LOS ANGELES — Michael Stars, the nearly 20-year-old T-shirt company many credit with giving birth to the trend for fitted Ts, is expanding its retail operation with two new stores.
On Friday, its third door bowed at The Grove shopping mall in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, and another unit is scheduled to open later this month in Santa Barbara, Calif. Two more locations are scheduled to open in California next year.
The company currently operates a store in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and one in Santa Monica.
But Michael Cohen, chief executive officer of Michael Stars, said he doesn’t want to expand too quickly. He started out with only four T-shirt styles in 1986 and is content to take his time.
“We’re a family business and our stores are very valuable, and we’re going to open them slowly,” said Cohen. “We don’t want growth to get out of hand.”
For the moment, Cohen plans to keep the retail growth in the state, but said if the company expands outside of California, a location such as Miami’s South Beach would be ideal.
The 725-square-foot store at The Grove is spare and contemporary, with concrete floors and blond wood fixtures. It offers everything from the original cotton collection, beloved by many of Cohen’s early customers, to shiny fabrics and those done in supremely soft, layerable Supimal Modal. Styles range from basic T-shirts to tunic designs, tanks and shrugs and are priced from $18 to $30 wholesale.
The maternity collection, which Stars added a few years ago, is also available. And a new kids’ collection, Mikey Stars, will launch this summer at both its wholesale accounts and retail stores. Cohen said the company is also looking to expand into more sweats and cashmere.
The South African native, who has resided in Manhattan Beach for 28 years, lives only about 60 yards from his original store. But even though it stares him in the face daily, he said he only recently realized how popular the brand had become, and has seen the opportunity for retail expansion.
“When we went into retailing after 18 years of wholesale, we didn’t know how we would do,” said Cohen. “We didn’t think there was even a market.”
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Its two stores already do a little over $1,200 in sales per square foot each. The company shipped over 250 styles this year in over 10 fabrications – close to 2 million tees – and each tee comes in more than 75 colors throughout the year. Total business spiked more than 25 percent in the last 18 months.
As befits his casual coastal lifestyle and attitude, Cohen said his “wild guess” is that The Grove location will do 40 to 50 percent more in sales than the Santa Monica or Manhattan Beach ones. The Santa Barbara store will be the company’s largest boutique at 1,400 square feet.