Vuori reached a $5.5 billion valuation after an investment round led by General Atlantic and Stripes.
"It's a notable deal for the category it's in ... you haven't seen many deals in that market at all over the last couple of years, and the deals that have happened have been more, I'd say, challenged, or more at value-oriented situations," Matthew Tingler, a managing director in Baird's global consumer and retail investment banking group, said of the recent funding round.
Customers also seem to be worrying about whether Vuori's products will stay the same as it scales and faces the demands of being a publicly traded company. "Five years ago, Alo and Vuori were ... nothing burgers, and that's when Lululemon was growing 20% a year, whatever it is, or more. Today, you look at the numbers and you're like, wait a second, the business is flat," said Konikreferring to Lululemon's largest market, the Americas. "It's not growing, and yet it's coinciding with the hypergrowth of Alo and Vuori. So ... in my opinion, the data proves that that is a market share issue.
While Vuori started out as a purely online business, Kudla wasn't precious about partnering with wholesalers at a time when many founders in the direct-to-consumer space were against the idea. By getting his products on the shelves at REI in the brand's early days, he was able to build awareness and acquire customers in a way that didn't drain Vuori's balance sheet."We got profitable in 2017, we started generating free cash flow ...