Nau Inc., an environmentally friendly outdoor apparel company from Portland, is finally open for business. After years of preparation and development, the outdoor company launched its e-commerce Web site last week, and announced plans to open four retail store over the next two months in Boulder, CO, Bellevue, WA, Portland, OR, and Chicago, IL.
Termed a Webfront, the stores will contain limited inventory and plenty of computer kiosks to encourage shoppers to research and order products directly from Nau's Web site, even if they are shopping in the store. The idea is to keep costs down by having just enough merchandise in the store to allow shoppers to try on items and gauge the fit and to ship from a central warehouse directly to shoppers' home.
“This is an exciting time for all of us that put our heart and soul into this company, and who believe that finding a better way is a worthy endeavor and never-ending process,” said Nau CEO Chris Van Dyke. “Of course, throughout this process we also plan on selling some really cool clothing.”
Nau, a New Zealand word meaning “welcome” and pronounced “now,” is the brainchild of a group of outdoor apparel veterans from Nike Inc., Adidas Group and Patagonia. The Spring 2007 line includes both mens and womens shirts, pants, jackets, and additional gender specific items like dresses.
“We are very excited to be in business after a two year period of developing the infrastructure for the business and the brand. We consider it a significant milestone,” said Ian Yolles, Naus VP of marketing. Nau plans to donate 5% of every sale to an environmental, social or humanitarian charitable organization.
