Jaggi Singh believes there’s life left in the Members Only brand.
Singh, president and chief executive officer, had been the outerwear licensee for the label best known for its poly-cotton bomber jackets since 2009 and purchased it outright in 2012, believing he could revive this “powerful, iconic American brand. The challenge was how to make it relevant for today,” he said.
The first thing Singh did was to “get our house in order” and “clean up the distribution.” The brand was founded in 1975 and in its heyday, had sales of $200 million. But the jackets had gone down market and sales had dropped below $20 million. However, Singh believed that with a little TLC, they could find their way back into mid-level and upscale department and specialty stores.
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So he set out to create a lifestyle brand under the Members Only banner. So far, he’s signed three licenses: ties and dress shirts with Roffe Accessories; knitwear and bottoms with TKO, and backpacks with Bijoux International. Sales have returned to the $20 million level.
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“And we’re looking to sign more licenses,” he said. “We’re searching for the right partners. We’re very close to signing deals for belts, wallets and small leather goods, we’re talking about hosiery, eyewear and underwear, and looking at fragrance.” Singh expects small leather goods to hit the market for fall 2015 and the other classifications for spring 2016.
While these categories will be licensed, Members Only has created a sportswear collection in-house that launched for holiday at Bloomingdale’s and Lord & Taylor. Among the most popular items are jogger pants, along with cardigans, T-shirts and crewneck henleys.
The brand also has a line of tech accessories such as iPad cases and computer cases that it is doing in-house and they’re sold at electronics stores such as Best Buy and Radio Shack.
“We’re now in six to eight classifications and that gives us the meat and muscle to talk to retailers,” Singh said.
Its number-one retail partner is Urban Outfitters, and Members Only was the company’s top-selling outerwear brand last year, Singh said. “That’s been our biggest success story,” he said, and indicates the brand is making strides with Millennials. Although it still has a nostalgia customer, Members Only targets the 15-to-35-year-old shopper, a demographic Singh knows is essential to its future success.
Right now, California is the brand’s number-one market, followed by New York. 70 percent of its mix is men’s wear and retail prices range from $88 for the iconic bomber to $798 for leather and shearling.
But expanding internationally is also a goal. Members Only has shown at Pitti Uomo in Florence for the past three seasons and is now sold in six European countries. It also has a “thriving business in Mexico with Liverpool,” Singh said, noting that a distributor has been signed in Korea and others are expected to be added shortly in Canada and South America for licensing and distribution.
Over the summer, Singh hired a new creative director, Gene Uy, who set out to make the brand more modern and contemporary without losing sight of its past. That includes slimming the silhouette. “The feedback we’re getting is that we need to slim down even further,” Singh said. “We’re bringing it from a 46 chest in a medium to a 42.”
For fall 2015, Uy will offer a capsule collection of iconic outerwear pieces, called the Transformer. This includes items such as the peacoat and the biker jacket in updated fabrics and silhouettes. Flight jackets and varsity jackets are longer and some feature asymmetrical closures. “I’m bringing a sportswear eye to outerwear,” Uy said. “And everything is more trend-driven.”
Even the signature jackets are getting an update. There are now models with zip-out hoods, fabric choices range from faux leather to real leather, corduroy, real down and synthetic down are also offered. The bomber is available in 15 colors, including seven to eight fashion colors each season.
The women’s collection, designed by Rebecca Leckstein, has also gotten an update. It features everything from cropped leather jackets to puffers, down with boucle details, washed satins and reversible floral prints.
The brand is also investing heavily in its Web site, where business has more than tripled over the past couple of years. Singh recently hired a social media consultant to beef up that portion of the site and make it more relevant to Millennials.
Singh, whose background includes outerwear licensee for brands such as Kenneth Cole and Nicole Miller, is confident that he can significantly grow the Members Only business. “I think it can be a major brand doing $300 million to $500 million like in its glory days — if it’s done right, with other classifications and international business,” he said. “That’s ambitious I know, but you have to have a dream.”