Evereve adds denim to its private label, more stores on the way

Denim is in.

Evereve will launch its own line of jeans this fall. After a test this summer, the Twin Cities-based clothing chain will begin selling women's trousers and straight leg jeans under the private brand it premiered a year ago.

"Designing clothing is really easy for us because we know our customer so well," said Megan Tamte, co-founder and co-CEO of Evereve. "So it felt like a natural extension for us to add denim because denim is really important to our brand."

Evereve carries different contemporary brands of women's clothes. Last summer, it launched its Evereve label and the brand now accounts for 20% of its merchandise.

After receiving positive feedback on its initial launch, the company decided to continue to aggressively increase its label designs. Skinny jeans which had tightly — both figuratively and literally — kept a hold on the jeans market for years have started to be less popular as wider-leg jeans styles are more in style.

"There's a movement going on to less skinny [jeans]," Tamte said. "But there's also a movement going about wearing whatever you feel comfortable in."

While comfort has become more important during the pandemic, people also want to look polished and not be in sweats, she said.

As consumers have ventured into the office and social events, retailers have seen pent-up demand for jeans. Jeans generated $18.4 billion in U.S. sales last year, an increase of 36% compared to 2020, and a 9% increase over 2019, based on data from The NPD Group, a market research company.

"Jeans were among the first clothing items to rebound after 2020, as consumers sought a wardrobe refresh and craved the latest fashion trends to make their debut back into public life," said Susan Merrill, president of fashion apparel for NPD.

Evereve has had strong sales over the past two years as it rebounded from temporary closures during the start of the pandemic. At that time, apparel was a softer category for retailers, but it slowly has improved.

At Evereve, sales are double this year than what they were in 2019, said Mike Tamte, Megan's husband and the other co-founder of Evereve. The company estimates it will end the calendar year with nearly $300 million in revenue, with the company up $100 million compared to last year.

Digital sales increased almost 50% and store sales are up more than 60% compared to 2021, which already had been a record year for the company.

"We are just having a banner year, and we are not doing this at the expense of profits," said Mike Tamte. "Our profits have doubled, too. I think a lot of retailers go out and spend their way on top-line growth, but we are earning higher profits."

Evereve also is building more brick-and-mortar stores. Last fall, the company opened a new flagship store in the 50th and France shopping district on the border of Minneapolis and Edina. The store has about 6,400 square feet of selling space, almost double what a former nearby store did.

Evereve is increasing the size of more of its stores. It has rolled out about 10 stores that are double their previous size since the Minneapolis flagship opened. There are 25 more stores in the Evereve pipeline, five of which are in new locations. The company plans to open its 100th store next year.