MILAN — Woolrich’s Black Label, the premium line of “wanderluxe” men’s fashion helmed by creative director Todd Snyder, is hitting the retail floor, and the brand is banking on its debut.
“We’re very excited about the launch,” said Stefano Saccone, chief executive officer of Woolrich in a joint interview with Snyder. “We’re bringing new consumers into the Woolrich brand through Todd. Of course, we are interested in speaking to a global consumer who’s looking at what’s happening in the market, what’s happening in the menswear space globally, and that knows Todd Snyder‘s name, and maybe, in some cases, knows Todd Snyder’s name more than they know the Woolrich name. It’s exciting to see that we’re getting existing consumers, loyal consumers, but we’re also bringing in someone who, for our stores, is new to our business,” he said.
The American menswear designer was named to the post in November 2023, tasked with leading a more premium-line part of the Woolrich universe. The first collection bowed for fall 2024 at last January’s Pitti Uomo, as part of the Todd Snyder brand’s show at the trade fair as its guest designer.
Woolrich is taking a selective retail approach for Black Label, in sync with its higher end positioning and luxe feel, rooted in the outdoorsy lifestyle and fashion offering Woolrich is known for, reinvented under an upscale lens.
The CEO explained that they are leveraging Woolrich’s and Todd Snyder’s own brick-and-mortar and online direct retail, resorting to just a handful of global wholesale accounts for meaningful partnerships that feel relevant to the brand’s identity.
The Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder’s fall 2024 ad campaign on out-of-home billboards in Milan.
Courtesy of Woolrich
The retail rollout started in Japan, where the brand has already unveiled its first pop-up installations at Isetan. A second pop-up will bow on Nov. 1 at the Ginza Six department store, making them the two wholesale partners in the Asian country.
“Todd’s presence there was great, because Todd has terrific brand awareness in Japan through his own brand. The response at this time was very strong. The pop-up was great. And we’re moving forward as a next step,” Saccone said.
“This launch speaks to our approach this first season in terms of how we are distributing the Black Label collection from a wholesale perspective,” Saccone explained. “It’s a very selective distribution. And that’s consistent as we move to Italy as well. Obviously Isetan and Ginza Six being the best retailers in Japan, if not amongst the best retailers globally. That’s very, very exciting for us to launch the collection in this way, starting with Japan, then moving to Milan and then New York,” he said.
In Milan, where the brand operates one of the 32 flagships it boasts globally, Woolrich dedicated windows and several square feet of retail floor to the Black Label collection, inviting VICs to preview it already last week. It also kicked off a widespread out-of-home campaign with billboards, digital screens and bus shelters flashing Black Label campaign imagery in key locations across the city.
The Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder’s fall 2024 ad campaign on out-of-home billboards in Milan.
Courtesy of Woolrich
The brand will debut pop-ups at the Antonia boutique inside the Portrait Milano hospitality and retail destination, as well as at department store Rinascente. They will bow on Oct. 18 and 15, respectively.
An additional pop-up is bowing in Düsseldorf, Germany, an historically strong market for Woolrich, the CEO said, at the Breuninger department store.
In the U.S. Snyder’s retail footprints across physical and online platforms is expected to provide a boon for the launch. The American designer currently has a network of 19 flagships, including a unit at East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, where a Woolrich Black Label shop-in-shop will be installed, ditto for his boutique in Los Angeles. Overall, the Black Label collection will be available at seven Todd Snyder boutiques Stateside.
“Because we know this is going to sell out fast, we wanted to make sure we had enough product offline, but in our biggest stores we’re showcasing it, in L.A. and here in New York, and then, with a big digital push, through social and through our own website,” Snyder said.
“Our plan has always been in the U.S. just to launch through the Todd Snyder channels, because we wanted to make sure that this collection had the full story from beginning to end. It was so important — being the creative director of this collection — to make sure that it has the right voice, and we have a lot of retailers that wanted to carry it,” Snyder said.
“For the first two seasons, it’s really our intention to sell it direct, because we want to control the message,” he said, adding production has been kept within limited quantities.
Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder’s fall 2024 ad campaign.
Courtesy of Woolrich
The Woolrich CEO declined to make exact midterm revenue forecasts for the Black Label collection but sounded confident about letting product and Snyder’s vision gain traction and do the talking.
“Our goal is to really give Todd space to explore and interpret the Woolrich brand in a more contemporary way,” he added. “For the first few seasons, we’re going to keep the distribution, I’d say, quite selected… We’re going to continue to work with select partners globally. I think we will sequentially grow that list of select partners, but I don’t think we’re going to exaggerate in terms of distribution,” he said.
“We’re going to privilege our own channels, whether that’s Todd Snyder stores and e-comm in North America, our stores and e-comm in the EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa region], and of course in Japan, as well,” he explained.
Woolrich Black Label by Todd Snyder, fall 2024
Courtesy of Woolrich
