Stance (brand)

Last updated
Stance
Company typeDelaware C Corporation
Industry Clothing
Founded2009;15 years ago (2009)
Headquarters San Clemente, California
Key people
Jeff Kearl
(Chairman & CEO)
John Wilson
(President)
Products Socks, underwear, T-Shirts
Revenueest. $180 million (2015) [1]
Website Stance.com

Stance is an American sock, underwear and T-Shirt brand founded in December 2009. Stance is headquartered in San Clemente, California. As of March 2015, the company had sold over 36 million pairs of socks and raised over $115 million from investors. [2]

Contents

In early January 2015, Stance began raising $50 million to fund their expansion into the underwear market. [3] In April 2016, Stance raised an additional $30 million in a funding round that valued Stance at $400 million and was led by Mercato Partners and included August Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Menlo Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Sherpa Capital as returning investors. [4] [5]

MLB player Francisco Lindor wearing Stance socks on field during a game Francisco Lindor (52033114874).jpg
MLB player Francisco Lindor wearing Stance socks on field during a game

MLB player Francisco Lindor wearing Stance socks on field during a game

Stance was named the official sock of the NBA and MLB in April 2015 and May 2016, respectively. [6] [7]

The company has 18 US retail stores in Irvine, Las Vegas, Cabazon, Livermore, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Clemente, San Diego, Tulalip, New Jersey, Chicago, and Minnesota. In October 2018, Stance opened their first International store in Covent Garden, London, England.

History

Stance was founded in 2009 by Jeff Kearl, John Wilson, Aaron Hennings, Ryan Kingman and Taylor Shupe. The original founders saw an opportunity to address a category of fashion they felt had been overlooked by many brands and the majority of the industry. [8]

The company first began shipping product in August 2010, and now ships over 15 million pairs of socks each year. Stance has raised a significant amount of venture capital and is sold in over 40 countries worldwide. [9] [10]

In March 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported the company had raised $50 million from Silicon Valley venture capital firms and that the brand would be expanding into men’s underwear. In April 2015, the NBA announced that Stance had been named the official on-court sock of the NBA starting in the 2015-2016 season. As part of the deal, Stance would be allowed to display its logo on all socks worn on-court by players, a first in NBA history for apparel companies. [11] Stance opened its first store in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City in November 2015. [4]

The brand won Best Socks of the Year in 2017 with their tribute to rapper, Gucci Mane. [12]

Sponsorship

Stance’s brand ambassadors are called "Punks and Poets". They include musicians, athletes, designers, artists, stylists, writers and photographers. [13]

Athletes
Musicians/Bands
Models
Designers and Stylists
Artists/Illustrators/Photographers

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Draper Fisher Jurvetson</span> American venture capital firm

Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is an American venture capital firm. In January 2019, DFJ Venture, the early-stage team, spun out and formed Threshold Ventures. DFJ Growth continues to be managed by co-founder John Fisher and co-founders Mark Bailey, Randy Glein, and Barry Schuler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accel (company)</span> Venture capital firm

Accel, formerly known as Accel Partners, is an American venture capital firm. Accel works with startups in seed, early and growth-stage investments. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California and San Francisco, California, with additional operating funds in London, India and China.

Crunchbase is a company that provides information about businesses. Their content includes investment and funding information, individuals in leadership positions, and corporate news.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">500 Global</span> U.S. startup accelerator

500 Global is an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator founded in 2010 by Dave McClure and Christine Tsai. The fund admitted a first "class" of twelve startups to its incubator office in Mountain View, California in February 2011. They expanded to a second class of 21 in June 2011 and a third class of 34 in October 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udemy</span> American online learning platform

Udemy, Inc. is an education technology company that provides an online learning and teaching platform. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar.

Gousto, a trading name of SCA Investments Limited, is a British meal kit retailer, headquartered in Shepherd's Bush, London, founded by Timo Boldt and James Carter. Gousto supplies subscribers with recipe kit boxes which include ready-measured, fresh ingredients and easily followed recipes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BeachMint</span> E-commerce company

BeachMint is an e-commerce company with six fashion and lifestyle brands: JewelMint, ShoeMint, StyleMint, IntiMint, HomeMint, and BeautyMint. Each brand features a subscription shopping model with personalized product recommendations for its members from their respective celebrity and expert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stripes (growth equity firm)</span>

Stripes is a private equity and venture capital firm based in Manhattan, New York, founded in 2008. In 2023, Stripes has US$6.5 billion of assets under management and more than 80 investments. Notable investments include On Running and Monday.com.

Fanatics, Inc. is an American manufacturer and online retailer of licensed sportswear for the MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, NASCAR, Formula 1, WWE and NPB. They sell sports collectibles, NFTs, trading cards, and sports merchandise, as well as sports betting and iGaming. The company began as an American online retailer of licensed sportswear and merchandise, which operates the e-commerce businesses of major professional sports leagues and media brands, as well as hundreds of collegiate and professional team properties.

Runa Capital is an international venture capital firm headquartered in Luxembourg that invests in deep tech, cloud business software, fintech, edutech and digital health startups in early stages. From 2010 through 2022 Runa Capital raised 3 funds and invested in over 100 companies in more than 14 countries of Europe and North America, including Nginx, MariaDB, Zopa, Brainly, drchrono, Smava, and Mambu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comcast Ventures</span> American venture capital firm

Comcast Ventures is a corporate venture capital firm headquartered in New York, NY.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Chesterman</span> British internet entrepreneur

Alexander Edward Chesterman is a British Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of ScreenSelect, which later became part of online film distributor LoveFilm, and is the founder and former CEO of online used car platform Cazoo.

NewVoiceMedia was a cloud service company based in Basingstoke, England. The company's ContactWorld platform uses customer contact technology as a cloud service by connecting customers through existing telephone infrastructures and using the internet to pass along previously collected client information to agents. The company works in 128 countries, with numerous large organisations including: MobileIron, Truphone, Parcelforce, and the Canadian Cancer Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faasos</span> Indian "food on demand" service

Faasos is an Indian "food on demand" service that was incorporated in 2004. It is one of the brands owned by the online restaurant company, Rebel Foods.

Sunbasket is a subscription meal delivery service that ships members fresh, sometimes organic, and sustainable ingredients and recipes every week, allowing them to cook their own meals. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, and operates two regional distribution centers in Morgan Hill, CA and Westampton, New Jersey. It is part of the meal kit industry.

Doorman was a privately held American technology company specializing in logistics services and products. The company managed and operated fulfillment centers and independent driver fleets in densely-populated urban areas, addressing the last mile gap between online retailers and their customers. It also developed, marketed and operated the Doorman mobile app, which allowed consumers to use their iOS or Android-based smartphone to schedule evening delivery of goods purchased online, or arrange pick up of goods intended to be shipped back to an online retailer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitango</span> Israeli venture capital fund

Pitango VC, established in 1993, is Israel's largest venture capital fund with over $2.8 billion under management. Pitango VC invests through three dedicated funds, Pitango First, Pitango HealthTech, and Pitango Growth. Pitango invests in startups around the world, in domains such as Vertical SaaS, Digital Health, Deep Tech, FinTech & InsureTech, Devops, Generative AI, Web3, and FoodTech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ro (company)</span> American telehealth company

Ro is an American telehealth company that diagnoses patients, and subsequently prescribes and delivers treatments. The company is headquartered in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puls (company)</span> American tech services company

Puls is a San Francisco–based startup founded by Eyal Ronen and Itai Hirsch in 2015.

Adentro, formerly Zenreach is an American technology company based in San Francisco. It produces a marketing platform used by brick-and-mortar businesses that pairs with a business's guest Wi-Fi to enable visibility into in-store customer visit behavior. These details are used to create customer profiles, track subsequent visits, and deliver targeted ads. Zenreach rebranded as Adentro in 2021 in an effort to more directly represent their connection to in-store customers.

References

  1. ↑ "Sock Maker Raises $30M".
  2. ↑ "How Stance Socks' Innovative Approach Led to its NBA Deal". sneakershouts.com. 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2016-05-04.
  3. ↑ "Luxury-Socks Startup Stance Raises $50M to Expand Into Underwear". Wall Street Journal. 2015-03-03. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
  4. 1 2 DiMartino, Mediha (2016-05-02). "Sock Maker Raises $30M". Orange County Business Journal. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  5. ↑ "Stance valued at $400M with $30M Series D". Pitchbook. 2016-05-02. Retrieved 2017-02-21.
  6. ↑ "NBA Agrees Licensing Deal with Stance Socks As League Official Sock". ESPN. 2015-04-27.
  7. ↑ "Stance signs deal with MLB to be official sock provider". ESPN. 2016-05-24.
  8. ↑ "Business Beat: Stance Locks Original Contract with NBA". 3 June 2015.
  9. ↑ Chapman, Lizette (5 March 2015). "Luxury-Socks Startup Stance Raises $50M to Expand into Underwear". Wall Street Journal.
  10. ↑ "About Stance | Bold and Creative Socks".
  11. ↑ "Stance Socks Adds Its Logo to the NBA Uniform". 27 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "BEST SOCKS OF 2017: STANCE". Sneakscore. Sneakscore. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  13. ↑ "Punks & Poets Socks by Stance | Bold and Creative Socks".
  14. ↑ "Rihanna Teams Up With Stance For Sock Collection". BallerStatus.com. July 15, 2015.
  15. ↑ "What Happens when Rihanna Instagrams Your Art". 22 November 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.