Australian brand Bond-Eye Swimwear has opened its first-ever retail door in Bondi after 18 years selling through wholesale and online.
Speaking with Ragtrader, founder and CEO Steve Philpott said the new pop-up site was a long-term Bond-Eye wholesale account, Museum Clothing. He said Museum founder Michael Sheika had called and offered him the store.
“Michael, the owner, was a great customer of Bond-Eye for many years and the Museum store became synonymous with Bond-Eye in Bondi,” Philpott said. “The stock sat on two racks inside the Gould St window and we just did amazing business together.
“I have walked past the store 1,000 times thinking I would love to have this as a Bond-Eye flagship one day and when Michael called and offered me the store, I didn’t have to think about it. It was something we simply had to do.”
Philpott said he and Sheika had known each other for a long time and had finalised the deal with a handshake.
“I had a great meeting with the landlord and the agent, we drew up the paperwork and once we had the green light and had the keys, we had the store painted and fitted out, clean and fresh in a two week turnaround,” Philpott said. “We are calling it a ‘pop-up’ as the fit out has been minimal with the goal of trading the summer season out.
“We have a long lease and will review our strategy over the coming months as to what the space will ultimately look like for Spring 25.”
So far, he confirmed that the store has seen two weeks of good trade that is beyond expectations.
The latest move follows on from a challenging turnaround during COVID that saw The Bond-Eye Australia Group - which also houses three other swim-oriented brands Sea Level, Artesands and Niptuck - hit a triple-digit boom.
Reflecting on the past few years, Philpott said it was a wild roller coaster.
“We had a survival mentality back then and sold our way out of COVID,” he said. “We kept selling and it came to the point where the business became too big with all of the usual trappings.
“It was great for the ego doing these numbers and we discovered the hard truth in the old saying ‘revenue is vanity, profit is sanity’ as cash flow became tight and the pressure of running a rampant growth led business started to bite.
“There was a significant realisation and turning point and we started measuring and analysing sales, sales channels, brand direction and reviewing profitability. There were some confronting findings and it became very clear that not all sales are good sales.”
According to Philpott, he and the team have made some significant decisions to pull back on some areas and invest more in others, adding that he is happy to report that the brand is around 15 per cent lower in turnover in FY24 and better positioned for the future.
“We have a clear strategy and we are meeting and leading the market with product,” he said. “It’s been a journey of evolution, we are all adjusting to as we go. Nothing stays the same either and remaining nimble and able to adjust to new economic and market conditions, challenges and opportunities too, is critical.
“I see some big opportunities for our brands and business moving forward and this will happen on the right platform with a focused strategy.”
Alongside the newly opened store, Bond-Eye can be found in around 55 stockist locations across Australia, with over 200 across the United States and 11 in the United Kingdom, according to its local and international websites.
Over the past three years, Bond-Eye has grown by 300 per cent in the past three years.
Looking ahead, Philpott said the brand is currently expanding into ready-to-wear with some “encouraging” results. Its first launch of the new ‘Bare’ fabric oversold its yarn booking by more than four times, with various stockists across the US selling out of their resort orders and demanding more.
“We have recuts going through right now to feed the demand there and here too,” Philpott said. “The right category expansion is a very important focus and our retail partners and customers want it. Watch this space. Our bond-eye store is calling this out in a major way.”
He also added that Bond-Eye is consolidating its accounts and markets and being very selective with distribution.
“We have a great local and international base to work with and the brand has major momentum right now. We also have a couple of big colab’s in the pipeline following on from the Georgia Fowler collab which almost sold out before it was made.”