California-based activewear brand Vuori is launching in the U.K., France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada, marking the first steps in a global rollout announced in late 2021. Consumers in these countries will be able to purchase the brand’s products from country-specific brand web stores. In select markets, Vuori will also soon be available at a number of leading wholesale partners, including Selfridges (all four locations and online, men’s products only), Cotswold Outdoor (20 stores and online) and retail stores at all eleven Barry’s Bootcamp locations in the U.K., Brown Thomas (two locations and online) in Ireland and Bever (20 stores and online) in the Netherlands. The brand also plans to open a U.K. flagship store in London before the end of the year.
Vuori was established in 2015 by CEO Joe Kudla. In October 2021, Vuori was valued at $4 billion by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, which invested $400 million in the brand. Both the investment and valuation are believed to be among the largest in the history of an unlisted apparel company.
“We are proud to announce Vuori’s first-ever expansion outside the U.S.,” said Kudla. “We are infinitely grateful for our team, who has helped bring this shared vision to life and are thrilled to bring Vuori’s new perspective on performance apparel to these new markets. 2022 is going to be Vuori’s biggest year yet, and we look forward to sharing much more in the weeks and months ahead.”
At the same time, Vuori is working on expanding its product offering further, making key investments in infrastructure and people, and opening both a distribution center in the U.K. and an innovation center in Taiwan. The company, which is offsetting its carbon and plastics footprint through partnerships with organizations such as Climate Neutral and CleanHub and is taking steps to eliminate 80 percent of plastics from its shipping and supply chain this year, will continually invest in its sustainability efforts.
