Daily Drills is bringing a bit of the beach to Lower Manhattan. The online-only, Los Angeles-based brand known for its sporty loungewear is staging a pop-up for the first time. The surf-shack-themed boutique — complete with a cabana stripe awning and colorful longboards — is open Thursday through Sunday.
A pandemic project of founders Kennedy Crichlow and Mary Ralph Lawson, Daily Drills has cultivated a following among celebrities like Jessica Alba, Olivia Jade and Hannah Brown of “The Bachelor.” After building their brand on sweats, they’ve expanded their offerings to include activewear, swimwear and soon, eveningwear. Following a biweekly drop-based model, Crichlow and Lawson hope to bring the same excitement to their debut brick-and-mortar activation.
Inside the Daily Drills pop-up in Soho.
Lyle Nelson
WWD: Why stage your brand’s first pop-up in New York?
Mary Ralph Lawson: We’re definitely a travel brand, so we shoot everything on location. We thought it would be fun to do a pop-up in New York instead of our own backyard.
Kennedy Crichlow: We’re super inspired by New York City. It has so much foot traffic and it’s super accessible. We also love the juxtaposition of the energizing city with that coastal, beachy feel.
WWD: What are you looking forward to most about the pop-up?
K.C.: We want people to feel like they’ve been transported to L.A. as soon as they walk in. It’ll also be the first time that customers can try on our clothes in real life, since we’re only online. That’s really special to us.
M.R.L.: All of the clothes available at the pop-up are our bestsellers, but we’re doing a fun twist with our oversize crewnecks. Every single day of the pop-up, we’ll have a new colorway that hasn’t been done before. So if someone wants to come four days in a row, they can get four different crewnecks, which I think is really exciting. Then we’re also doing boat totes, which people are loving right now. Our version has a bunch of fun New York-themed patches on it.
WWD: Cultivating a community around your brand is important to you. How will the pop-up build on this?
M.R.L.: A lot of our customers have become friends through Daily Drills, like maybe someone saw a girl wearing Daily Drills in the airport, and now they’re Instagram friends. At the pop-up, we’ll have in-line games for customers so that they can meet each other and bond over something they have in common.
K.C.: We’re also doing downloadable sticker packs. You can scan the QR code if you wait in line or walk by. We love to do little stickers over our Instagram stories, and so we want our customers to feel like they’re really a part of the Daily Drills team. They can download the sticker pack and add it to all their stories that they take throughout the weekend or at the pop-up, which will be fun.
WWD: What do you feel is the benefit of allowing customers to see the clothes in person?
K.C.: We want customers to feel inspired when they’re in the store, and they’ll be able to try everything on. A lot of our pieces are reversible, so people can try them on both ways, roll the waistband, see how they would want to style it.
Daily Drills founders Kennedy Crichlow and Mary Ralph Lawson.
M.R.L.: Ken and I will be there the whole time, and we think having that interaction between customer and founder is really important. We’ll get to see what they’re excited by, why they’re purchasing certain colors and so on. It’ll be great to actually hear from our customer and see their decision-making process in real life.
K.C.: If anything, I think it’s just going to strengthen that customer-brand relationship. We have always said we want Daily Drills to feel like a person and a personality, and I think you can only go so far with having a brand that’s online. So I think this personal interaction is going to be really huge for us and really special for our team too, because they work so hard behind the scenes.
WWD: How did you decide upon a drop-based model?
K.C.: It was really just supply and demand, so we would sell out before we were able to purchase more inventory. We drop every other Wednesday. It’s about 30 different styles. We have our core colors, surf and sand, and then we’ll introduce some other colors into the mix. It’s created this deeper engagement with our community where they want to download the Daily Drills app because they want early access, but even if they don’t buy anything, they can go through our playlists or our travel guides, where we feature our favorite spots from different locations we’ve shot in.
M.R.L.: We’ve shot stuff in Italy, Aspen and then after the pop-up we’re headed to the Hamptons. It keeps us on our toes. Being on the road all of the time and then sharing it on Instagram also keeps our customers super engaged.
Inside the Daily Drills pop-up in SoHo.
Lyle Nelson
K.C.: Our drops have, on average, about an 80 percent sell-through rate and 70 percent are returning customers, so we’re maintaining the customer base as we’re scaling the business. It’s important to us as founders that we’re not just drawing people in with our marketing, but that our audience loves the quality and feel of our garments.
Visit the Daily Drills pop-up at 21 Spring Street from Thursday to Sunday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
