How True Religion Aims to Reach $1 Billion in Volume

True Religion, the denim, sportswear and accessories brand distinguished by its “Super T” stitch, is striving for $1 billion in annual sales in three to five years, and is about halfway there.

The business, which executives see reaching $450 million in volume this year, is driven by focused marketing and merchandising centered on hip-hop and rap performers and sports figures; showy logos; moderate prices; promotions, and edgier styles — think Super T miniskirts and short shorts; slouchy, baggy men’s jeans, and often form-fitting midriff-baring women’s outfits.

True Religion’s target “urban casual” male and female demographic, with a $65,000 average household income, struggles to make ends meet in the current economy, yet according to its chief executive officer Michael Buckley, they’re still shopping the brand.

“We look at our numbers every day and I’m blown away,” Buckley told WWD. “I think our e-comm is up 35 percent year-to-date. That wasn’t the plan. Our customer is still spending. We talk to other people out there. We talk to our own retailers, and we know we’re selling better than other brands.

“We know our customer. We know what their interests are and what product they want,” Buckley added. “We know how to market to them with people that are relevant today, performers like Megan Thee Stallion, Brazilian pop star Anitta, Chief Keef, 2 Chainz, and YG,” the rapper who chants “Own Your True,” the brand’s mantra in a campaign launched Friday.

“We have a lot of professional athletes as well that are behind the brand,” Buckley said. “So from a marketing perspective, we know how to [attract] this customer.” He said the marketing effort has stepped up since Kristen D’Arcy became True Religion’s first chief marketing officer in July 2023, after previously working at PacSun, American Eagle Outfitters and Ralph Lauren.

For spring and the weeks ahead, there’s an emphasis on new colors like pinks and oranges, baggy and cargo jeans, camo looks, crystal embellishments, logos, “spicy” shorts, baby Ts and athleisure sets, among other styles.

In the following Q&A, Buckley discusses goals and statistics of the brand, why it’s a digital-first label and True Religion’s acquisition last January by ACON Investments private equity and SB360 Capital Partners, a Schottenstein affiliate.

WWD: What prompted the sale of the business?

Michael Buckley: The business has performed incredibly well over the last five years. It was time for (the owners) to monetize their investment. They were in it for a long time — six, seven years. Now you’ve got some very sophisticated investors that see the potential of this brand.

WWD: Do you see them taking an active role and working with you?

M.B.: It’s more of an advisory capacity. They’re very smart people. They’re not cramming anything on us, but if they could help us on the distribution side, sourcing side, international side, or retail, we’ll listen to their advice. They’re very smart people but we have a management team that runs the business.

WWD: Are they putting more money into the business than previous investors, and creating a larger capital budget?

M.B.: We’re very well-funded today. We generate a lot of cash.

WWD: Do you formulate a new three- or five-year business plan as a result of the acquisition?

M.B.: We’ve been running a five-year plan, and we update it every year.

WWD: What do you see as the brand’s potential?

M.B.: We think this business can get to a billion dollars over the next three to five years. Jeans is a $15 billion market (in the U.S.) and the apparel categories we’re going after represent $150 billion of revenue. Our databases are approaching 10 million people. We have either their email or cell phone number or they’re in our loyalty program. They have our app, you know. But we’re going after this much bigger market, a 120-million-person addressable market. The fact that we only have 10 million means that there’s so much ocean out there for us to continue to grow, particularly on a digital side. So the potential for us to be a billion or multibillion-dollar brand is definitely there.

WWD: Why do you consider True Religion a digital-first brand?

M.B.: We’ve done a good job of evolving the business for how you do business today. Fifty-percent of our business is online, almost all of it through TrueReligion.com. That becomes probably 60 percent (over time). We believe in controlling our own destiny. We spend $35, call it $40, to acquire a new customer. It’s nothing in the scheme of the lifetime value of a customer, particularly considering our average transaction is $150.

WWD: What’s the current volume of True Religion?

M.B.: It will be north of $450 million this year.

WWD: What about brick-and-mortar retailing and wholesaling?

M.B.: Today, we have 55 stores. We’ll probably open another four to five a year. I could open more. A store is capital intensive. We’re spending $500,000 average just in capex to open a store. It’s a big capital investment. And we have a very large wholesale business in America, 6,000 doors and then another 1,000 wholesale doors outside America.

WWD: How is the collection evolving? Any categories being added?

M.B.: Tina Blake came on two and a half years ago and is now senior vice president of men’s and women’s design and brand image. We’ve built out the teams. Women’s is getting back to 50 percent of the business. Long term, it should be 60 percent. That’s just the nature of the apparel business in America… Looking at other brands, like the Guesses and the Tommys, they’re all 60 percent women’s. About 40 percent of our business is jeans today, which is where it should be. We sell “millions” of T-shirts, hoodies, joggers and button-down wovens and dresses and tank tops and light and heavy outerwear. We do pleather. We’re in most apparel categories out there. We want to get bigger in sweaters. We do, like, 1 percent in sweaters. We should be doing a couple of percent. We do 2 percent in button-down, wovens. We should be doing 7 percent.

WWD: Where do you stand in beauty?

M.B.: We license those categories and things like that. We license out fragrance, footwear, accessories, kids — businesses we shouldn’t be in, and our licensees do a great job.

WWD: How will True Religion be impacted by the new tariffs?

M.B.: We’re less exposed to the tariff issue in China because we’re in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Guatemala. We’re pretty diversified, and we’ll get more diversified. Also, I am not the importer. My suppliers are the ones that import. And we’ve asked them to absorb most of the cost.

WWD: Will True Religion’s prices go up?

M.B.: I wouldn’t say that. The key categories we’re in are going to be similar. Pricing strategies will stay consistent. If we know we can get more for things that are on trend, we’ll push the envelope there because it’s an item that they want, and they’ll pay more. But we do it naturally. It’s not a function of raising our prices because of a tariff. We look at our pricing architecture every year.

WWD: What’s the price range on the collection?

M.B.: Our approximate average unit retail on T-shirts is $39 and $79 for jeans. On an end-of-season sale, or friends and family, it could be a $19 or $29 T-shirt. Jeans could be $59, $69. Super T stitch jeans are an average unit retail price of $149. We’re at price points where the volume is done in this country. We know that my customers at $65,000 household income, we know what price they want to pay for every item…We’re promotional, right? But the world is promotional.