Startup’s fortunes changed in a flash
Ministry of Supply’s office wear became ‘work leisure’ as concept of an ‘office’ quickly shifted
Alison Hop, the vice president of commerce for the office apparel startup Ministry of Supply, woke up on the morning of March 13, 2020, ready to help host a store reopening party that night in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood.
Three hundred minicupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake had been ordered for the occasion, which marked the end of a pricey remodel. A store expansion was part of the aggressive growth plan approved just days before by the board of the Boston-based company, which started selling comfortable office clothing in 2012.
Within hours, however, all of that had been upended. The growing seriousness of the pandemic forced Hop and a colleague to cancel the party and scramble to find a way back to Boston.
And the cupcakes? Well, they became breakfast, lunch and dinner for the two.
“It was kind of symbolic and really a sad moment,” Hop said.
Ministry of Supply is one of millions of small businesses that were blindsided by the pandemic, though it was hit especially hard as a company that sold work clothing at a time when almost everyone stopped going to the office.
What it has faced in the past year mirrors the existential questions that retailers nationwide have been dealing with: How do you plan during a pandemic for a business that typically orders products six months in advance? What do you do when your merchandise becomes virtually irrelevant overnight and your stores become ghost
towns? And how long can you survive in these conditions?
“We’ve been close to tears more times than I can count over the past 11 months,” said Aman Advani, Ministry of Supply’s chief executive and a co-founder. “There’s a class of people killing it right now that makes Pelotons, but there’s a lot of people in our shoes.”
Ministry of Supply was founded by a group of graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who wanted to make work clothing as comfortable and low maintenance as workout gear, seeking to bring technological innovation to $125 dress shirts and $495 blazers. It has made clothes with NASA-engineered materials and sells a machine-washable suit that Gihan Amarasiriwardena, the brand’s president and another cofounder, wore to run a halfmarathon. (The gimmick set a Guinness World Record.)
While the brand is niche, it built a steady following largely among men in whitecollar professions, reaching $14 million in sales in 2019 after two years of 40 percent growth, according to figures it provided to The New York Times. It was also opening stores, a popular strategy among direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker and Away. The Georgetown location was its sixth store. Stitch Fix, the clothing subscription company, also distributed its products.
Ministry of Supply’s leaders believed that 2020 would be a breakout year, especially after the brand posted record sales on a Monday that February, typically its worst-performing day in its slowest month. Its board agreed it was time to “put the pedal down” after years of careful growth, said Luke Reese, its chairman and the founder of Winona Capital, a private-equity firm. On March 3 of last year, in what
would prove to be a brutally ill-timed decision, the board approved an aggressive plan to accelerate spending on dress shirts, suits and dresses, as well as stores, anticipating that the brand’s sales would skyrocket by about 60 percent to $22 million in 2020.
Within weeks, the world changed, though the extent of the shift would not become clear for months. Advani recalled a sign posted in the brand’s stores in midMarch that said it would reopen on April 1. “It turned out that April of 2021 would have been ambitious,” he said.
By August, the startup decided to “stop betting on the comeback happening,” as Amarasiriwardena put it, and overhauled the business around new ideas: the notion that remote or hybrid work would continue for years, and office dress codes would permanently loosen. The company put a focus on “sharp” clothing that could be worn in many different situations.
Ministry of Supply rephotographed all 200 items on its website and rewrote the descriptions, with an eye to “get rid of every pair of high heels, every brown
dress shoe, every tightly tucked-in shirt, every mention of office or workfriendly,” Advani said.
It found a production company in New York that specialized in “COVIDfriendly photo shoots,” and it styled its products to look more casual, often pairing them with sneakers, Hop said.
The revamped site launched Oct. 13, just ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Ministry of Supply’s bet on “work leisure” clothing reflects recent industry predictions for “hybrid clothing lines” that are both comfortable and professional, particularly as vaccines prompt people to begin working outside their homes, said Maria Rugolo, a fashion apparel analyst at NPD.
The company’s gambit has helped improve sales and give it a brighter outlook for 2021, though its $12 million in sales last year were far below expectations and it was not profitable. Still, its fate could have been worse.
“I’m most impressed that they’re still around,” said Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at Forrester Research. “That’s an accomplishment in an era where literally, the
demand for your product has evaporated and well, what do you do with what’s left?”
Ministry of Supply has had to make painful tradeoffs. It closed five stores over the summer and its Boston flagship in December, though it hopes to reopen that location this summer. That cut its employee count to 16 from 46 early last year. The company, which has raised $14 million in funding since its founding, has been seeking more money from investors.
Advani and Amarasiriwardena have joined many Americans in obsessively tracking the national vaccination rollout, with hopes of increasing sales between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
“We don’t know when the market will reopen or when people will leave home again; we also don’t know what that will look like when they do,” Advani added. But, he said he was convinced the company’s newly adjusted apparel will be tailored to a post-pandemic world.
“This,” he said, “is our chance to explode.”
Washington released AP Comeback Player of the Year Alex Smith on Friday, a move that was expected but still provides a cold ending to the veteran quarterback’s storybook tenure with the organization.
Smith’s release clears just under $15 million in salary cap space for Washington, which is hoping to figure out its longterm QB situation and fill many holes in the aftermath of a 7-9 season, NFC East title and wild-card round loss. Coach Ron Rivera said he met with Smith this week, each side figured it was best to move on, and the organization granted Smith’s request to be released.
“I want to thank Alex for his contributions this past year,” Rivera said in a statement. “He made such an impact on our young roster, and his leadership was one of the key factors in our late-season success and in making the playoffs for the first time since 2015.”
Smith (Helix High) made a triumphant return to NFL action last season, two years after breaking two bones in his right leg and requiring 17 surgeries to repair it. His battle against a life-threatening infection and long rehab process to get back on the field became a documentary and an inspirational tale whether he played again or not. And, of course, he did play again.
“To me, it was more about the attempt and the journey than the outcome,“Smith said Jan. 10. “If I had come up short trying to come back, I would have slept just fine at night knowing I tried. To me, it was more about that mindset of actually putting myself out there and attempting and really, really attempting this.”
Broncos franchise Simmons
Broncos safety Justin Simmons is the first NFL player to be franchise tagged in 2021.
NFL teams have until Tuesday at 1 p.m. to use the tag to prevent a pending free agent from hitting the open market.
The Broncos went ahead Friday and tagged their star safety for the second consecutive year. They have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal or Simmons would have to sign his $13.7 million franchise tag tender to play in 2021.
Broadcast deals close to done
There are some very rich people about to get a whole lot richer. Who else but NFL owners?
Probably within the next week, those 32 multi-millionaires/billionaires will see their future earnings increase exponentially.
The league is on the verge of extending its broadcast deals with its current partners, and with a new full-time rights holder in Amazon likely acquiring streaming rights.
The astronomical numbers figure to double in many cases, displaying once more that despite a pandemic, lower ratings for the 2020 season, and the waves of viewers finding alternate ways to watch games, the NFL is the most desirable of all commodities for broadcasters.
Notable
The Bills signed veteran safety Micah Hyde to a two-year contract extension. Buffalo announced the signing, while a person with direct knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press that it averages close to $9.6 million a year. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team did not reveal the value of the deal.
• The NFL hired Maia Chaka as the first Black female official in league history. She will work games during the 2021 season.
Chaka enters the NFL after working in the Pac-12 and Conference USA. She was selected in 2014 for the NFL’s Officiating Development Program, which identifies college officiating talent with the goal of showing them some of the same experiences as NFL officials before determining if they have the ability to succeed as an NFL official.
• Prosecutors said that Broncos star linebacker Von Miller won’t face criminal charges following an investigation by police in a Denver suburb.