Britches History
Fine Clothiers Since 1967
It was the Fall of 1966. Two high school friends, David Pensky and Rick Hindin, both newly married and with young children, were driving through Georgetown on a beautiful Washington DC weekend. The weather was perfect, and the streets of Georgetown were packed with enthusiastic locals, tourists and students from Georgetown, American University and George Washington University… the restaurants were jammed. The energy in the air was inescapable… Georgetown was an exciting place.
The two came across a store for Rent at 31st and M street, across from the Four Seasons Hotel…. both thought, “Great location for something.” Then it hit them, Eddie Gaulop’s Slack Shop… Why not open a store like Eddie’s Slack Shack?… but with new ideas, they thought… The two visited Eddie and told him about their idea. Eddie liked the idea and wished them well.
David and Rick pursued renting the location at 31th and M Street but were turned down by the landlord’s real estate broker once he learned they had no experience, no money, appeared too young and lacked the credibility to satisfy the landlord’s real estate broker’s requirements.
Frustrated but ever-determined, they accidentally came upon another small store next to the corner of Wisconsin and N streets, which was a significantly better, high traffic, retail location, in the heart of Georgetown, next to a store that was about to open called David’s Village Shop, which featured, the popular Villager brand to young women. There wasn’t a real estate broker for the location, just an older gentleman who was the lawyer for David’s Village Shop. His name was Maxwell Ostrow. Max was a short man, under 5 feet and well over 75 years old who had a powerful but compassionate personality. Max took a liking to the two young “want to be” entrepreneurs and rented them the 800-square foot store. Rick and David had a close friendship at Coolidge High School. They sold fireworks together and worked in menswear stores on weekends including the great Cavalier’s Men’s Shop on 7th Street NW.
In 1966, David was working for Raleigh Haberdashers, one of Washington’s most successful specialty menswear store chains. Rick was working at Lewis & Dobrow Advertising, a well-known, rapidly growing advertising agency in Washington DC. The agency was owned by two of the best-known personalities in the DC area ad business, Allan Jack Lewis and Lawrence Dobrow. Rick was in his third year of night school at GWU and David was working at Raleigh Haberdashers when they opened the Georgetown Slack Shoppe.
With about $3,000, which consisted of $1,300 of their own money and $1,700 borrowed from their families, Rick and David formed a corporation called Canterbury Tales Inc. and with the help of a local carpenter, built and opened the Georgetown Slack Shoppe. Capitalizing on the fashion trends of the day, the Georgetown Slack Shoppe specialized in slacks at first and then added a variety other merchandise, including shirts, sweaters and belts, and went to market under their self-proclaimed fashion platform called “Bold Traditionalism.” In its first year, the Georgetown Slack Shoppe grew sales to over $500,000.
Amazed at their good fortune, in 1966 they parlayed the first year’s earnings into a new concept in 1967 called “Britches of Georgetowne”, a full line clothing store. After only one year in their new location, sales rose to over $1,000,000; again, astonished at their success, the two moved to a larger store at 1219 Wisconsin Avenue and placed a brass plaque next to the front door that read “Britches of Georgetown…Fine Clothiers Since 1967” …and put a stake in the ground as if to proclaim their own belief in the words, made them fact. Perhaps a little presumptive in 1967, the proclamation, “Fine Clothiers Since 1967” is what they set out to prove was true.
The new Britches looked like no other men’s store in Washington DC. With over 200 clear, exposed light bulbs on the ceiling, lush green carpet and mirrored walls, the store was beautifully adorned with antique showcases and ties displayed on old, antique round tables, chrome and brass suit racks. Most importantly, Britches customers were greeted like “guests” by exceptional, highly trained and talented sales associates who nurtured their new customers with extraordinary service. Britches became the “darling” of the men’s business and was on its way to becoming one of Washington’s most successful men’s chains, based on sales volume per square foot.
First year sales at the new location blew well past the $1,000,000 mark and Britches was “out of the gate,” like a fast horse on a slow track. Shortly after it opened, the Britches’ marketing strategy shifted emphasis from brand name merchandise to products that featured the Britches label.
The simple strategy was to sell both Britches labeled products alongside well-known brands like Norman Hilton and Stanley Blacker and eventually a new unknown designer named Ralph Lauren who was marketing a brand of ties called Polo. Branded products like Polo provided the Britches customer with a direct comparison to the Britches labeled offerings, which were always exceptional values by comparison and in many cases, were of superior quality for much more reasonable prices.
In the beginning, Britches purchased a large percentage of its Britches labeled products from many of the same brand manufactures that were also featured for sale in the Britches stores. However, the Britches strategy was to sell Britches quality products at significantly lower prices to reflect greater value for the Britches labeled products. Britches set the standard for executing exceptional quality in men’s clothing, tailoring, customer satisfaction, and created an experience that become a new paradigm for many specialty store retailers that followed.
The stores were designed by Fisher Gordon Architects, Britches’ own Stephen Boyd Brady and Dan Laytham (Britches very first employee). Dan was also Britches best salespersons and guardian of the Britches brand. Jack Gubanc (Britches second employee) ultimately led the merchandising and buying team. Cindy Hunter oversaw merchandising for Britches Great Outdoors. Britches buyers continued to deliver remarkable quality at extraordinary prices under the direction of Jack Gubanc and David Pensky.
Store Operations was led by John Clark with Charlie Baker, Marc Willson and Katie Wyvel…. all promoted from within. The first Britches training program was initially created by Robert Marin. The Alterations Department was managed by the invincible and precocious Ruth Camp who ran the central tailoring shop with over 30 tailors. Our Head Tailor, Soul Oberzanek, a Holocaust survivor, was one of Britches’ secret weapons. Saul was tailor for Presidents Ford and Clinton and loved by all who knew him.
The Distribution Center was run by Terry Kefalas and the” Dynamic Trio” of Johnny Dale, Phil Jones and the ever-present Richard Carey the “hardest working team in show business.” Casey Willson, a Business School Professor at James Madison University (JMU) and brother of Regional Manager, Marc Willson, became the Director of Training and held the heart of the brand in his own heart. Then there was the incredibly talented head of Loss Prevention, the amazing Ed Rodgers, and his side kick, Sid Monen. Ed protected the company’s assets and” helped” everyone with their consciences’ “so to speak” and kept everyone thinking clearly.
Susan Wallert was Director of Advertising. She worked closely with Rick on the brand development strategies. Britches opened its own ad agency, named Extension 229 (the phone extension number). The stores were managed by incredible leaders and motivators including one of the most instinctively talented retailers imaginable, Missy Tracey. Missy managed the flag ship Store in Georgetown. Other General Managers included Michael Zeitland, and Robert Marin, both of whom left Saks to join Britches. Then there was the Britches sales team of trained professionals…. like the ever stylish, infamous Mark Rykken who created the Rykken Suit, combining our bestselling sport coat with our bestselling slacks. Then there were the incredible Jim Hagen and Tom Bagimani, both of whom sold over $1,000,000 each year, year after year.
Around the same time Britches opened its second store, a young designer appeared on the fashion scene introducing a new line of extraordinary neckwear. In a small, one room office in the Empire State Building, Rick and David met a very affable, charismatic young salesman selling a new and extraordinary collection of neckwear out of a brown cardboard box. His name was Ralph Lauren.
Ralph’s ties wholesaled for between $7.50 and $15. At the time the most expensive ties at Britches retailed for $7.50 and $10. When challenged on his high prices, Ralph responded with “maybe you are not the right store for merchandise of this quality and style” and suggested that Britches look elsewhere for cheaper ties. Ralph’s reverse psychology worked. We bought his ties which were instantly successful sellers, retailing from between $15 and $30. The new Polo neckwear sold as fast as Britches could get them stock.
Over the next several years, Ralph introduced his full line of men’s clothing and accessories which quickly became the standard and symbol for quality and fashion and his merchandise was featured in some of the best men stores in the country including Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales and all Britches stores. Britches, along with Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale, became Polo’s three largest customers in the country.
Unlike other large Polo retailers, Britches was intent on establishing its own brand identity alongside other great brands. In comparison to Polo’s suits, Britches suits, tailored with the identical fabrics, from identical mills, with superior tailoring, sold for about 30% less at retail. So, while Polo suits sold well, Britches labeled suits represented an enormously better value, resulting in Britches suits out selling Polo by more than 30 to 1.
From the very beginning, in 1967, Britches stood alone, above the fray, rarely focusing its advertising on price, but instead placing emphasis on the Britches label in context with its strategic marketing platform, “Clothing for Life.” In 1972 Britches outfitted the crew of Ted Turner’s Courageous, which won the America’s Cup that year. Britches didn’t pay for the endorsement rights but simply agreed to outfit the crew of Courageous for free in return the rights to use the pictures of the crew, led by Ted Turner, in Britches “Clothing for Life” ads.
The real key to Britches growth was rooted in the people who sold and believed in Britches, its fashion focus, its business philosophies and its value proposition. The words, “Fine Clothiers Since 1967” were woven into every Britches label and the slogan “Clothing for Life” was supported by the most extensive and expensive training program in menswear industry at the time, spending significantly more than the national average on both advertising and employee training, Britches results were quantifiable and dramatic. Britches was one of the highest volume men stores in the US, in the 70s, 80s and 90s exceeding $850 per square foot in sales.The training program was the foundation for building sales and creating a culture of unique customer service and satisfaction that became legendary at every level of the company.
The training program facilitated Britches management policy of promoting 100% of their managers from within the company, with people trained in the Britches culture and philosophies. The result was an army of enthusiastic colleagues of all ages at all levels of the company who were given the tools to become great retailers and build their own careers with a company that was willing to share its successes and profits with its employees. A Britches employee profit sharing plan and stock option plan were created to let all employees benefit from the company’s success. Britches employees understood its brand and the company and wanted to work there and be a part of its success. Britches would not have succeeded to the degree it did without the literally hundreds of employees who loved, lived and believed in Britches.
The virtues of the private label strategy were simple. Britches never had to compete with competitors selling branded products at a specific price. Focusing on the Britches label also set the foundation for Britches to ultimately contract its own products with notable manufactures, factories and designers around the world. The result had enormous economic benefits to the Britches bottom line, while providing even greater value for its customers.
In time, Britches bought its own piece goods, designed its own fashions, increased its margins and sold Britches labeled products for considerably less than other, high quality, high fashion retailers. Britches Great Outdoors was its own phenomena. Originally Britches Western, Britches Great Outdoors was born out of the need to expand sales beyond its core product…jeans. The idea was to NOT lose jean sales and at the same time create a retail concept that would facilitate product line extensions.
Britches Great Outdoors did just that. Originally targeted to a younger demographic, high school thru college age customers, unpredictably over 50% of Britches Great Outdoors customers were 35 and older… their father’s purchasing power was a happy accident. The Great Outdoors stores began to grow more rapidly than the Britches stores because of its appeal to an even larger market, combined with lower price points for great products like the “Warthog Polo” and the “Weather Buffer,” each of which created sales in the millions.
In 1983 Britches entered into an “earn out” sale of the company to CML, a public company with an expansion strategy based on rolling up companies that targeted the same customer demographics but sold distinctively different products to that same target market. For example, CML bought Boston Whaler, Smith & Hawken, Nordic Track, Smith & Hawkins and Britches, all of which targeted similar demographics.
In September of 1988 CML and Britches concluded the earn-out agreement. Rick left the company in December of 1988 and David left the company two years later in 1990. Without its two founders, Britches began a steady decline that ended when Britches closed its doors in 2003.