Bonobos is an upscale,
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...
-driven apparel subsidiary of
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
that designs and sells menswear, including
suit
A suit, lounge suit, or business suit is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt suit is similar, but with a matching skirt instead of tr ...
s, trousers,
denim
Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. While a denim predecessor known as dungaree has been pr ...
, shirts, shorts, swimwear, outerwear, and accessories. The company was founded by
Stanford Business School
The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...
students
Andy Dunn
Andy Dunn (born February 20, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder of Bonobos Inc. Dunn served as CEO for eleven years after co-founding the Bonobos brand in 2007. In June 2017, Walmart announced it was purchasing the Bonobos brand ...
and Brian Spaly and launched as an online retailer in 2007.
In 2012, Bonobos diversified to incorporate physical retail locations with the launch of their "Guideshop" locations
and through a partnership with
Nordstrom
Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...
.
In June 2017,
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
agreed to acquire Bonobos for the sum of , making it a subsidiary within its fashion department.
History
Early history
Bonobos was founded by Brian Spaly, who began designing men's pants at Stanford Business School that featured a curved waistband, medium rise, and tailored thigh that fit better than khakis and eliminated "khaki diaper butt."
As demand grew, he and housemate Andy Dunn pursued the project as a business opportunity.
Initially, the brand was launched exclusively online. Dunn cashed in his
401(k)
In the United States, a 401(k) plan is an employer-sponsored, defined-contribution, personal pension (savings) account, as defined in subsection 401(k) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Periodical employee contributions come directly out of their ...
to build ''bonobos.com'' and raised a round of
angel investment
An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...
. Initial investors included
Wealthfront
Wealthfront Inc. is an automated investment service firm based in Palo Alto, California, founded by Andy Rachleff and Dan Carroll in 2008. As of September 2019, Wealthfront had $21 billion AUM across 400,000 accounts.
History
Wealthfront was f ...
CEO and former venture capitalist
Andy Rachleff and
JetBlue
JetBlue Airways Corporation (stylized as jetBlue) is a major American low cost airline, and the seventh largest airline in North America by passengers carried. The airline is headquartered in the Long Island City neighborhood of the New York C ...
chairman and founding Bonobos board member Joel Peterson, both of whom had lectured Dunn at Stanford Business School. Dunn then moved to New York with 400 pairs of pants that he picked, packed, and shipped from his
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
apartment.
Within six months, the firm grew to five employees and a net revenue run rate. In its first three years, the company received over in funding from angel investors. In 2009, Spaly moved on to another venture, running the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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-based fashion commerce company
Trunk Club
Trunk Club was a personalized mid- to high-end men's and women's clothing service based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
From its start in 2009, Trunk Club pioneered the at-home try-on model within the men's clothing industry. Each customer w ...
.
In 2010, the company received its first institutionally-driven financing round, raising from
Accel Partners
Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional ...
and
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm focusing on multi-stage investments in the enterprise, consumer, and health sectors. Lightspeed invests in seed, early and growth-stage companies.
The company invests in the U.S. and a ...
. As part of the round, Accel Partners's Sameer Gandhi and Lightspeed Venture Partners's
Jeremy Liew
Jeremy Liew (born 21 September 1971) is a venture capitalist, best known for making the initial seed investment in Snapchat.
Early life and education
Liew was born in Singapore and raised in Perth, Western Australia, where his parents still r ...
joined Bonobos's board.
As Bonobos expanded its assortment to include suits, dress shirts, outerwear, and tailored pieces, more customers requested the opportunity to "try before they buy". In fall 2011, the company tested an e-commerce store at their New York headquarters, calling the location a "Guideshop".
The purpose of the Guideshop location was to provide a physical space for customers to try on Bonobos prior to e-commerce transactions being placed. Within a year, the concept became an integral part of the firm's service and business model.
Company growth (2012-2017)
In 2012, Bonobos closed a strategic minority investment round led by Nordstrom,
with participation from existing investors. In tandem, Bonobos partnered with Nordstrom
to sell the brand’s clothing in their full-line stores and website. Bonobos furthered its offline reach in May 2012, opening its first standalone Guideshop location in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
.
By January 2013, Bonobos had opened additional Guideshop locations in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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,
Georgetown,
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
Bonobos announced a round in 2013, with Glynn Capital and Mousse Partners joining existing investors Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Forerunner Ventures and Nordstrom. At this time, Forerunner's Managing Partner Kirsten Green joined the Bonobos board and total funding to date reached nearly $73 million. Simultaneously, the company launched the golf brand Maide, which is the second brand launched by the Bonobos team. By August 2013, Bonobos had opened Guideshop locations on Crosby Street in New York;
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...
;
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
; and the luxury shopping enclave of
Greenwich Avenue
Greenwich Avenue, formerly Greenwich Lane, is a southeast-northwest avenue located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It extends from the intersection of 6th Avenue and 8th Street at its southeast end to it ...
, in Greenwich, Connecticut, bringing the total location count to nine. By August 2013 employee headcount reached 175. Dunn temporarily hired Francine Della Badia, the former head of
Coach's North American retail division and
Victoria´s Secret, to take his place in summer 2015. Three months later, she stepped down because "she felt she couldn’t change the company’s culture,"
and Dunn re-assumed the role.
Recent history (2017-)
In June 2017, Walmart announced it was purchasing the brand for . The brand would not be sold in the Walmart stores; instead it would be sold on Walmart's recently purchased
Jet.com
Jet.com was an American e-commerce company headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey. The company was co-founded in 2014 by Marc Lore (who had previously sold Diapers.com to Amazon.com), along with Mike Hanrahan and Nate Faust. Jet.com raised $820 mi ...
. Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn remained with the company after the purchase. He became Walmart's senior vice president of digital brands, which also included Allswell. Micky Onvural, who had joined Bonobos as
CMO in 2015, became the new CEO.
Operations
Bonobos refers to its e-conmerce site's customer service representatives as ''Ninjas,'' a term conceptualized by Dunn to attract college-educated qualified candidates to the job.
Technology
In early 2012, Bonobos opened a West Coast office to build a
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
-based technology team in an effort to expand its nationwide retail presence. Following 18 months, the firm attempted to minimise inefficiencies by eliminating bi-coastal offices, which were then redundant; hence, in 2013, Bonobos relocated the technology arm to its New York headquarters.
References
{{Authority control
Walmart
Clothing retailers of the United States
American companies established in 2007
Clothing companies established in 2007
Retail companies established in 2007
Internet properties established in 2007