looks] with a little higher price point and that’s been a challenge for us. That is something we’re going through and are getting our identity back with.”
With the influx of designer labels into performance wear, as in ski items from Balmain, Dior and others, Ashman said that makes people think about active and performance items. “But we have innovation within our collection. We have kind of owned the mountain. The designers don’t have the technical things that we’ve had,” Ashman claimed.
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