The Rainier with collar
Last week, Twitter was abuzz with the launch of The Arrivals, a brand new, made-in-the-USA outerwear line from one of the same people who invested in Warby Parker, Harry’s and Makerbot. Already a Warby Parker fan I was intrigued and headed to The Arrivals studio in Union Square to get the scoop.
What I found was a tightly edited men’s and women’s collection of highly functional, super good looking, quality pieces for relatively affordable prices such as the Lautner, a men’s leather jacket for $545; the Atlas, a parka with a Merino shearling removable fur-liner for $585; and a structured women’s moto jacket with channeled sleeves and a removable shearling collar for $645.
What makes this line stand out from the outerwear crowd is the structured, edgy yet minimalistic, design thanks to co-founder, creative director and former architect Jeff Johnson. Outerwear like this from comparable labels at this level are well above the thousand-dollar mark.
Nine of the seven pieces in the collection are made in NYC – the other two, the women’s poncho and men’s commuter jacket with heat-welded, water-proof seams, are actually made in a factory in San Francisco that makes the United States racing suits for the Olympics.
So how do they manage to get quality, made in the USA, product for a decent price?
According to founder and hands-on investor Kal Vepuri, it’s all about the e-commerce platform. “It allows us to bypass traditional retailers and typical fashion industry markups, eliminating the unjustified prices prevalent in today’s market.”
Having already launched several successful brands, Vepuri knows a thing or two about getting a launch right. “From my experience, I’ve seen three key drivers of success that I knew were extremely important to fundamentally build into The Arrivals brand: putting the customer first, building a strong team and using technology to propel the business forward.”
Let me translate that into “shopping” language: Free shipping and free returns. No regrets.
-Nicola Harrison Ruiz*
-Photography: Courtesy of The Arrivals
*Nicola Harrison Ruiz is the Men’s Fashion & Lifestyle Editor at DOWNTOWN Magazine. She is also the founder of Harrison Style – a men’s style consulting business. If you want to take your style up a notch, you can find her at www.harrison-style.com, email her at Nicola@dtnycmag.com, follow her on twitter at @nicolaruiz or follow her instagram at harrison_style
The Scarpa
The Lautner
The Atlas
