The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Alo Yoga is making further inroads across the pond. This week, the retailer is opening its second location in London, on Regent Street, one of the city’s most high-profile shopping destinations.
Its first UK store, on Kings Road in Chelsea, opened in November, but the Regent Street space was actually the first location the Alo team signed a lease on in London, said Danny Harris, Alo co-founder and chief executive. (Construction timelines prevented it from officially being the first door in the country.) It’s the first of three planned shops for the British capital city this year; a store in Knightsbridge will open next week and one in Covent Garden. A store in Dublin is also set to follow before the end of the year.
At over 10,000-square-feet, the Regent Street store is one of Alo’s biggest of its fleet of nearly 100 stores — what they call “sanctuaries” — worldwide. It features a colossal spiral staircase in the middle, a wall showcasing footwear, its latest category extension, debuted in May 2023 with its Recovery Mode Sneaker. During its first month in business, the store will host a month of events, including community workout classes and nutrition and manifesting workshops.
Alo debuted its first international location in 2022, in Toronto, but its expansion in England is distinct from other international openings because of the scale — usually, Harris said, they only operate one or two locations in an international market. In England, where the brand will have four before the year’s end, Alo is making a more intentional choice to “really invest in the community.”
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It’s also part of the brand’s move to bridge its native online experience with the offline. “Our idea was to have iconic flagship locations that would allow people to … experience the brand, but then be able to go back home, wherever they are, and be able to shop online,” said Harris. While that strategy still stands, he admits they’ve gotten “more aggressive” about growing their brick-and-mortar footprint.
Alo has been on quite a trajectory in recent years. Founded in 2007 in Los Angeles, Alo went on to become a formidable competitor to the likes of Lululemon and Nike with interest driven by its fashion-inflected athleisure and a host of celebrity fans including Justin Bieber and Kendall Jenner, as well as a slew of influencers.
Sales reached $200 million in 2020, the last year it disclosed financials, and have surely risen since then as it’s increased its brick-and-mortar footprint. In 2023, Reuters reported that its parent company had hired investment bank Moelis to explore financing options — including selling a stake — and was hoping for a $10 billion valuation, though no such deal has publicly materialised.
