Dueling denim dealers

Reprinted from Dispatch.com

Dueling denim dealers
Two premium jeans retailers are opening in the Short North
Saturday, March 27, 2010 2:51 AM
By Tim Feran


Jeff Hinckley | DIspatch
National Jean Co. will open in Dr. Mojoe's old location, shown here. Some of Mojoe's workers will be at Voodoo.
So the opening of two premium jeans stores in the Short North within a few weeks of each other might come as no surprise.

What might be surprising is that the stores are literally across the street from each other: National Jean Co. at 761 N. High St., in the former home of premium jeans store Dr. Mojoe; and Voodoo Denim Lounge at 780 N. High St., in what was previously Norka Futon.

"Having two of them right across the street from each other increases both of their odds of being successful - if they are strong operators," said Chris Boring, president of Columbus-based retail consultancy Boulevard Strategies. "Fashion is a selection-driven category. Shoppers will go to places where they have more choices, especially for items you don't see at all of the malls."

"It's a great area," said Helen Kim, director of operations at National Jean. "I love this street. This specific location pulls from the suburbs, it pulls from campus. It's a general mixture. All these neighborhood shops offer a lifestyle that lends itself to a day of shopping. There's a lot to do here."

"Exactly," said Voodoo Denim Lounge owner Cindy Zafar. "I think that only benefits us both. The more places you have, the more people come down. It's why people go to Easton or to the mall. That's why we chose the area - you can hit a gallery, a store, a restaurant, all in one area."

Sales trends also favor the two stores.

While total U.S. apparel market sales decreased 5.2 percent in 2009, the NPD Group reported that sales in the $13billion denim industry grew by 3.5 percent.

Jeans differ from other apparel categories in that price is not the key factor for most shoppers. According to Cotton Incorporated, a trade association, 50 percent of consumers say the most important feature for a jeans purchase is fit, followed by style (19 percent).

National Jean, a big name in the world of high-end denim, began in 1992 in Long Island, N.Y., and has painstakingly pursued its customers - who are almost entirely women - by super-

serving them.

The Short North store will be the company's first Midwest location; its other 11 are on the East Coast.

"We do only one new store a year," Kim said. "It's not about opening a million stores, but one store correctly. "

National Jean will have roughly a dozen employees when it opens next week, "then probably add more," Kim said.

"It's not self-service. That's the whole point of a specialty store. We're here to give individual attention."

Those employees will draw on 15 to 20 brands - approximately 1,500 pairs of jeans squeezed into the roughly 2,000-square-foot store - to find exactly the right fashion and fit for customers.

The personal attention is so important to the company that it asks its main vendors to regularly hold seminars with employees to train them on brand specialties and how various fits relate to body types.

And executives visit the stores weekly.

"I learn more by spending two hours in a store than five hours reading papers," Kim said. "I'm in my 13th year (with the company), and I'm still in contact with customers from my first year."

Such meticulous attention to customers is important for premium denim because the prices might otherwise scare them away. National Jean's prices start around $110, typically sell somewhere between $170 and $190, and a few will top out in the $220 to $250 range, Kim said.

Local startup Voodoo Denim Lounge is cut from the same fabric. Zafar has been on the floor as a matter of course, serving customers alongside the store's five or so employees since last week's opening. The staff includes former Dr. Mojoe veterans Kim Hughes and Kevin Van Order, "who is kind of known in the area as the denim expert," Zafar said.

Like National Jean, Voodoo focuses on premium denim and also carries other apparel. Unlike National Jean, Voodoo sells both men's and women's jeans, although more of the latter.

For Zafar, fashion has "always been a passion," but selling jeans isn't just about being hip.

"To me, it's all about people, which is why I'm doing it with Kim and Kevin," she said. "We're all three involved in the buying of the product and managing the store ... . Everyone has a hand in it.

"The same goes with customers. I've been in customer service for 15years" at AT&T and Bank One, she said. "That's key to us - building relationships, getting to know the people who work around here, the neighborhood we're in, asking about family when familiar faces come in."

That focus on customers is why Voodoo isn't just a lounge in name only.

"We've got a pool table in the store, so if a girl comes in to look at jeans with her boyfriend, they can shoot pool and hang out a little bit. It's different for Columbus," Zafar said.

While opening such unusual, upscale businesses "is scary in this economy," Boring said, there is reason for optimism. "Pricey retailers like Abercrombie & Fitch and others are starting to make a comeback in revenues.

"The Short North continues to fill some of the huge void in fashion-goods merchandise in the central part of the city left when City Center closed."

tferan@dispatch.com