LOS ANGELES — Orv Madden retired in 2002 after founding Hot Topic, the music-influenced, counter-culture teen stores in 1988, and the Torrid concept geared to plus-size teens.
Madden, 56, started a small vineyard — his first harvest of Pinot Noir is ready to bottle for this summer — expanded his car collection, traveled, relaxed and gazed at the ocean.
But Madden couldn’t stay retired. This fall he launched the Metropark specialty stores, which bowed in four California locations. Geared to the 20- to 35-year-old customer, this mall-based concept features contemporary lines such as Seven For All Mankind, True Religion and Trunk, and blends fashion, music and art.
He spoke last week with WWD.
WWD: What’s the concept behind Metropark?
Orv Madden: We’ve tried to bring a street boutique experience — the Fred Segal, Lisa Kline, Kitson [specialty L.A.-based boutiques] kind of world — with premium merchandise into the mall.
WWD: What inspired you to come out of retirement?
O.M.: I thought, “Where do all the old teenagers who used to shop at Hot Topic, Wet Seal and PacSun go now that they’ve graduated?” So we looked at the demographics and it’s going to be one of the fastest-growing age groups in the next 10 years.
WWD: Does the customer who is now shopping for these brands in boutiques really want to go to the mall for the merchandise?
O.M.: This customer was trained well to shop in the mall. They really grew up in the mall.
WWD: Have you encountered much price resistance from customers who are not expecting to find a $150 pair of jeans at a typical mall store?
O.M.: We’re certainly at contemporary price point with denim at $80 to $200 and woven tops at $65 to $150, but we think that this customer is out at their first job or just getting out of college or maybe in the dating scene, and people want to dress great and are looking at fashion publications and keeping an eye on what the cool people are wearing, and being in a regional mall with other retailers at this price point is also important.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
WWD: How many new Metroparks are planned for 2005?
O.M.: We have four slated: the Tyler Mall in Riverside, Calif; The Irvine Spectrum mall, in Irvine, Calif.; Mall of America in Minnesota, and one open-to-buy.
WWD: How many more locations do you see in Metropark’s future?
O.M.: We think we can play in 200 to 250 malls across the country.
WWD: Taking a hard look, what’s working and what needs tweaking?
O.M.: The biggest thing you start with is evaluating the performance of the merchandise, and the women’s and accessories was a bit underplayed. We didn’t finance it enough. What we really struggled with was the bath and body business. Then we also looked at the store design, and people think it’s terrific, distinct and different, and we’ve been happy with the reaction to the design. But now we have to build it cheaper.
WWD: What other challenges have you come across?
O.M.: I think we realized that some of the customers who grew up in the mall left, and they may be shopping at street boutiques instead of the mall, so part of the challenge is letting them know, “Hey we’re here and come on over.”
WWD: So is the mall becoming the “It” place again?
O.M.: A number of [mall] landlords are trying to add more restaurants and bars to their malls, and they’ve concluded that this is a key demographic that they don’t want to lose.