Steve & Barry's University Sportswear
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Steve & Barry's University Sportswear (now just called Steve and Barry's or Steve & Barry's) is a national casual apparel clothing chain that boasts over 190 locations in 33 states. The chain, which started on college campuses selling collegiate wear, now sells non-branded clothing for the entire family. About 20 percent of its merchandise today features collegiate, entertainment, food, automotive, and other logos on its clothes.
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[edit] History
Founded by Steven Shore and Barry Prevor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 (while the latter was still working on his undergraduate degree), Steve and Barry's became a local popular destination due to their cheap prices compared to other university bookstores and gift stores. The success of the original store led to the opening of several other locations on various university campuses, making Steve and Barry's a growing national chain.
In 1998, Steve and Barry's opened a large mall based store near Detroit, Michigan and began to offer private label apparel targeted at the whole family, as opposed to their original target audience of strictly university students. The new line of products included denim, business casual, active wear, outerwear, and T-shirts. In addition, the company began marketing "All-American" brands such as Hershey's, Marvel Comics, Ford, WWE, and Trix cereal, amongst others.[1]
In 2005, Steve and Barry's purchased over 3.5 million square feet of space in shopping centers throughout the United States, the most of any mall-based chain in the country. The result was 62 brand new supermarket-sized stores, which doubled their outlets.
The company is currently based in Port Washington, New York.
[edit] Starbury and BITTEN Collections
In 2006, the chain announced its partnership with New York Knicks' point guard Stephon Marbury, a joint venture in which the chain would produce Marbury's Starbury Collection, a 50-item line of discount clothing including lifestyle apparel, athletic apparel, and sneakers. The centerpiece of the line is the Starbury One, a basketball sneaker that retails for $14.98. Marbury, who developed and endorsed the line, has pledged to wear the sneakers during the entire 2006-2007 NBA season to prove their quality, a promise to which he has so far kept.[2]
In March 2007 the company announced that Chicago Bulls center and 4-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Ben Wallace will endorse the Starbury brand, wearing Starburys during all his games and debuting his own Big Ben Starbury sneaker in the 2007-08 NBA season.
In March 2007 the company announced that Sarah Jessica Parker is designing a line of women's merchandise to be sold at its stores beginning in June 2007. BITTEN is the name, reflecting what SJP says was her reaction when she first met the company's dedicated team and visited its stores...."I was BITTEN by Steve & Barry's." BITTEN will be over 500 items, including shirts, sweaters, lingerie, dresses, footwear, jackets and more, all casual and offered in sizes for every woman so SJP can show women that "Fashion isn't a luxury. It's a right," which is the line's tagline.
[edit] Business Model
One of the most well-known facts about Steve and Barry's is that their prices undercut all competitors, including national chains like Wal-Mart and Target. With most items within the store priced around $9.98 (a 59% jump from their original prices of $5.98), their stores have often become preferred discount shopping destinations than the aforementioned larger chains. Shore and Prevor have been very public about their methods for keeping prices down.[3]
Steve and Barry's is able to keep its prices so low by a) not advertising, relying instead on publicity and viral marketing to get the word out, b) running its company and stores very efficiently and cutting out the fat however they can, c) selling in large volumes and making small profits on each item vs. the other way around.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Business Week article on Steve and Barry's. Available online at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_15/b3979091.htm
- ^ Starbury Website, Available online at: http://www.starbury.com/
- ^ Business Week article on Steve and Barry's. Available online at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_15/b3979091.htm
