Latest news with #UniversalStandard
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Universal Standard Relaunches Mystery Boxes Ahead of Price Increases
Universal Standard is bracing for the impact of tariffs by bringing back mystery boxes. The size inclusive denim brand said it is reviving the popular program while it can offer value to consumers. More from Sourcing Journal 'With the current tariff environment shifting rapidly, we're facing a lot of uncertainty—especially when comes to our future inventory and pricing. The reality is, we can't predict the future. But we can take action now—and that's exactly what we're doing,' Polina Veksler, Universal Standard CEO and co-founder, stated in an email to customers. The boxes are a way for Universal Standard to shed excess inventory and for consumers to save up to 85 percent. Mystery boxes contain 2-4 unknown pieces curated by a theme or type of product. Consumers pick the type of box they want and the size. The boxes retail for $84-$448. Veksler said the boxes feature pieces already in Universal Standard's warehouse and new styles that haven't launched yet. Boxes fall into three 'box experiences.' First Look Boxes include new styles that haven't hit the website yet as well as exclusive colorways. Heritage Boxes focus on Universal Standard's signature pieces that are rarely deeply discounted. Final Few Boxes include last-chance style that the brand is retiring. Themes span the Denim & Dreams Box, which includes two jeans to the Summer Luxury Box with three warm-weather wardrobe essentials and the Travel Box featuring three versatile and comfortable pieces. The Surprise x4 Box is described as the 'ultimate mystery experience' with four styles that encapsulate the Universal Standard wardrobe. While the styles can span casual to elevated, Universal Standard said all are timeless, comfortable and versatile. Universal Standard, which recently launched in Nordstrom, is already feeling pressure from Trump's tariffs. Veksler said the brand has already made small price increases on some style restocks. She added that it will likely need to make another price adjustment this month. 'The situation is changing daily, and we're actively exploring ways to absorb rising costs in addition to working closely with our global partners to renegotiate pricing and terms, so we can continue offering the same high-quality pieces, made responsibly and priced fairly,' Veksler said.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As tariffs pummel stock prices, venture investors anxiously wait for the impact on consumer spending
Around the time that President Donald Trump proudly displayed his master list of tariffs in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, a group of founders and investors gathered at the Public Hotel in Manhattan for a summit hosted by Red Sea Ventures on consumer tech. While many venture firms and operators have abandoned the sector for the higher-margin fields of B2B software and ChatGPT wrappers, New York remains a hub for consumer tech, though the direct-to-consumer goods boom of the 2010s has inevitably given way to AI-enabled apps. Consumer goods as a category haven't completely vanished—just look at Pepsi's recent $1.95 billion acquisition of the prebiotic soda brand Poppi—and I was curious whether tariffs would have a more outsized and immediate impact on the sector. When I've asked VCs over the past few months whether the political instability of the Trump administration—from regulatory shifts to tariff threats—is impacting their investing strategy, I've typically gotten the same answers: We stay out of politics, or, we think in long-term (think 10-year) time horizons, or, Trump's bluster is mostly a negotiating tactic and will blow over. At the summit, I moderated a panel with a heavy-hitter line-up of consumer investors, including Red Sea Ventures, FirstMark, General Catalyst, and Left Lane Capital. The question, given the blaring red stock tickers responding to Trump's announcement, seemed even more dire. Still, the panelists all continued to echo the similar rhetoric, while acknowledging that import costs could impact some of their physical good-focused portfolio companies. I was surprised by the muted response. Gathered in the room were companies producing everything from baby formula to pet food to eyeglasses. For startups operating with tight margins and limited runways, any shift in prices can be calamitous. After the panel, Polina Veksler, the founder and CEO of the inclusive clothing startup Universal Standard, came up to me. She said that her business was getting hammered by the slapdash tariff announcements. In a follow-up email, Veksler told me that she's spent years finding global manufacturing partners. 'The announcement of the new U.S. tariffs now jeopardizes this vital network, our business, and, most importantly, our communities,' she wrote, adding that she'll have to decide whether to eat the costs or pass them on to customers, potentially costing the company millions of dollars. On Friday, I caught up with Scott Birnbaum, the founder and managing partner of Red Sea Ventures, who told me his firm has still been grappling with the fallout. While he's invested in physical goods brands—including Sweetgreen, whose founder recently joined as an investing partner—he said that only a small group of his portfolio companies, like Universal Standard, will be impacted by tariffs directly. Still, he said, that doesn't include the second-order effects, such as whether specific customer bases will have less money to spend. 'We're focused on product offerings that get to core necessities of life,' he told me, pointing to startups like Range, a wealth management platform. Even if the ever-optimistic VC class proves right, and the tariff tempest proves to be a passing blip, it has still spoiled the banner year of public offerings and acquisitions that investors dreamed of. Two consumer startup bellwethers, Klarna and StubHub, have reportedly delayed their long-anticipated IPOs. Filing sector that seems to be doing ok? You guessed it: crypto. As the stock market tanked last week, Bitcoin remained relatively stable, though it dropped over the weekend. My colleague Ben Weiss and I dug through recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings to look at the performance of top crypto venture firms, including Polychain, Multicoin, Paradigm, and Haun Ventures. The data is from 2024, so it doesn't reflect the volatility of the past few months, but it still shows substantial growth in the assets under management for the VCs. You can read it here. Leo SchwartzX: @leomschwartzEmail: Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here. Nina Ajemian curated the deals section of today's newsletter. Subscribe here. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Forbes
23-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Now You Can Shop Universal Standard In 20 Nordstrom Stores
Now shoppers can try on and purchase a curated assortment of the brand's beloved wardrobe staples in sizes 12 through 32 from coast to coast. Locations include The Mall of America in Minneapolis, Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Houston Galleria in Houston and Brea Mall near Los Angeles. The partnership comes on the heels of the brand reporting consistent profitability and over 30% year over year growth. As many fashion companies have quietly scaled back or shuttered their inclusive-sizing and plus-size offerings both online and in stores, Universal Standard maintains its commitment to championing size inclusivity in fashion. The partnership with Nordstrom will launch online and in stores with one of the most comprehensive size ranges from a singular women's apparel brand. 'We're excited to be growing our partnership with Universal Standard," says Emily Crandall, Senior Vice President and Head of Women's Apparel at Nordstrom. 'We're committed to making sure we can deliver great styles across the size spectrum that make customers look good and feel their best. Our partnership with Universal Standard is enabling us to make more progress in this space.' This is good news for plus-size shoppers in particular. Even though most American women are in the plus-size category, trying on garments in-store can be difficult to come by if you're outside the standard extra-small to extra-large size range. Even at the height of fashion inclusivity, many brick-and-mortar fashion brands only offered extended sizing options online. This reality requires plus-size customers to bring the experience of the fitting room to their home through having items shipped. This means more planning, longer waits, bigger spends and decreased access to the immediacy and spontaneity that straight-size shoppers are typically guaranteed. For a hypothetical plus-size shopper who's been invited to a special event and wants to wear something new, her options for shopping in-person are limited. If she has room in her budget, she can purchase multiple identical items in different sizes online, hope something fits, and return the things that don't. If her budget isn't as flexible, she may opt to purchase one item and risk the garment not fitting, which means she's starting from zero again. If the event is time-sensitive, it's easy to imagine that the experience becomes more stressful. At the time, Nordstrom was the only retailer willing to partner with the brand. It was 2017, and Veksler was traveling the country hosting size-inclusive styling pop-ups at Nordstrom locations. Today, this more integrated partnership is the first iteration of a more significant strategic wholesale push from Universal Standard, which is now set to launch with Anthropologie, Macy's, Wantables, nearly 50 boutiques across the country this year. 'I could not be more thrilled to partner with Nordstrom, one of the world's most well-established retailers, to expand our mission and make exceptional fashion accessible to more shoppers than ever before,' says Veksler. Since its inception in 2017, Universal Standard has had a strong vision for what the future of fashion should look like. This has included initiatives like developing a size chart that reflects the reality of American consumers' sizing and launching 'See It In Your Size,' a first-of-its-kind website functionality that allows customers to view core products on models of every size 00 through 40. The brand has consulted and partnered with global brands about how to be more inclusive, and introduced 'Fit Liberty,' an exchange program that allows a customer to replace pieces when their size changes. Tk Universal Standard Here's a list of locations where customers can shop in-store for Universal Standard staples:
