Leaning In johnnie-O's Chief Merchandising Officer, Chris Knott (Part 1)
Why do digitally native brands need bricks-and-mortar? johnnie-O recently opened their first bricks-and-mortar location at Trademark's WestBend development in Fort Worth, with plans for creating additional retail footprints throughout the country.
In this two part discussion, Chris Knott, who founded luxury brand Peter Millar in 2001 and left in 2015, joins Terry Montesi to discuss how the evolution of men's merchandising is on a similar path to how Lululemon reshaped women's fashion trends, with johnnie-O setting the course. The two also discuss Chris' rise in the men's clothing industry, and what attracted him to join johnnie-O to lead their merchandising and design efforts.
Be sure to hit the subscribe button to hear Part 2 of Terry and Chris' discussion.
Time Stamps:
(0:54) - Chris’ role at johnnie-O and how the company got started
(3:56) - What’s the backstory of your founding Peter Millar?
(8:28) - What spawned this men's casual brands popping up?
(13:28) - What would Polo Ralph Lauren look like today had they decided to be more selective with where they were available?
(15:12) - What’s behind the decision to take the brand to bricks-and-mortar?
(18:36) - Why was this the best year ever for you despite the pandemic?
(21:32) - How much of the challenges of these failed clothing brands do you toss up to merchandising?
(23:57) - The concept of ‘evolve or die’
(26:17) - What are you doing at johnnie-O relative to positioning your product?