Stroll the aisles at any commerce present and it’s clear that there are some retailers that producers are clamoring to lure into their cubicles.
These sought-after specialty shops have a protracted historical past of success, outlasting lots of their rivals with a fastidiously chosen assortment of manufacturers and powerful relationships with their clients.
Many of those shops store the Chicago Collective to fulfill with their present distributors and select the most effective assortment for the season whereas additionally looking for out some new manufacturers so as to add a way of discovery for customers visiting their gross sales flooring.
Right here, a listing of a few of the hottest retailers anticipated to be in Chicago this weekend and what’s on their want lists.
Boyds
For greater than 85 years Boyds has been a fixture in Heart Metropolis Philadelphia.
The retailer was based in 1938 by Russian immigrants Alexander, Albert and Ben Gushner, who left their homeland in hopes of a greater life in America. They opened Boyds, promoting cigars and sundries and ultimately males’s shirts, on Market Avenue. After 55 years, the corporate expanded past its core in menswear to girls’s as nicely.
At the moment its flagship is situated on Chestnut Avenue in downtown Philadelphia and it additionally operates a suburban outpost in Wayne, Pa., that opened in 2022. Kent Gushner, Alexander’s grandson, and his sons Alex and Andrew are working the enterprise, representing the fourth technology of the retailing household. Alex focuses on males’s merchandising and Andrew on advertising and marketing and branding.
The huge, five-level, 74,000-square-foot flagship — as soon as house to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fantastic Arts — underwent a $10 million renovation in 2018, giving womenswear the next profile and updating its menswear combine.
The Boyds flagship in Heart Metropolis Philadelphia.
Ryan Collerd/WWD
This fall, the shop will broaden into the jewellery enterprise and open a French pastry store on its mezzanine degree, in line with Alex Gushner.
So far as merchandising, he mentioned Boyds will even be launching a brand new opening worth level males’s tailor-made clothes line referred to as Gerald, a nod to his grandfather. It is going to function fits, sport coats, gown trousers, outerwear and tuxedos focused to a youthful buyer. Fits will begin at $795 and can supply a contemporary, modern twist.
“The costs, even earlier than tariffs, have gone up a lot,” Alex Gushner mentioned. “This is a chance for the Boyds buyer who doesn’t wish to spend $1,200 on a swimsuit. Gerald shall be enjoyable however work-appropriate.”
In Chicago, he mentioned he’s trying ahead to seeing Aurelien, a brand new addition to Boyds for fall, in addition to some “staples” reminiscent of Autumn Cashmere and others whereas looking for new manufacturers so as to add to the combo.
Giblees
The Danvers, Mass.-based family-owned Giblees Fantastic Clothes has operated on the North Shore of Boston for greater than 75 years, providing one of many largest assortments of males’s designer attire in all of New England.
The enterprise traces its roots to 1949 when Joseph Gibeley, a Despair-era hat salesman, opened a kiosk after which a retailer in Salem, Mass. Finally, he expanded his assortment into scarves and gloves, after which high-end menswear.
His son, Robert, joined the enterprise in 1951, which by then was working below the identify Giblees, a model of their surname that was arguably simpler to spell and pronounce. Within the Seventies, the retailer opened a second retailer on the Liberty Tree mall in Danvers, and closed the unique Salem location. In 1997, the household made the choice to exit the mall and take a freestanding location in a strip mall in Danvers. It began out at 5,000 sq. ft and after they purchased a constructing on Route 114 in 2008, expanded to 11,000 sq. ft.
From a younger age, Alan Gibeley was immersed within the household enterprise, even acquiring a retail diploma from Syracuse College earlier than becoming a member of Giblees full time in 1995.
The enterprise had at all times been high-end, he mentioned, however prior to now 30 years, it has turn into much more in order a method to differentiate it from its division retailer rivals, “and be as particular as we will.” That features including retailers for key designer manufacturers together with Eton, Canali, Brioni, Isaia, Etro and Jacob Cohen, a few of the retailer’s most-popular distributors.
Giblees in Danvers, Mass.
Courtesy of Giblees
The shop additionally has a powerful enterprise with Heritage Gold from Samuelsohn, Jack Victor, its opening worth level swimsuit model, and sportswear labels 34 Heritage, Peter Millar and Meyer.
Though tailor-made clothes and furnishings stay a spine of the enterprise, accounting for 50 p.c of gross sales, sportswear has gained in significance lately. “Persons are not carrying fits day by day anymore,” he mentioned, however they nonetheless cease in to select up dresswear for events reminiscent of weddings and enterprise occasions. “Folks wish to purchase one thing good and that works out nicely for specialty shops,” he mentioned.
Like different independents, Giblees prides itself on being a “pleasant, enjoyable retailer,” with superior customer support, at all times prepared to go that additional yard to maintain customers glad. “We’ll do something for our clients,” Gibeley mentioned.
These clients embody executives within the native tech business, monetary business and legal professionals in addition to blue-collar guys reminiscent of electricians and plumbers who’ve constructed giant companies and now want to decorate the half.
For its anniversary in Might, the retailer accomplished a renovation of its retailer that included New York-inspired showcase home windows, wooden flooring and fashionable lighting. “We gutted the shop and redid it for the anniversary,” he mentioned. “We had every little thing prefabricated in Italy, shipped right here and put in — proper all the way down to the fixtures. We additionally added a brand new money wrap and bar and opened up the dressing rooms.”
Whereas males’s stays its core, the shop has a rising girls’s part, overseen by Alan Gibeley’s sister Alison.
Sooner or later, Gibeley mentioned he hopes to proceed to develop womenswear whereas not chopping into the core menswear enterprise because it seems to be ahead to its subsequent 75 years.
Harley’s for Males
Harley Hooper has been within the retail enterprise almost his complete life.
Throughout faculty, he labored at an area males’s retailer and after he graduated, opened Harley’s for Males in Tyler, Texas, in 1979 as a “fashionable males’s retail store with traditional roots.”
Not a lot has modified since then. Harley’s nonetheless affords a worldwide assortment of subtle menswear from manufacturers reminiscent of Belvest, Luigi Bianci, Castangia, Corneliani, Sand Clothes and Jack Victor, its opening worth level.
“We even have another newer European traces reminiscent of Latorre, a sixth-generation household enterprise in Italy,” he mentioned, in addition to Tombolini, each of which he discovered on the Chicago Collective.
“We’re not attempting to be snobs, however we love European clothes,” Hooper mentioned, including that he even went to Pitti Uomo this previous January to “get a broader imaginative and prescient” of the lads’s market.
One other prime model of late is Gimo’s outerwear. “It doesn’t get that chilly in East Texas, however we bought $60,000 value of outerwear final yr, which was sudden,” he mentioned.
Hooper mentioned this displays the shop’s willingness to take dangers. “We take possibilities on belongings you wouldn’t assume would promote on this space,” he mentioned. “However our clients even have properties in Colorado and Utah.”
Harley’s in Tyler, Texas.
Courtesy of Harley’s
Harley’s has been in its present location for the previous 17 years when Hooper “elevated our imaginative and prescient as a result of what was happening within the metropolis.” He mentioned the neighborhood continues to be “rising in leaps and bounds,” and is house to a really prosperous buyer with a excessive schooling degree. There are three hospitals within the space in addition to a newly opened medical faculty. “In order that created an amazing alternative for a retailer with higher items,” he mentioned.
Over the previous three many years, the assortment has persistently inched up in worth, and the outcomes have adopted. “We had been at all times a greater retailer, however we’ve been having nice outcomes since COVID,” he mentioned.
Fits and sport coats account for 30 p.c of total gross sales, a quantity that’s even increased when furnishings and equipment are included. “We promote quite a lot of shirts from Eton and Emanuel Berg, in addition to ties and pocket squares,” Hooper mentioned. The shop boasts on its web site that it hangs greater than 300 fits and sport coats in sizes starting from 36 quick to 56 lengthy.
“There will not be many outfitters anymore,” he mentioned, “however when somebody walks in right here searching for a swimsuit, they don’t normally stroll out with out one. We’re 100 miles east of Dallas and 200 miles from Houston, so we’ve got to have merchandise within the retailer.”
Sportswear nonetheless accounts for 60 p.c of the enterprise, a determine that has remained fixed for the previous 40 years, he mentioned. High manufacturers embody Stenstroms and Triluxe.
Over time Harley’s has had areas in different cities together with Faculty Station, Texas, house to Texas A&M. That’s the place Carson Hooper attended faculty and was referred to as upon to run the shop after its supervisor died. Harley Hooper mentioned he gave his son the choice to both keep in Faculty Station or to hitch the flagship. He opted for the latter and the choice was made to shut the outpost in 2019.
Ditto for the opposite department shops, that are not working. “Nothing comes near Tyler due to the affluence of the folks right here,” he mentioned.
On the Chicago Collective, each Harley and Carson Hooper plan to buy the present looking for some new manufacturers so as to add to the combo whereas visiting with current distributors.
Harley Hooper mentioned he believes the Chicago Collective is “the most effective factor that ever occurred to retail. I’ve been going to New York Metropolis since 1972 however as soon as I went to Chicago, I by no means regarded again.”
With Carson Hooper on board, the enterprise has a vibrant future, Harley Hooper believes. “He says he’ll stick with it the legacy,” Harley Hooper mentioned of his son. “He’ll give attention to the way forward for the shop; he’ll be sure that our service and keenness will proceed to be the main target for years to return within the East Texas space.”
J3 Clothes
“We’re simply three guys in Cleveland attempting to convey style to the Midwest.”
That’s how JB Dunn described J3 Clothes, a retailer in suburban Moreland Hills, Ohio, that he created with Jack Madda and Joe Paster — the three “Js.”
Fifteen years in the past, the three native retailers cooked up an concept to depart their present shops and create a brand new enterprise to “redefine how males in northeast Ohio store for premium clothes.”
All three had labored in some unspecified time in the future for Kilgore Trout, one other high-end native retailer, in addition to the native Barneys New York and different shops. Mixed, they’ve greater than 70 years of expertise in menswear retailing and their purpose was to proceed to promote luxurious merchandise “however in a more-casual environment,” Dunn mentioned. “Our retailer could be very fashionable and ethereal, and our plan has been working for 15 years.”
The J3 retailer has been in operation for 15 years.
Courtesy of J3
When searching for a location, Dunn mentioned they researched the place properties that bought for $1 million and extra had been situated within the state of Ohio, and drew a five-mile circle from that time. That’s how they settled on Moreland Hills, which is round 11 miles from the middle of Cleveland.
Every of the homeowners has a selected experience that has related with buyer. “Jack is the most effective vendor I’ve ever met, Joe is an actual numbers-cruncher and I match someplace in between,” Dunn mentioned.
And like most specialty shops, customer support is of paramount significance. “Our mantra is: how can we assist them, not what can we promote them,” he mentioned. “No person looks like they’ve to purchase one thing. We have now unbelievable repeat enterprise from our base — they really feel like household.”
J3 affords a variety of tailor-made and informal manufacturers for these customers, together with Canali, Corneliani and Eleventy, which have retailers within the retailer, together with Autumn Cashmere, Eton, Gimo’s, Hickey Freeman, Meyer, Piacenza, Stenstroms and others. Denim manufacturers are a part of the assortment from Brax, Residents of Humanity, Paige and others, and the shop additionally carries footwear and small leather-based items.
Dunn mentioned Canali is the shop’s prime vendor by way of models and {dollars}, Coppley affords a fairly priced swimsuit different, and Meyer pants are additionally standard.
“We have now an amazing denim division and we will gown him from socks to tuxedos,” Dunn mentioned.
He mentioned gross sales of tailor-made clothes have been rising lately as guys store for occasions and particular events. “We have now 5 nation golf equipment within the space,” he mentioned.
Even so, in Chicago, the crew shall be trying primarily for sportswear, Dunn mentioned, “one thing new to excite clients coming by way of the door. We’ve acquired to maintain issues contemporary.”
Mitchells
It was 1958 when Ed and Norma Mitchell opened a haberdashery in an 800-square-foot former plumbing provide retailer in Westport, Conn., with “three males’s fits, a espresso pot and a dream,” because the story goes.
Over time the Mitchell household has systematically constructed what’s arguably essentially the most profitable impartial multibrand retailer within the U.S.
In March, the Mitchells purchased Stanley Korshak, the venerable Dallas-based males’s and girls’s retailer, including one other nameplate to the corporate that additionally operates Mitchells and Richards in Connecticut, Marios in Portland, Ore., and Seattle, and Wilkes Bashford in San Francisco and Palo Alto, Calif. The corporate additionally has a Mitchells retailer in Huntington, N.Y., that was previously a Marshs. That enterprise was acquired in 2005 and rebranded in 2015.
All informed, the ten shops have annual gross sales of over $250 million.
Mitchells shops has skilled robust spring males’s gross sales.
Courtesy
At the same time as their steady continued to develop over time, the household dealt with each acquisition with child gloves and the utmost respect. Many of the authentic homeowners had been retained and handled as companions and ambassadors of their respective companies, and in lots of instances, the Mitchells additionally referred to the purchases as mergers slightly than gross sales.
That politeness and thoughtfulness permeates the Mitchell household and spills over to its arsenal of long-time workers.
By the mid-Sixties, Ed and Norma Mitchell’s sons, Jack and Invoice, joined the household enterprise. Each had been masters at growing buyer relationships, with Jack Mitchell even penning a guide, “Hug Your Clients,” that detailed a few of their finest practices for acquiring and retaining loyal customers.
At the moment, Jack’s sons, Bob and Russell Mitchell, function co-chief govt officers, and various different members of the family are sprinkled all through the corporate, together with Bob’s son Lyle, who lately joined the household enterprise, specializing in the monetary finish.
Not surprisingly, the Mitchells’ method to having members of the family be part of can also be systematic: anybody hoping to work at a Mitchells-owned retailer is required to work for one more enterprise for not less than 5 years, and carry out nicely there. They’re then introduced in for interviews with the corporate’s board of administrators, at which level they’re thought of for an open place. “There are clear boundaries,” Bob Mitchell has mentioned of the method.
However non-family members are additionally given alternatives reminiscent of Dan Farrington, the chief males’s service provider, who has been with the corporate for greater than three many years. His spouse additionally works there, as common merchandise supervisor of bijou.
Over time, the combo at Mitchells has continued to raise with key manufacturers in males’s and girls’s — womenswear is now really a bigger enterprise than males’s for the general firm, accounting for some 56 p.c of gross sales — with Akris, Bottega Veneta, Brioni, Brunello Cucinelli, Kiton, Saint Laurent, Tom Ford, Valentino and Zegna amongst their most vital manufacturers.
On the Chicago present, Farrington mentioned the crew shall be searching for casualwear, modern manufacturers and knitwear. “We’re hoping to stroll and see as a lot as we will and discover one thing new and sudden. We’re open for something.”
Wanting forward, Bob Mitchell has mentioned the household can also be desirous about at some point increasing into the profitable Florida market and has its sights set on the Palm Seashore space.
Rubensteins
It was in 2024 that Rubensteins celebrated its centennial.
Over the previous 100 years, the New Orleans-based menswear retailer has managed to keep up its core values to ship high quality, service and a novel product assortment whereas pivoting to maintain up with a altering client.
The corporate acquired its begin in 1924 when Morris Rubenstein discovered the lady of his desires and wished to marry her. However her father wouldn’t permit the nuptials till the younger man acquired a job. Though instances had been robust, Rubenstein used the information he had amassed from the household’s dry items retailer on Rampart Avenue to open a haberdashery on the nook of Canal Avenue and St. Charles Avenue, promoting garments to younger males. (And sure, he acquired the lady.)
Morris’ brothers Elkin and Sam quickly joined his enterprise and collectively, they benefited from the expansion of town’s central enterprise district. That got here to a halt throughout the Nice Despair when onerous instances prompted the brothers to ask for a hire discount, which the owner agreed to, permitting the enterprise to stay open.
Throughout World Warfare II, they added womenswear to assist maintain enterprise. When the struggle ended, they famously marketed white gown shirts, encouraging the younger males reentering the workforce to cost the tops to their Rubensteins credit score accounts.
Finally, they purchased the constructing together with six others on one of many Crescent Metropolis’s most well-known corners, and expanded the shop. Over time, the household acquired one other enterprise, the Madison Store, opened two All-American Denims shops and a Rubensteins department exterior town.
Elkin’s sons, Andre and David, joined the household enterprise after graduating from faculty, adopted by their sons and wives because the household unfold out among the many branches.
Rubensteins on Canal Avenue in New Orleans.
Courtesy
Finally, the entire department shops closed and the household exited womenswear, leaving Rubensteins with its flagship on St. Charles and Canal. Though town was devastated after Hurricane Katrina hit town within the fall of 2005, the shop was primarily spared and managed to reopen lower than two months later, and in the present day, the enterprise consists of seven neighboring buildings.
“It’s the guts of New Orleans,” mentioned Kenny Rubenstein, Andre’s son, who has labored for the shop for greater than 30 years.
Whereas many rivals on the town leaned towards Southern conventional manufacturers, Rubensteins affords a variety of prime Italian manufacturers reminiscent of Brioni and Zegna together with Coppley, Munro, Ravazzolo, Stile Latino and Canali. Over the previous three years the corporate has seen an uptick within the sale of made-to-measure and luxurious items, Kenny Rubenstein mentioned. “We’re a dressier city. Some eating places nonetheless require a sport coat for dinner, there are tuxedo occasions on the zoo — getting dressed up is a badge of honor right here.”
Though greater than half its gross sales come from tailor-made clothes, the shop additionally carries denim and sportswear from Barbour, Billy Reid, Faherty, Paul Smith, Robert Graham and others.
“We nonetheless do an enormous enterprise in fits and sport coats, however the alternative is capturing extra informal enterprise,” he mentioned.
A little bit over a yr in the past, in line with Kenny Rubenstein, the household acquired into the hospitality enterprise, constructing a forty five,000-square-foot lodge with 40 rooms on prime of the shop in what was “largely unused house.” Referred to as Rubenstein Lodge, the household partnered with the late Joe Jaeger, who owned J Assortment Inns and Growth, to redevelop the house, which is managed by a hospitality firm.
Though the Rubensteins didn’t have aspirations to turn into hoteliers, it’s figuring out nicely. “We’re actually a hospitality firm that sells garments,” he mentioned. “It’s generated quite a lot of clients for the shop and added to the expertise, which is what we’re all pushed by.”
