By Jarrett Banks
The athleisure trend shows no signs of abating. Add in a fast-growing, female majority-owned owned company that is likely raising capital next year, and ears tend to perk up. Enter EVR Brands.
Exec Edge sat down with Founder and CEO Rachel Turzer to find out more.
Exec Edge: How did EVR Brands come about?
I started my company at 21 years old. I originally had my own brand Kora Rae, a women’s contemporary-luxury line. We created pieces for celebrities such as Beyonce, Selena Gomez, JLo. In turn, we were approached to help celebrities and influencers create their own signature brands. It was all very organic and happened quickly. At one point I had over 5 licensing deals with some high-profile celebrities. We managed everything from design, production, manufacturing, distribution, fulfillment, and marketing. You name it, we did it. In the last 24 months, we pivoted away from the celebrity side of things. With the emergence of COVID, we found great opportunities to work with businesses primarily in the fitness space and corporates, helping them launch their own apparel line, revamp or upgrade their existing line or produce custom swag for employees.
Exec Edge: What is EVR Brands primary focus?
We work with some of the largest fitness franchises, gyms, and at-home digital fitness companies. Our goal is to create exclusive apparel collections, unique to each client, from the ground up. We create and curate a collection that aligns with each client’s demographics while integrating today’s latest fashion trends. All our designs, fabrications, and branding are exclusive to each client. For corporates, we are finding businesses want to treat their employees in a special way in a work-from-home environment and they don’t want screen printed tees – they want high-quality athleisure that people can work in all day and be proud to show off a logo.
Exec Edge: Can you name some of the clients you currently work with?
We are currently doing collections in the fitness and sports space with Equinox, Tonal, Bar Method, 9 Round Boxing, and Barstool Sports. In the corporate space, we’ve worked with Stifel, Nasdaq, and ICR.
Exec Edge: What differentiates you from your competitors?
We think large businesses value us for our unique capabilities in regards to customization and branding. We work directly with the mills and control fabrication at the yarn stage allowing our clients to have their own proprietary fabrics. Besides fabrications, all designs are exclusive to each client. Many companies either find themselves co-branding or screen printing on blanks. A full design team and branding experts are appointed to every project to help curate a product line based on each client’s unique aesthetic. The styles are then cut, sewn, with no restrictions on print placement, washes, fabrications or designs. We are able to deliver a custom, elevated, turnkey product at a competitive price point.
Exec Edge: What is the biggest shift you have seen in the apparel industry?
Culture and comfort. Creating apparel is not just about brand monetization, it’s about boosting company culture. Aside from the fitness space, we work with some of the largest cpg, beauty brands, venture capital, and private equity firms producing not only retail products but company swag. Across the board, they have adapted the importance of culture and comfort. Since the emergence of COVID, most businesses have struggled to maintain a sense of community amongst their employees and customers. Given the strong push for a “work from home” way of life, most consumers are gravitating towards relaxed and comfortable clothing. From the executive team down to its intern’s athleisure is becoming the new normal.
Exec Edge: How fast are you growing and would you ever consider raising external funds or eventually going public?
2021 will be a great year for us as we expect to grow over 500%. We believe we can maintain strong growth next year by continuing to build relationships with our strong and growing client base. We are fortunate to be self-funding today, with an asset-light model as we don’t have to take inventory risk. We are going to relook at the need for outside capital in 2022 if we find we can grow faster with a strategic partner.
Contact:
Twitter: @Exec_Edge
