Billy Reid Reflects on 20 Years of His Label, Plots Future Growth [INTERVIEW]

Billy Reid has a lot to celebrate this fall. Not only is the designer marking the 20th anniversary of his eponymously named label, he’s also bringing back his popular Shindig festival after a five-year hiatus.

Shindig, a fashion, music, food and art event Reid hosted annually in his hometown of Florence, Ala., until it was forced to pause because of the pandemic, will also serve as a celebration of his two-decade milestone with a runway show featuring his newest collections as well as a few of his greatest hits.

While he’s ready to celebrate now, Reid’s road to 20 was hardly without its pitfalls. After abandoning the idea of being a football coach, he enrolled at the Art Institute of Dallas where he studied fashion design and merchandising. After school, he cut his teeth at Reebok where he helped the brand launch the Greg Norman golf collection.

Taking the Plunge

But in March 1998, Reid took the plunge and created his own collection that he called William Reid. Although he was operating on a shoestring budget — he set up shop in New York in a dirty, cheap warehouse space in Chelsea — he managed to line up some strong accounts in the first season including Stanley Korshak and Fred Segal.

And the industry took notice. In 2010, Reid was named GQ/CFDA’s Best New Menswear Designer and won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. Two years later, he was named the CFDA’s 2012 Menswear Designer of the Year.

But the financial end of the self-funded business was still on shaky ground and when the 9/11 terrorist attacks caused business to dry up, Reid was forced to shut William Reid down and retreat back home to Alabama.

He did freelance design work to pay the bills but he never gave up the dream of returning to the fashion arena with his own collection. So in 2004, he started Billy Reid.

Fast-forward 20 years and Reid continues to chug along with his Southern-flavored Americana-skewed line, with its signature black-and-gold ribbon used on products and packaging. He has some deep-pocketed investors led by longtime customers Kemmons Wilson Companies, a Memphis-based investment firm operated by the descendants of the founders of the Holiday Inn chain. The business is being run by a dedicated chief executive officer, Jeff Zens — whose favorite catch phrase is “slow and steady” — who ensures he stays on brand and doesn’t expand too quickly.

The Billy Reid label is primarily carried in the company’s 11 stores, a number that will nearly double in the short term. In April, Billy Reid Inc. acquired the direct-to-consumer arm of AI-powered, made-to-measure company Knot Standard. Terms were not disclosed but Knot Standard, which had been producing Billy Reid’s made-to-measure suits, became a minority shareholder in the combined business and Reid took over the operation of the eight Knot Standard stores that will be renamed Billy Reid next month.

Retail Rollout

Beyond that, Reid and Zens have plans to add more stores, expand its fledgling women’s division, explore moving outside U.S. borders, and expand the categories of product offered.

In a virtual interview from his new workshop in Florence where he was surrounded by his work over the past two-plus decades, Reid said that as much as his business has evolved, there have also been some constants.

“Looking back, many of the things we started with are still in the line today. There are certain styles, whether it be the denim shirt, the peacoat, the Dover sweatshirt with the leather detailing — those things go way, way back, some from the first collection, and they’re still our best pieces. So there’s a lot of consistency.”

Of course, there were also some pieces that didn’t stand the test of time. “There have certainly been some undisciplined things in there as well: Some that worked and some that didn’t,” he said. “In this job, you just get better the more you do it, because you start to really understand what people are looking for from you. And what they’re looking for from us is something that is going to last — not just from a durability standpoint, but something they can wear today and 10 years from now. That has helped us stay resilient and relevant and build a loyal following.”

While many of the key pieces are still in the line, Reid said that during the pandemic, production of a lot of the line was halted, including the womenswear.

“We took a little bit of a pause during COVID-19. I mean, we took a pause on literally half of what we were doing and women’s fell into that category.”

But after a “reset,” Reid has begun designing women’s again. “We’ve kept it very tight, collection oriented. We started with the things we knew were working, like our outerwear and dresses. We started there and then slowly started to build in other components like denim. It’s got a bright future for us and I think at times it’s good to take a pause and really focus on what’s working.”

Today, women’s accounts for around 15 percent of sales but is only sold through the Billy Reid channels, and is not wholesaled. “Keeping it tight like that helps profitability and lets it build an identity, versus being all over the place,” Reid said.

A Future in Women’s

Zens agreed: “We’re pushing $3 million in sales in women’s, but to Billy’s point, we needed to reset it from a product perspective and figure out what we stand for in the women’s space and what our winners are. We wanted that to stabilize before we get too far into selling and marketing. There is a women’s customer and she’s excited that we’re coming back with some new product.”

He acknowledged that Reid is known as a men’s designer but believes women’s has a bright future. And while the category is not wholesaled now, that may come in the future. “It’s all on the table,” Zens said. “There are wholesale accounts that have been asking to sell women’s and we haven’t made that available yet because we needed to get our house in order first.”

Footwear was also put on hiatus during the pandemic but the small, family-owned factory Billy Reid used outside of Florence is just building back up and the brand is starting to produce shoes again. “We took our customers’ three favorite shoes and got the process going again,” Reid said. “And now we’re starting to expand that out, and that’s a huge growth area for us too.” That includes a collaboration with Oak Street Bootmakers that has proven to be popular with shoppers.

With shoes and everything else, Reid credited Zens with keeping him in line. “The good thing about having Jeff is that we balance each other, because I would have been doing all the shoes yesterday. But he keeps it in check, and is a little more slow and steady.”

Ditto for some of the more avant-garde pieces. “In the composition of the assortment, there’s a lot more of the fashion items, or the amplifiers, that Billy loves,” Zens said. “Clearly there’s interest, we just need to earn our way back into them.”

So while the strategy is still gradual, Zens said, “the leash is a little bit longer these days,” and Reid is thankful. “I love working on those things,” the designer said. “There’s nothing wrong with making a lot of denim shirts — we sell a ton of denim shirts — but it’s cool to do the more interesting pieces. I think in the past I probably did too much of that and it puts a lot of pressure on the open to buy, but now we treat those things as more limited edition, and it makes them more coveted. And the sellthroughs have improved dramatically with that strategy.”

Wholesale Evolution

The wholesale strategy has also evolved, they said. Wholesale accounts for around 15 percent of overall sales with e-commerce 45 percent and retail 40 percent. At its peak, Nordstrom accounted for 60 percent of the Billy Reid wholesale business, but that number has dropped and the brand now counts more specialty retailers as customers. That includes Rothmans in New York, Saint Bernard in Texas and The Optimist in California.

“It’s a diversification strategy,” Zens said, “so that when Nordstrom doesn’t work, we’re not left holding the inventory or the financial burden. And now, a few years in, we’re seeing some really good results with key accounts in local geographies. It supports brand building and customer acquisition awareness.”

Even so, the primary focus going forward will be on Billy Reid’s own channels where the designer can tell his story most effectively.

“Wholesale still plays a part in terms of having a presence,” Zens said. “But I don’t think we’re looking at a major shift in the composition of the business. It’s just icing on the cake.” Instead, the focus will be on adding stores.

Although Billy Reid had at one time operated 15 of his own stores, several were closed in the past couple of years, including the unit on Bond Street in New York, which was shuttered because the neighborhood changed and the rent was too high, Zens said.

Made-to-measure Opportunities

But beginning in November, the Knot Standard stores will be converted to Billy Reid. “Fall will be the interim season where the two brands will coexist,” Zens said. “We’re starting to get some ready-to-wear into those locations, and get the marketing strategy up and running. And Billy is starting to get his fingerprints on some of the tailored custom clothes. We’re fortunate that there’s such a foundation with the customer base and the stylists that are working in those eight locations. They don’t have a designer kind of creative direction, but it’s really good, high-quality product with best in class fit, so there’s a foundation there for Billy do some of our own custom designs going into spring.”

Reid pointed to the Knot Standard stylists, who have strong followings, as key to the transition. “We can offer that customer that has been getting custom, the opportunity to also get some ready-to-wear, get it immediately with someone that they trust to outfit them and build their wardrobe.”

Many of those stylists had worked for Trunk Club, a concept where personal stylists worked to outfit customers. It had been purchased by Nordstrom and was ultimately closed. Billy Reid was one of the brands available there, Zens said. “The stylists are personal shoppers. And they’re working with a fashion designer now, which they weren’t before, so that’s driven a lot of engagement.”

And having the Knot Standard technology available, Billy Reid can reenter the made-to-measure business — another category that fell by the wayside during the pandemic. While the plan is to start with tailored clothing, Reid sees opportunities for other products such as the Bond Peacoat to be custom made for the customer who is hard to fit or seeks different fabrics.

Beyond the Knot Standard store conversion, Zens said the plan is to continue to add stores conservatively in the future. “I can see us adding another eight to 10 stores in markets that we had already identified so we have geographical coverage,” Zens said. “But we’re not going to go nuts.” That includes cities such as Charlotte, N.C., and Los Angeles, they said.

That will undoubtedly please Kemmons Wilson, which remains Billy Reid’s largest investor. Beyond that, other friends and family have also signed on to help the brand grow. “They’ve been super supportive as we’ve turned around a lot of things and by virtue of them waiting that out and then actually participating in this round and the future, they’re in it for the long run,” Zens said.

That means that the company doesn’t need to seek out other, less committed investors who are interested in making a buck by quickly growing and then selling the business.

“We did get a lot of traction with people interested in doing more of a buyout, whether it was right now or later on,” Zens revealed. “But those are not conversations that we’re looking for right now.”

Today, Billy Reid is profitable, but that wasn’t the case for a lot of years. “I joined in 2019, we were $18 million and extremely unprofitable,” Zens said. “Every year since then, we’ve grown, and with the acquisition this year, we’ll be in the $40 million range, and we should be profitable — not super profitable, but paying our own bills.”

Looking outside U.S. borders is also in the future, they said. Reid said he envisions international expansion as more of a “direct-to-consumer play” so potential customers can touch and feel the brand and explore all the nuances of the innovative fabrics Reid uses. Zens said the company has the capability to ship internationally already and when the time is right, will look to expand via brick-and-mortar.

Expect more collaborations in the future as well, they said. In the past, Reid has partnered with brands as varied as Gibson guitars, Citizens of Humanity, Coach and K-Swiss and has also created some special products for Lousiana State University, the United Negro College Fund and the historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., where the Black Barons of baseball’s Negro Leagues played.

But for right now, it’s Shindig that is top of mind for the company.

This will mark the 12th anniversary of the festival, which started in 2009 as a press junket for editors to visit Reid’s studio and personally experience his Southern culture. Since then it has grown into a consumer-facing festival featuring concerts in Muscle Shoals — where everyone from The Rolling Stones to Lynyrd Skynyrd have played over the years — meals from well-known chefs, conversations and Billy Reid fashion shows. This year’s edition will be held Friday to Sunday and will feature musical acts The Kills, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, The Brook & The Bluff and others. Food will be offered by Adam Evans, Sean Brock, Bill Briand and Josh Quick, and there will be a 20th anniversary runway show.

Reid said Shindig started small in the days before social media when he entertained editors in his home and his shop in Florence with “great parties, music, food. It was a really good launchpad for us. It just kept building, which got us to this point.”

Today, the festival attracts “a very interesting group of people,” including some of Reid’s best customers who embrace the opportunity to “experience the brand in a full circle way. It creates a great energy, great morale, and it establishes a really good culture,” Reid said.

Zens agrees that this is the right time to restart Shindig. “I think it’s the perfect time to get Billy out there, introduce people to the brand and to the community. It’s like a microcosm of what we’ve built.”

The show will be an amplification of the 20-year journey of Billy Reid and will include the fall and holiday collections that are currently in stores, some custom tailored looks, and a few of pieces from The Archive Collection, a reinterpretation of some of the brand’s bestsellers through the years.

As he writes on the Shindig site: “To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Billy Reid, we’ve created a collection of some of the most meaningful pieces throughout the years and brought them to life in fresh ways.…I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years bring.”