Bombas, the direct-to-consumer brand known for comfortable socks and its âbuy one, donate oneâ model, is opening its first retail locations this fall, with stores in New York City, Austin and Boca Raton, Florida. Itâs also launching new wholesale partnerships with Target and DSW stores.
Until now, the bulk of Bombasâ sales have been via its website, with less than 10 percent generated by wholesale partners including Nordstrom and Dickâs Sporting Goods. The brand is on track to hit $500 million in sales this year, according to chief executive Jason LaRose.
Since launching with casual socks in 2013 â and an appearance on Shark Tank by founders Randy Goldberg and David Heath the following year â Bombas has since expanded into T-shirts, underwear and more recently, footwear. Its assortment of slippers and slides now make up the fastest growing segment for the business, generating about a quarter of sales.
âIn wholesale, we only have limited amounts of space. In our own [stores], we have the chance to show the full breadth of the categories we carry, to give more oxygen to our mission and have a better chance to talk about our story,â said LaRose.
The New York store is located on Bleecker Street and will open Friday. All three locations will be permanent, but are not tied to long-term leases, LaRose added. âThe test really for us is to do a few stores, see how the customer responds,â he said.
Compared to its peers in the direct-to-consumer space, Bombas is a latecomer to retail. The likes of Everlane, Allbirds and Glossier, for instance, opened their first stores years ago, and now operate about a dozen locations. Warby Parker boasts a footprint of 276 stores as of 2024.
Digital native brands flocked to brick-and-mortar retail in the late 2010s as the cost of online advertising â their initial growth strategy â skyrocketed. Reaching a ceiling on digital customer acquisition, these startups looked to physical retail and wholesale as means of reaching new customer segments.
While Bombas was early to wholesale, it held off on retail because its online channel continued to grow despite the operational challenges of e-commerce overall, said LaRose.
âWe make a really great product, but itâs a great product in a commodity category and itâs not a big [financial] commitment,â he said. âA few pairs of Bombas are also easy for us to pack and ship, so we donât have some of the logistical concerns that other businesses might have encountered in the last couple of years.â
Even so, 65 percent of sock purchases take place in person, according to Bombasâ own research. The company is cautiously optimistic about growth opportunities in retail.
âWeâre excited about it being a significant part of the business going forward, if thatâs where it ends up,â LaRose said.
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