Wilderness Outfitter Weathers Winds of Change
The five sewing machines clattering away in the cramped factory just off Interstate 8 in Mission Gorge are one trick of the trade that Mic Mead uses to “stay special” in the fiercely competitive world of specialty retailing.
By winter’s end, the machines will turn out 5,000 of the “bomber hats” that Adventure 16, Mead’s wilderness outfitting stores, will retail for $29.95 to skiers and cold-weather hikers.
Competitors offer less-expensive versions of the hats, and Mead acknowledged that Adventure 16 could trim costs by manufacturing the hats in nearby Mexico, where labor costs are low. Plus, Adventure 16 could use the factory space to augment its retail and wholesale businesses.
But the San Diego-based chain will continue to manufacture hats--and tents, backpacks and other outdoor gear--whenever jobbing out means “losing control over the quality that we and our customers want,” Mead said.
In Horton Plaza
One of the Adventure 16 retail outlets is the Wild Horizons shop in Horton Plaza. The firm has four other stores, which are known as Adventure 16. Two are in the Los Angeles area and the others are in Solana Beach and Mission Valley.
Adventure 16 will open a sixth store early next year in Irvine. The company also has 2,600 wholesale customers who buy everything from altimeters to water bottles, mainly through a mail-order catalogue.
The privately owned company, which has about 170 employees, grew from a garage operation founded by an Explorer troop in the early 1960s. The Scouts manufactured hard-to-find hiking gear for their own use, and subsequently began selling equipment to other troops.
Mead, who joined the company in 1971, pins the wilderness outfitter’s survival to its ability to “move quicker” than larger companies.
Sales Doubled
During recent years the chain’s Los Angeles-area stores have doubled their sales volume every two years. The San Diego stores have doubled their volume every three years, according to Mead.
Most of those items are carried out by backpackers, mountain climbers, campers and other outdoors types who turn to the chain for specialized hardware and clothing. Adventure 16’s mailing list, which offers product information and news of upcoming clinics and trips, includes more than 70,000 names.
But Mead also recognizes that armchair adventurers can help Adventure 16’s revenue stream grow.
“Rugged outdoor clothing . . . (had its) biggest growth when it was discovered by preppies some 10 to 15 years ago,” Mead said. “It was a phenomenal wave but it’s not as ‘in’ anymore, so you have to learn to adjust.”
Adjusted to Demand
Mead pointed to Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer as two chains that are not afraid to adjust to meet customer demand. “Banana Republic is moving more toward colors and Eddie Bauer has moved away from khaki,” Mead observed.
Specialty retailers who sell woodsy apparel have also found that the competition includes other players from other niches. “Dollar for dollar, Banana Republic is our biggest competitor at Horton Plaza,” Mead said.
Mead went head-to-head with Banana Republic two years ago when he opened a “Wilderness Adventure” retail clothing store at the downtown shopping center. The store caters to “those of us who read National Geographic and put ourselves into (the outdoors) but who don’t necessarily go up the Amazon River,” Mead quipped.
It showcases the same quality clothing and outdoors ambiance--including an audio system that fills the air with the sounds of chirping birds--found at Adventure 16’s full-line stores. But it does not feature the extensive--and often, expensive--collection of sporting hardware that is the trademark of Adventure 16’s other stores.
Wary of Franchising
Mead has “thought about” franchising the Wild Horizons concept, but is “afraid that we’d lose control.”
Adventure 16’s most effective quality control device is its personnel, according to Mead, most of whom are “very familiar with the product because they use it all the time.” Adventure 16 employees regularly conduct clinics--some of which pay for themselves--in wilderness photography, backpacking and mountain climbing.
That kind of in-store expertise is important because “outdoors customers are pretty smart,” according to Denise Friend, a merchandise manager for REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.), a 50-year-old, Seattle-based cooperative that sells sports hardware. “You’d better have credibility or they’re not going to come back.”
To that end, Sport Chalet hopes to use its status as one of the nation’s largest scuba school operators to attract customers to its stores. The La Canada-based chain is building a 40- by 60-foot diving tank that will sit next to the 30,000-square-foot sports emporium it will open next month near the Sports Arena.
Shopper Can See Scuba Lessons
The tank, and one that opened earlier this month at Sport Chalet’s Huntington Beach store, will be used to conduct scuba lessons. Shoppers and passers-by will be able to watch the action through large underwater windows that are being built by the same company that manufactures aquatic tanks for Sea World.
The added expense is justifiable “because it’s getting very difficult to compete as just a specialty (clothing or sports) store,” Allen said.
“There are trends in (the specialty retailing) business, and the trend has been very good toward the outdoor look, be it safari or Pacific Northwest,” said Sam Allen, chief exective of Sport Chalet. “But at some point it’s going to be very difficult to compete as a specialty store with a narrow focus.”
Sport Chalet, which operates sporting goods stores in San Diego, Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo and La Canada, will open a store next month in Valencia.
Greater Share Sought
But even as Adventure 16 and Sport Chalet strive to retain their own special niches, mainstream retailers are pushing for a greater share of the outdoor leisure clothing market.
Nordstrom, for example, which offers a Norsports line of sports-type clothing, soon will add a limited line of winter clothing manufactured by North Face, a nationally known wilderness outfitter.
“Our customers are looking for lightweight, durable clothing in the new colors,” according to a Nordstrom spokeswoman. “Our selection of leisure wear has increased in response to customers coming in demanding it.”
Adventure 16 also faces potential competition from REI, which sold $132 million in merchandise to its 650,000 members during 1986. REI has 17 stores across the nation, including Southern California locations in San Dimas, Carson and Orange.
Expanded to East Coast
REI, which recently expanded to East Coast locations in Boston and Washington, is considering expansion into “just about every large market in the West,” according to spokeswoman Denise Guest. “San Diego would be a real possibility for us.”
Another powerful force is Eddie Bauer, a Redmond, Wash.-based retail store and catalog operation that in November will open a retail outlet just yards from Adventure 16’s store in Horton Plaza.
The wilderness outfitter that opened its doors in 1920 once was synonymous with goose-down products and mountaineering expeditions. However, Eddie Bauer’s focus has shifted dramatically since the company was acquired by General Mills in 1971.
Nearly half of Eddie Bauer’s $200 million in 1986 sales were generated by catalog sales. But the company that once outfitted most major mountaineering expeditions recently orchestrated a move away from its wilderness heritage.
‘More Urban-Rural’
The company now offers “men’s and women’s sportswear, accessories and gift items,” according to a spokesman. “We’re more urban-rural than hard-core sports.”
Eddie Bauer’s nationwide expansion plan calls for the addition of more than 20 stores during the coming year, including two in Los Angeles and three in San Francisco.
Even though Eddie Bauer generates less than 5% of General Mills’ revenue, the food and packaged-goods giant is expanding the revamped Eddie Bauer operation because “it has proven to be a winner, with high returns and high sales per square foot,” according to Marvin B. Roffman, a Philadelphia-based industry analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott.
