The Sporty & Rich category continues its impressive growth with expansion.
The four-year-old loungewear brand founded by Emily Oberg is launching its first swimwear collection on Monday, marking the brand’s latest category expansion. Sporty & Rich first forayed into swimwear last year in association with Solid & Striped.
The first Sporty & Rich swimwear collection includes bikinis and one-piece bathing suits in a brown, off-white and green color palette. Both styles include a high-cut bottom and strappy top.
The collection also features pieces such as T-shirts, shorts, button-up shirts, crewnecks and hats to match the swimwear.
A campaign image from the Sporty and Rich swimwear collection.
Courtesy of Sporty and Rich
Oberg said of her design process, “I make things I want to wear and I think I might not be getting, or things I’ve got, but I want to make better.” “Everything is too simple. I would never do a fashion piece—nothing too risky or too inventive. It’s a lot of uniform dressing and just so many basics and staples that I would like to have in my wardrobe right now and now.” Even after 10 years.
According to the company, the sporty and rich swimwear collection comes as the brand continues its growth trajectory. Sporty & Rich said it saw sales rise from $400,000 in 2019 to $4 million in 2020, thanks to a boom in loungewear as people stay home and look for casual clothing options during the COVID-19 pandemic. happened because of The following year, the brand posted sales of $12 million and is projected to have $20 million to $24 million in sales this year.
“People have always been wearing [loungewear] before it became popular [during the pandemic],” Oberg said. “I don’t think sweatsuits and casual clothes will ever be worn. There’s a time and a place for this.”
While Oberg experienced unprecedented growth amid the pandemic, she said the fast pace almost destroyed her brand as it struggled to keep up with demand.
“Sometimes growth can kill a brand,” she said. “It happens often and before COVID[-19], we were very young. Our sales were nothing special, but then with COVID[-19] It expanded and development almost killed us. I would say we were on the verge of it, but we quickly figured it out.
Oberg maintained its business by developing its team and establishing systems to operate more smoothly, such as creating a customer service team and utilizing a new logistics center and factory.
A campaign image from the Sporty and Rich swimwear collection.
Courtesy of Sporty and Rich
These changes also came at a time of controversy between the founder and his label. The brand initially came under fire at the start of the pandemic for an insensitive Instagram post that compared the cost of fast food items to “real food” — things like an apple, instant oatmeal or bag of lettuce — With the caption, “You don’t need to be rich to be healthy” many criticized the brand, which has since deleted the post for the elite.
Oberg was also called out for allegedly making insensitive remarks and laughing at racially insensitive jokes on the podcast.
“I mean, I’m a female, Asian minority founder, so it’s not like I’ve never faced discrimination myself, so I’m very aware and dealt with these things already,” Oberg said. said in response. Conflict. “It’s not that I need to intentionally not be a racist person because I think that’s embedded in me and that’s how I was born. I feel like some of these other founders should go out of their way to read all these books.” Had to read how not to be racist, but for me, it’s never been an issue of who I am. Being more sensitive to the fact that not everyone has access to healthy food – which is one of the main points. Had one, and exercising or even taking supplements – I would say [I was] Not secret, but I guess I wasn’t being sensitive enough to people. Especially with wellness sites – writing all this health advice and not realizing that many people can’t even do what we’re told. So I think in that sense, content is more for everyone now, where it’s like, we have a lot of articles on how to stay healthy for essentially minimal resources, and these are things you can do with zero budget. can be done. And in terms of the brand in general, I’d say it’s pretty accessible, the price point being on the lower end compared to other streetwear brands. ,
Sporty & Rich sells t-shirts for $60, sweatshirts for between $150 and $185, and sports bras for $85.
Oberg explained that hiring more staff members and implementing new systems in the years following the controversy helped correct these missteps.
Moving forward, Oberg is releasing a Sporty & Rich coffee book and is eyeing a storefront.
“It is important for people to have a real life point of connection for discovering the brand world and lifestyle,” she said. “There is only so much you can connect with people online. Online is still going to be an important focus, but I think it would be nice to create a bigger and stronger sense of community, so a store helps with that.
Originally published at Pen 18
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