Untuckit to Open First Overseas Stores in London

The shops in Covent Gar­den and West­field Lon­don will de­but on Nov. 5.

Un­tuckit is tak­ing the pond.

The brand that got its start sell­ing shirts to men that are de­signed not to be tucked into pants will open its first two stores out­side the U.S. this fall.

Two units, in Covent Gar­den and West­field Lon­don, will de­but on Nov. 5. They will both mea­sure around 1,600 square feet and will carry the full se­lec­tion of the brand’s men’s ap­parel. The re­tail open­ings will be sup­ported by the launch of a U.K.-spe­cific web site.

Two units, in Covent Gar­den and West­field Lon­don, will de­but on Nov. 5. They will both mea­sure around 1,600 square feet and will carry the full se­lec­tion of the brand’s men’s ap­parel. The re­tail open­ings will be sup­ported by the launch of a U.K.-spe­cific web site.

The com­pany was cre­ated by Chris Ric­cobono, who con­vinced his Columbia Univer­sity busi­ness school class­mate Aaron Sanan­dres to de­velop a busi­ness to ad­dress the is­sue that they couldn’t find a ca­sual shirt that fit cor­rectly when un­tucked. So they launched a di­rect-to-con­sumer web

Its mes­sage across site with $150,000 in seed money from friends and family in 2011 and sold shirts that were shorter with a con­toured hem­line in a wide va­ri­ety of fits. The brand was suc­cess­ful out of the box and by 2016 “put $8 mil­lion on the books,” Ric­cobono said. Un­tuckit’s Chris Ric­cobono.

Its mes­sage across site with $150,000 in seed money from friends and family in 2011 and sold shirts that were shorter with a con­toured hem­line in a wide va­ri­ety of fits. The brand was suc­cess­ful out of the box and by 2016 “put $8 mil­lion on the books,” Ric­cobono said. Un­tuckit’s Chris Ric­cobono.

In 2017, Cal­i­for­nia ven­ture cap­i­tal firm Kleiner Perkins in­vested $30 mil­lion to fund the com­pany’s growth. And last Septem­ber, for­mer hockey great Wayne Gret­zky also wrote a check to the com­pany and be­came a brand am­bas­sador.

In 2017, Cal­i­for­nia ven­ture cap­i­tal firm Kleiner Perkins in­vested $30 mil­lion to fund the com­pany’s growth. And last Septem­ber, for­mer hockey great Wayne Gret­zky also wrote a check to the com­pany and be­came a brand am­bas­sador.

The first Un­tuckit store opened in New York’s SoHo in 2015 and to­day, the com­pany has 75 stores in North Amer­ica; it opened its first in­ter­na­tional store in Toronto last Septem­ber.

“Canada was our first in­ter­na­tional move be­cause log­i­cally it made sense,” Ric­cobono said.

Then, see­ing that pur­chasers from English ac­counted for a chunk of the brand’s sales, it wasn’t long be­fore they de­cided to take the plunge to Europe.

That, cou­pled with the fact that the U.K. is one of the clos­est coun­tries to the U.S. and “they speak English, which is a lot easier,” sealed the deal, Ric­cobono said. “On top of that, we did fo­cus groups and re­al­ized the prob­lem we were solv­ing was also an is­sue in Eng­land. Most shirts are too long.”

U.K. is one of the clos­est coun­tries to the U.S. and “they speak English, which is a lot easier,” sealed the deal, Ric­cobono said. “On top of that, we did fo­cus groups and re­al­ized the prob­lem we were solv­ing was also an is­sue in Eng­land. Most shirts are too long.”

Ric­cobono said the goal is for in­ter­na­tional sales to even­tu­ally ac­count for 50 per­cent of Un­tuckit’s busi­ness. “That’s al­ways been in the blue­print,” he said, adding that over the next 18 months the com­pany would like to ex­pand into Ire­land, Ger­many, Amsterdam, Mex­ico and Dubai, among other ar­eas.

As to why Un­tuckit is now eye­ing ex­pan­sion in­ter­na­tion­ally rather than do­mes­ti­cally, Ric­cobono said the plan was al­ways to end up with 85 to 90 stores in the U.S. “We never wanted 200 stores. We still think of our­selves as an e-com­merce com­pany. Our brick-and-mor­tar stores are for peo­ple who don’t want to shop on­line and still like to touch and feel the prod­uct.”

As to why Un­tuckit is now eye­ing ex­pan­sion in­ter­na­tion­ally rather than do­mes­ti­cally, Ric­cobono said the plan was al­ways to end up with 85 to 90 stores in the U.S. “We never wanted 200 stores. We still think of our­selves as an e-com­merce com­pany. Our brick-and-mor­tar stores are for peo­ple who don’t want to shop on­line and still like to touch and feel the prod­uct.”

He called it a “con­ve­nient om­nichan­nel shop­ping” strat­egy.

Al­though Un­tuckit will still add to its store base in the U.S., he said it won’t be at the same paces as the past two years. The com­pany opened 19 stores in 2017, 25 in 2018 and 29 so far this year. With the Lon­don units, there will be 86 stores by year-end.

Un­tuckit now of­fers a range of cat­e­gories for men in­clud­ing po­los, sweaters, sweat­shirts, pants, shorts, sport coats and out­er­wear. It also car­ries women’s shirts and dresses and has a col­lec­tion of shirts with dif­fer­ent leagues within Ma­jor League Base­ball.