Spiritual Gangster has big plans for itself as it turns to new categories for its next phase of growth.
The brand, with the tagline “yoga-inspired clothing for high vibration living,” expands into activewear and swim for spring. The news comes a little over a year after striking a deal with action-sports and streetwear licensing firm La Jolla Group, whose portfolio of brands includes Hang Ten, O’Neill and Metal Mulisha. The deal gave La Jolla an equity stake in the business in exchange for providing back-end functions such as finance and production to Spiritual Gangster, which recently settled into a new office space at the La Jolla compound in Orange County from a former outpost in Venice.
“We settled into our new home here in Irvine and got settled into a great supply chain and calendar and felt we were prepared. Active seems like a natural extension of the brand being that we were born in the yoga studio,” said Vanessa Lee, Spiritual Gangster owner and creative director. “As for swim, that was really my lifelong dream to have my own swimwear line.”
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The deal with La Jolla helped accelerate an expansion that was likely to have played out anyway, Lee said.
“It helped a lot because it streamlined so much of our business and took away all the time it takes to make sure you’ve got a…really smooth-running business since they take care of all of the administrative and office stuff,” Lee said. “I think we would have gotten into [activewear and swim] eventually but just got there quicker.”
Swim launches with 32 stockkeeping units priced from $50 to $120. Activewear consists of 25 sku’s ranging from $48 to $100.
The brand, which is currently in about 900 doors, is targeting its major retail partners for the active and swim launches, including Equinox, CorePower, Bloomingdale’s, Shopbop and Revolve. It will also push the lines heavily via its own e-commerce. Swim is also likely to help pick up a few new accounts for the brand, according to Lee, but it’s too early to say with the company in the midst of its selling season.
Farther out for the brand is building out of the men’s line with the recent hiring of a men’s designer, whom the company declined to name, set to start in her position later this month. The hire will be key as the company aims to add more technical wear and enhanced styling to its men’s offering in the future.