Others have proven themselves more purely dedicated to the cause, and earlier on. Case in point: Outdoor Voices.

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1 There are few spaces in retail growing as quickly right now as the athleisure market. Part fashion trend, part lifestyle movement, it s a category that caters to those living consistently active lifestyles or at least dressing the part. Think sweatpants that look as good in a SoulCycle class as they do grabbing brunch afterwards. Initially regarded by some as a passing fad, athleisure has stood up to the punches since it bubbled up in 2013, raking in hundreds of billions of dollars in the US over the last two years. That s enough to make those not in the game break a sweat. Every month, it seems more brands from Tory Burch to Old Navy are trying to get their slice of the pie, adding activewear to their already robust line sheets. Others have proven themselves more purely dedicated to the cause, and earlier on. Case in point: Outdoor Voices. Founded in 2013 by Tyler Hanley, the New York City-based company you can call them OV for short strictly specializes in athleisure. Consistent in tone and modern in aesthetic, they ve successfully created a lifestyle brand that appeals to a very particular type of Millennial demographic one that appreciates textured compression fabric as much as they do, say, high-brow David Hockney pool murals. Today, the line between jock and thoughtful intellectual have been blurred. Have your cake and eat it, too just make sure it s glutenfree. Here, we talk to President about the importance of on-brand collaborations, studying supply chains, and always saying yes. What were you doing prior to Outdoor Voices? Originally, I was involved in the healthcare industry and was interested in health driven outcomes for the next generation. That was the first problem set that I was interested in and it led me to a small consulting firm. [While there], I got the opportunity to pitch a piece of business to Anheuser-Busch InBev. I had never spent any time working on consumer products. That beer project pitch changed everything for me because I realized I love nothing more than the interaction between a consumer and a product.

2 How do you think being from Seattle impacts your work, if at all? I think this is a spot where Tyler [Haney, CEO] and I really align. First and foremost, we understand markets that aren t New York. We don t think that New York or L.A. are the only places where our brand needs to resonate. There is a way of life that exists in other markets that s really inspired us. With me having grown up in Seattle and Tyler in Boulder, we would both ski in the winters, we would be

3 involved in a bunch of sports, we would be outside every single day. The concept of Outdoor Voices really comes from growing up outdoors and being able to manifest that energy. Where we re from also gives us a lot of like brands to look up to. I grew up in love with Nike, which is based in Portland, Oregon. Patagonia also has a big presence in the Pacific Northwest. North Face has a big presence. REI s in Washington. Nordstrom, too. These are all iconic brands that affected our approach and inspired us to go out and create on our own. How did you and Tyler first meet? Were you friends prior to starting the business? I met Tyler at a party at my place in Brooklyn at some random get-together. We used to throw these parties called surf gang parties and this was one of them. So she came a surf gang party? So, she came to a surf gang party [laughs] and she was wearing a piece of Outdoor Voices. She had just graduated from Parsons. She showed me her line sheet and it was obvious there was something so special there. I said, let me know how I can help you, what I can do to get involved in this. And what happens next?

4 I made a couple of introductions. I spent some time helping her with decks and things like that over the next six or eight months. As Ty raised an initial $300,000 of financing, I came on to join the team. What are you responsible for today at OV and how has it changed over time? Ty is amazing with product and brand. My responsibility has always been to just make sure that everything else is taken care of. So whether it s building a website or finding distribution partners, I just go out and do it. But my passion lies with the customer and creating a customer experience that s second to none.

5 When you were first starting the business how did you go from idea to prototype? We started by chasing supply chains and going backwards. If we love a certain piece [by another brand], we d figure out how the company went about making it. You chase the supply chain backwards. How do you do that?

6 This is not of one of those times when you go on the internet and you type in where does Lululemon make their stuff and get an answer. You really have to think about everything from where the product is produced to where you find the fabric and then you get out and talk to people. It s one of those things where you have one conversation and you get a little information, and then the next person gives you something you didn t know, and you just begin piecing it all together. Even when the brand was younger you were securing really big partnerships. How? This is probably one of the areas where we ve been most successful. I think it all starts from an energy and kind of a manifesto that we deserve to be big. You have to think a lot bigger than you actually are. Once you believe that energy, you can really go out and get it. One of the big early moments for us was when we did this J. Crew partnership. It was such validation in the market. We went in there with just the two of us, which was the entire company at the time. So we show up and we present them samples and they ask, If we want to place an order of this size, would you guys be able to do it? and we re like, Yeah, no problem. We have the supply chain for it. You just say yes and you go out and find a way to really deliver on it.

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8 So when that happened did you actually have the infrastructure or did you walk out of the meeting and say, Now we need to figure this out. You have to go figure it out I mean, at this point it was totally different. We had sold a couple thousand units, but this was much bigger than that. But again, the attitude is always think bigger. In general, the way that you choose partners ends up really determining what kind of

9 customer you re going to attract, and we only work with partners that are personally involved with, as well. With our current A.P.C. partnership, we admire that brand so much and we wear A.P.C. It made sense to work with them. We ve had plenty of other brands approach and say, Hey, we d love to work with you, and we re very careful about who we choose. Unless we personally love it, there s no reason to ever do it, even if they have big reach. Do you consider OV a startup? That s a really good question. Yes and no. I think there s an energy that comes from being a startup that s really exciting that we try to tap into. On the flip side, for us it s about running a great and sound business and sometimes that s not the main focus in startup culture. In your opinion, what makes a really powerful brand? I think it s a triangulation of things. For us, it starts with coming from a really authentic place. We never felt like we had our own activewear brand. Our approach to activity is much different and it didn t exist in the world already. Then there s this other portion of the triangle, which is product. The product that we wanted and the brand that we wanted didn t exist in the world, either. And the third one is that there needs to be a business-model element, and we thought that from a digital perspective none of our competitors had figured out how to be a great digital brand within the activewear space. When we put those three things together, we felt we had a really great brand because there was a reason for it, there was a product that didn t exist, and there was a way to deliver that product in a much bigger way.

10 What drives online sales for Outdoor Voices? Online sales are driven by, again, having a great brand, and also having great creative. Something we re really proud of is the way that we shoot everything, from our editorial imagery to our ecomm imagery. What we ve also seen is that assortment is a big driver of online volume. A big thing for us is giving optionality to our customers. We have three-quarter leggings and full-length leggings, and what we ve seen is that our customers either love a three-quarter or they love a full-length. We need to have both in all of our styles to really drive great online volume.

11 Can you walk me through the rounds of funding you ve been through and what you ve learned in the process? We started with $300,000 in friends and family. From there, we did convertible equity. We were having a lot of ongoing conversations with investors and we kept meeting more interesting people Nic Jammet from Sweetgreen is a really good example and other people that wanted to invest. So instead of waiting to do future rounds, we started running this piece of convertible. We used convertible for all of 2014 as a way to allow growth to happen. At the end of last year, we raised our Seed Series-B, which is basically just a much bigger seed round, which was $1.5 million. That s where General Catalyst initially got involved. We had garnered enough traction to get some interest from the VC world, and then it was clear: go hire more people, really start to validate this business. We opened up a store off of some of that convertible money. We just closed this last big round in October our Series A for $7 million. What are the three things you want to accomplish in 2016? Number one: We want to continue to inspire and create the best team that exists. We have huge aspirations for our company over time and that all begins with bringing in the right people, inspiring the right people, and getting the most out of working with great people. A huge initiative for us this year is to continue to create that team and inspire that team. Two: We have a ton of interest in brick-and-mortar. Programming that and getting that right

12 and figuring out how we re going to scale that model is something that we re playing around with a lot. We re not going to go out and open 25 stores this year, but we are really going to try to figure out what the retail concept is for the future of Outdoor Voices. And for number three: there s a lot of new product that we re going to be releasing. Our product cadence is really improving. You re going to see quicker deliveries and items coming out more consistently. Getting that right is a big goal. What brands or entrepreneurs do you look up to? From a brand perspective, being iconic and long-lasting is something that really matters to us. We want Outdoor Voices to be around longer than we are. We look at Patagonia and what they ve done in terms of establishing a really strong core customer base, being meaningful for the environment, having this incredible set of ambassadors, and a great product. Obviously the scale of Nike is insane, and people still revere that company. I still revere that company. And A.P.C. they ve taught us so much. Their ability to make great products, season over season, and never be too trendy and always be super high quality and super thoughtful. That matters a lot to us. Quick fire: Best meal in New York: The best meal in New York is Peter Luger s. One person from history you d like to see in Outdoor Voices: the kid Ken Griffey Jr Book every entrepreneur should read: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz. The best place to run in New York: Central Park, the entire loop, six miles.