Alex Carleton, creative director of the men’s outdoor apparel brand Filson, likes to refer to the company as a 127-year-old startup, based on its readiness to experiment. Filson was bought by current owners Bedrock Manufacturing Company in 2012, and Carleton, with a background in American workwear brands including L.L. Bean and Ralph Lauren, came on board two years later.
Over the last decade, Carleton has prioritized trying new things. On Thursday, one of those brand experiments got off the ground, with the launch of Filson’s first collection targeted toward women. The collection is available on the brand’s e-commerce site and in its 15 stores as well as select wholesale partners.
For Carleton, the move was obvious, considering women consumers had long been buying the brand’s men’s clothes for themselves, based on customer surveys. The Filson team initially tested women’s clothing with wear testers before the pandemic, and early reception was positive. But, at the time, the company didn’t have the operational scale to do the category justice, Carleton said.
That changed in 2021 when Italian retailer and manufacturer WP Lavori acquired a 10% share in Filson.
“Working with them, and [establishing] access to the resources and people that came with them, signaled the restart of the women’s line,” Carleton said. “We created a [dedicated] team that’s a combination of folks here in the U.S. and in Italy — we have product and technical designers in Italy working with merchandising and design teams in New York. That’s been essential to getting women’s off the ground.”
Other duties like marketing are shared, with one team managing related duties for both the men’s and women’s lines.
The women’s line is a full collection that includes all of the signature categories in Filson’s men’s line, like outerwear. It shares much of the same design DNA as the men’s line, as well, including boxier fits. Carleton said the brand wanted to remain true to its functional workwear heritage, while also leveraging fits that are on-trend.
Workwear and its silhouettes have become common in fashion, outside of category-native brands like Filson. As an example, Carleton pointed to Louis Vuitton’s January 16 Paris Fashion Week show, which was themed around the rugged looks of the American West.
Filson’s marketing for the women’s collection will emphasize the universal nature of workwear, showing women wearing the clothes in settings both urban and rural. Instagram is still the primary channel for Filson’s marketing, where it invests in targeted ads. The brand is still finding its footing on TikTok, which is a newer addition to the marketing mix.
“We’re not leaning into the trend, because this is part of our DNA all the time,” Carleton said, referring to the marketing strategy. “But the world has gotten a lot smaller, and customers today are accustomed to seeing outdoor gear in urban environments, in airports. It’s everywhere you go in this day and age.”
After the women’s launch, Carleton said Filson will be tackling additional avenues for growth. One is Europe, where the company opened its first store, in Cortina, Italy, in December. It plans to expand its store footprint in Europe over the next year. Carleton said the company has doubled its projections for the European business for this year. The majority of Filson’s 15 stores are in the U.S., plus it has two in Canada, one in Italy and one in Japan. Overall, Filson has also seen a 40% growth in annual revenue over the past five years, although Carleton declined to share specific revenue numbers. The majority of the business is currently through its 337 wholesale partners, but Carleton said he’s hoping to grow Filson’s DTC business moving forward.
“We’re looking globally for expansion,” Carleton said. “Part of our five-year plan right now is to have partners all around the globe. There are almost too many opportunities — it’s a great problem to have. We’re focused on the women’s launch now, but we have lots of other ideas incubating.”
