Dive Brief:
- Big-and-tall retailer Destination XL Group has collaborated with fashion brand Untuckit on a capsule collection of men’s shirts exclusively designed for larger-size customers.
- Untuckit shirts are currently available in sizes from small to XXXL, in up to five different fits. The collaboration with DXL will extend this sizing range from 2XL to 4XL regular fit, 1XL to 4XL tall fit, and 1XXL to 4XXL extra tall fit, according to a company press release.
- The collection is available exclusively on DXL.com with select stores offering styles to try on for fit.
Dive Insight:
The collaboration with DXL further adds to the growth curve that Untuckit has been on since it was created in 2011.
“We think combining DXL's perfected Big + Tall fits with Untuckit’s high-quality fabric and untucked length will hugely affect the Big + Tall space,” Untuckit founder Chris Riccobono said in a statement. “We're excited to finally answer the call from guys who love our shirts and have consistently asked us to make larger sizes.”
The capsule collection is only available on Destination XL’s website, which CEO and President Harvey Kanter said represents a robust part of its business.
“We have a very well-developed direct-to-consumer business, and technology in place to leverage cross-channel commerce that our guests have come to appreciate,” Kanter said in an email to Fashion Dive’s sister publication Retail Dive. “This format allows us to test guest reaction to the business. We do have ‘try-on’ shirts in 10 DXL stores, similar to the Untuckit stores, where consumers can try on the shirts in select marketplaces and based on results we will evaluate greater opportunity.”
The collaboration with Untuckit comes on the heels of an August Q2 financial report in which Destination XL reported a 3.2% downturn in sales and a nearly 80% drop in net income compared to the same period in 2022.
“Despite achieving our quarterly forecast, our consumer is battling ongoing, adverse economic headwinds, and we are trimming our financial outlook for the remainder of the year,” Kanter said in August when the report came out. “We now expect our sales to range from $535.0 million to $545.0 million with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.0% to 12.0%.”
At the time, Kanter not only mentioned the upcoming Untuckit collaboration, but also said the retailer would be adding Hugo Boss and Faherty to its list of national brands in the fall.
Destination XL has been on a comeback trail since 2019 when Kanter joined the company. The plus-size brand was in “survival mode” during the pandemic and did not turn a profit for close to a decade. That all changed in 2021.
Destination XL on Saturday announced a new location in Queens, New York, marking the retailer’s first store opening since 2018. That was one of three new locations planned for the brand’s fiscal year. Destination XL ended its second quarter with 281 stores and is planning another 10 new stores in fiscal 2024 and 15 to 20 more in fiscal 2025.
