mornin' merry makers ☀️🏗️📈🛍️✨

last summer i scrolled you through a series i called the 100 stores of summer which featured 23 brands from chrome orbs to cowboy hats to children’s playhouses.

that was a million tiktok trends year ago. but in the store world, one year is about how much time it takes for an efficient team to go from “let’s open a store there” to actually opening.

physical retail moves on lease cycles, not news cycles.

a store takes 12-18 months from loi to opening day. a strategy takes a full year to show up in the real world. tiktok can sell out a sweater by dinner, but a storefront tells you what a brand believed a year ago.

so one year later, i went back to check on all 23 brands.

some grew. some pivoted. some sat still & studied.

this week: the growers, ordered from fewest new doors to most.

next week the shapeshifters & steady staters.

last year i told you about the aspen costume from kemo sabe. hand-steamed hats, complimentary tequila with your wrangler, & an owner who climbed from sales associate to buying the whole company.

this year:

zero new doors & that's not surprising. exclusivity is a part of the brand.

but they signed store #7 in ketchum, idaho (aka sun valley!), with a bar built into the floor plan & an april 2027 target.

the roadhouse rolled back into houston's rice village this february too. pop-up as market test, permanent as pilgrimage.

the slowest grower on this list & completely on brand for it.

last year i called babylist’s beverly hills flagship "disneyland for expecting parents" with its stroller test track, life-size car trunk, & a giant adult-sized baby bouncer.

this year:

the second baby is due. a 20,000 sq. ft. showroom at 477 broadway in soho opens this fall, complete with a podcast studio & programming built for city parenting (small apartments, taxis, no storage). they’re hiring lots for it now.

three years of beverly hills learnings, packed into one east coast bet.

no fundraise needed either, just revenue momentum.

last year emily oberg’s sporty & rich made my list of single-store powerhouses with her soho flagship in the old dior homme space, bone broth in retro glassware, princess diana athleisure energy.

this year:

she arrived in la la land with a 5,200 sq. ft. flagship on melrose opened in april with an expanded café & a private pilates studio inside the store.

creator-founded brands keep going after the same playbook: build the community online, then build it a beautiful room. for her with reformer machines (which y’all know i’m skeptical about 🙄 )

last year i introduced you to the two lululemon veterans who invented smoothing dream fabric in a hot tub brainstorm. this is left on friday. they even helped put team canada's beach volleyball team in silver medals.

this year:

love to share that their kitsilano vancouver store opened in june as a 4-month pop-up. it worked so well they signed a long-term lease before summer ended. the founders' hometown got a permanent flagship because the market demanded it 👏 👏 👏

plus their clare v. collab (their biggest to date) sold the swim world with a 27-piece capsule with california cool girl vibes.

last year i showed you how a brooklyn basement sock brand called bandit built a clubhouse business with a $125 membership that pays for itself on day one, stores parked on running routes, free water for passing strangers.

this year:

bandit opened a bucktown flagship in january at 1708 n. damen with a café from ukrainian roaster soloway. chicago is a marathon town without a marathon brand headquarters, & bandit just claimed it.

running doesnt seem to be slowing down, especially in austin.

expect austin or a major marathon city (like boston) to be their next stop.

last year i shared their jaw-dropping comps i found on dôen with retail up 80% year-over-year, comp stores up 46%, & a bleecker street line so long they hired a door person.

this year:

those comps bought conviction. madison avenue opened this spring (store #8).

& the coming-soon list finally breaks the coastal pattern:

currently doing a pop up in aspen so could definitely see that opening happening too.

last year i broke down camp’s magic door economics: toys are only 20-30% of camp's revenue, the real business is $28 tickets, birthday parties, & 90-minute visits. my coming-soon list had charlotte confirmed, plus miami & edina flagged as "might just be pop-ups."

this year:

the maybes became magic doors. charlotte southpark opened in september with a gabby's dollhouse experience, & minneapolis & miami followed.

dallas closed, so the net is 9 → 11.

i’m watching how they're growing too: simon partnerships for the real estate, licensed ip (bluey, gabby's, disney) for the draw, & experiences that rotate every 8-12 weeks so families come back.

when your revenue is tickets, every new door is really a new stage.

last year i predicted 20 skims locations by end of 2025 & wrote about their unique hiring filter: store employees who don't want to be influencers.

this year:

one of the bigger store-growth stories right now.

in november skims raised $225M led by goldman sachs at a $5B valuation with one stated purpose: become a "predominantly physical business." aka attempt to steal all the mall customers from victoria’s secret.

26 open already, in the process of hiring for san antonio, prudential in boston, seaport in boston, & las vegas premium outlets. bringing them to 30 very soon.

lots of buzz about their ipo too.

zoom out & the growers share one trait:

their stores were already outperforming before they added more.

dôen expanded off 46% comps. left on friday converted a pop-up the market wouldn't let close. skims raised a quarter billion dollars specifically because physical was working. camp's ticket economics travel to any mall with families. babylist waited three years & 18,000 square feet of learnings before signing lease #2.

nobody on this list grew to find out if stores work (thank goodness!)

they grew because they already knew.

that's the real lesson of waiting a year: brands don't announce growth. they earn it in trailing comps, then sign leases about it.

check back next week to learn the fate of the other brands.