Ty Haney's Bold Outdoor Voices Revival | Fast Five Shorts
She's back! In this segment from the Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Infios, Clear Demand, and Ocampo Capital, Chris and Anne dive into Ty Haney's dramatic return to Outdoor Voices with a "confident, bold, and sexy" rebrand.
From wiping Instagram clean to positioning the brand as the "uniform for doing things," is this founder comeback genuine innovation or just marketing spectacle? Plus, learn when it's the right time to bring back a founder and when it's time to move on.
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For the full episode head here: https://youtu.be/pB45J7EFcCI
#TyHaney #OutdoorVoices #FounderComeback #Activewear #DTC #BrandRevival #Athleisure
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Transcript
Tai Haney is back at Outdoor Voices, relaunching the activewear brand with a confident, bold and sexy look.
Speaker A: and she originally founded in: Speaker A: quired outdoor voices in June: Speaker A:The relaunch kicked off with dramatic social media fanfare as Outdoor Voices wiped its Instagram grid clean and followed just one person, Haney herself.
Speaker A:The first product drops will be a limited edition diamante adorned sweatshirt reading Doing Things.
Speaker A:Yeah, aren't we all?
Speaker A:The brand is positioning itself as the quote, uniform for doing things, expanding beyond pure athletic functionality, and the design philosophy now embraces what Haney calls an intersection between designer and activewear with elevated details typically reserved for high end fashion.
Speaker A:And Tai Haney coming back to Outdoor Voices sounds a little Messiah ish to me if I got to be honest.
Speaker A:But this is also our Put you on the spot question, our A and M Put yout on the Spot Question of the week.
Speaker A:So here it is.
Speaker A:Bringing back Haney as the OG Outdoor Voice in quotes could reignite the brand's magic and thinking about whether this will work for the brand.
Speaker A:When is a founder still the right leader years into a brand's journey?
Speaker A:And how do you know when it's time to hand the reins to new leadership as Outdoor Voices may have done prematurely?
Speaker B:Oh, I mean, wouldn't we all be wealthy if we knew exactly when the right time was to get rid of the founder and bring in some new leadership.
Speaker B:I mean, I think that Outdoor Voices, I think missed out.
Speaker B:I think as as A and M suggest, Outdoor Voices released Ty Haney prematurely as a brand that is, you know, originally direct to consumer and is really based on the influence of one person being Ty herself.
Speaker B:I think that the future of Outdoor Voices and whether or not this will be successful really depends on who the demo is that's going to latch onto this brand.
Speaker B: ials from their early days in: Speaker B:Because I think if you look at this younger demographic, you look at, you know, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, I don't know that Ty Haney means anything to them.
Speaker B:I don't know that her coming back is really going to, to bring the following that Outdoor Voices saw in previous years.
Speaker B:So I mean, to answer A&M's question, I think know it was not the time to release her.
Speaker B:They were still doing well.
Speaker B:They probably should have managed this better from who's doing the merchandising, who's in charge of the store launch plans and store openings and that kind of thing versus, you know, versus putting, putting her in charge of that.
Speaker B:And her real talent is leading the concepting, the design, the, you know, the, the social commerce element of this, as she's done clearly with her other two brands that she's also still a part of Jog, the energy drink and her loyalty business that she spun up.
Speaker B:So I think she's a really smart individual.
Speaker B:They let her go too soon.
Speaker B:Can she bring awareness back to this brand in a very crowded athleisure space?
Speaker B:Verdict still out for me.
Speaker B:But what about you?
Speaker B:What do you think?
Speaker B:I mean, do you think that you can, you know, when is it time to let go of the founder, Chris?
Speaker A:Yeah, well, I do think you can be smart about how you evaluate that 100%.
Speaker A:I mean, I think to me it's, it's, it comes down to two things.
Speaker A:It's based on the results that you're seeing and the cultural assessment of the organization with which that that person is leading.
Speaker A:You know, and I look back at what happened, I would disagree a little bit that they got rid of her too soon.
Speaker A:I think they're just bringing her back.
Speaker A:I mean, they got, they got rid of her for, you know, some good reasons.
Speaker A:Like they, they tried to grow too fast.
Speaker A:They built all these stores out.
Speaker A:They didn't end up working.
Speaker A:They've shut them all down and now the business is online only.
Speaker A:I also get a little worried too when I hear, when I hear people say like, you know, she is the business.
Speaker A:Well, if she's the business, then it's not a business because it doesn't work with her when she leaves.
Speaker A:And a business needs to work whether the people are there or not, ultimately.
Speaker A:Now, I know in fashion that can be a little, a little bit tricky thing, but then it gets into what are, what is that person tasked to do?
Speaker A:Should be she be tasked to lead up the marketing and the creative product design?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Should be she be tasked with leading the business?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:So, so that's the thing.
Speaker A:And so I'm for that reason, because it's unclear how this is going to work.
Speaker A:I'm A little skeptical of the headline and as it sounds like you are too, because one, the space is so oversaturated right now compared to where it was 10 years ago when the DTC money was just flowing rapidly into this space and she left the first time.
Speaker A:So, you know, why is the second time going to be any better?
Speaker A:It's not like Steve Jobs coming to resurrect Apple.
Speaker A:Apple was uber successful already at one point.
Speaker A:Outdoor Voices was was it successful or was it just riding the DTC curve and the athleisure trend curve at the same time?
Speaker A:So, so that is.
Speaker A:Those are the questions that I have outstanding for me right now.
Speaker A:And you know, the ego, the one thing I do like is I like the ego of the social media move.
Speaker A:Like, I think that is pure baller to try to do that.
Speaker A:But by the same token, it potentially pisses off a lot of people too, because there's a.
Speaker A:Probably a lot of people are like, oh, now I just like this brand and now you've unfollowed me because you're so cool.
Speaker A:But, you know, so you're going to alienate some but net I net net.
Speaker A:I think I like that move.
Speaker A:And, but that's the only saving grace from this.
Speaker A:I think that's a cool marketing tactic that they deployed.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think there's more to the story and like we always say on the show, you got to follow the money.
Speaker B:I wouldn't be surprised if there were ties from this investment group to other things that she has going on.
Speaker B:And they're like, well, since we're going to do a deal for Draghi or your leader, you know, like your loyalty app or something like me, could you, would you come back and we try to bring this brand back, you know, Outdoor Voices and could you be, you know, the face of this brand again so that we can try to see if you still have name recognition and value to acquire new customers and more customers.
Speaker B:But I don't know, I think she could have been much better off starting an entirely new.
Speaker B:I think if you're going to scrap and start from the beginning with your Outdoor Voices followers, I think you could have done a much better job just going off and doing something entirely new, especially with the product line too.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker A:That was the point.
Speaker A:That was, that was the other point I had that I was going to bring up, which I'm glad you did, which is like, if, if, if you're really that good, why don't you just start this up on your own without all the legacy.
Speaker A:Like, you've already shut the stores down.
Speaker A:You're DTC only.
Speaker A:What do you get at this point?
Speaker A:You know, why don't you go into the space on your own and start over?
Speaker B:You get elevated dresser dresses between designer and activewear Chris that you can wear while you're swinging nunchucks around.
Speaker A:I can be cool, confident, and sexy or whatever it is.
Speaker A:Whatever.
Speaker B:Bold, confident and sexy with your nunchucks.
Speaker B:Go check out.
Speaker B:I love that the photo shoot included a woman swinging nunchucks around.
Speaker B:I want to know where I can get my hands on some as part of my designer slash activewear apparel.
