A men’s fashion and lifestyle brand will open its first shopping centre location later this year amid plans for a national rollout. The Academy Brand was started by Anthony Pitt in 2007 as a wholesale business before venturing into bricks and mortar. The American vintage inspired clothing chain has three stores in Sydney in Paddington, Bondi Beach, and Newtown. A fourth, and its first within a shopping centre, will open at a Westfield in Sydney’s south later this year. Founder and creative d
director, Pitt, told Inside Retail PREMIUM The Academy Brand will expand beyond NSW by the start of 2016.
“One of our biggest markets through wholesale is Victoria, so it’s absolutely on our radar. There’s a couple of high street sites and also shopping centres, so that will be happening in the first part of next year,” he said.
“Our growth strategy moving forward is going to be fairly swift. We’re looking to grow fairly aggressively, whether that’s five stores a year or slightly more, that will depend on the time, but we want to have a national footprint.
“We think we can have anywhere between 30 to 50 stores, there’s no specific time frame for that, but I would say that would likely be within the next five years.”
Later this year The Academy Brand will target tots, with a childrenswear line in the pipeline.
Dubbed the ‘Junior Academy’ by Pitt, the range will be filtered through The Academy Brand’s retail stores and wholesale stockists.
“It’s a natural progression for us to do [childrenswear]. We can have a bit more fun with the range, but essentially the aim is to make it like a ‘mini dad’,” Pitt said.
The first kids clothing range to rollout will be for summer, featuring tees, shorts, mini chinos, and accessories including caps and belts.
This story first appeared in Inside Retail PREMIUM issue 2046. To subscribe, click here.
