Admit it. After a long day, all you want to do when you get home is kick back and relax, maybe catch an episode of Breaking Bad, shed your work duds, whether a business suit or something a little less formal, and put on something comfortable.
Like maybe sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and those comfy socks that might have a hole or two but are just what you need to make the ensemble complete.
Adam Bledin, 30, knows exactly where you’re coming from. He’s been there himself.
Back when he was in high school and facing a late-day gym class, he was more likely to head home, watch an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, lying on the couch in his sweatpants. Pretty soon, he got to calling them his “lazy pants,” for good reason.
The name stuck with him over the years, and later as a businessman, he introduced a line of denim jeans with a throwaway line of sweatpants that he called – what else – Lazypants.
The thing is, Lazypants proved to be the bigger seller of the two. They were so big that he parlayed that consumer preference into a highly successful line of casual apparel under the Lazypants label.
Featuring his trademark and uncluttered three-bird logo and super comfortable Turkish fabric, the sweatpants proved a hit – so much so that some of the beautiful people in Hollywood have been seen wearing the product, providing a kind of advertising that only a ton of money could buy.
Celebrities such as reality show star Kourtney Kardashian, actress Mila Kunis, model Alessandra Ambrosio, actress Naya Rivera, comedian Martin Short and actor Billy Baldwin have been spotted wearing Lazypants.
The apparel was sold out of a trendy Los Angeles boutique called Kitson and gave proof to the slogan, “Sweatpants are super cool,” said Bledin.
Where sweatpants were once seen primarily on those working out or lounging about, today people – mostly women and young girls – are happy to don the apparel when they’re out and about, said Bledin.
“This is a product that everybody likes,” he said. “It’s all about comfort, softness. And there was an open market space.”
Bledin speculates that’s what accounts for the difference in success between the sweatpants and the denim line, which fizzled owing to a saturated marketplace.
Sweatpants are another matter entirely. It was a niche that did not have nearly as many retail options. And they were a perfect item for the times, in which economic stresses have led more people to stay at home and relax in comfortable attire.
As an entrepreneur with a sense of style and design, he put together his own line that has taken the market by storm. His catch line: “Why sweat when you can be lazy?”
In his first year in business, Bledin sold 600 units. Last year, sales reached 28,000. That’s a rate of growth over 18 months that makes you do a double take.
In addition to sweatpants, the Lazypants line includes hoodies, hats, kids clothes, blankets, shorts and crew-neck sweaters. Prices range from $78 to $138 for pants and $118 to $148 for hoodies.
“It’s a prestige price,” Bledin acknowledged, “We’re right at the bottom of prestige.” High-end designers sweatpants can sell for as much as $1,600, he pointed out.
Lazypants has a growing Canadian presence. The company retained Slavin Raphael to place the products in Canadian retail outlets. So far, Lazypants apparel is carried by TNT, Sporting Life, North by Northwest and Honey. Retailers outside Toronto also carry their product, and the company even had a store in Kuwait order 1,000 pieces.
“They sold out and ordered more,” said Bledin. “We can’t keep up with demand.”
Teenage girls and young women are the main demographic for sales. At bar and bat mitzvahs, they’ve proven to be highly sought-after giveaways, and a number of summer camps have stocked up on the items, adding their own logos to make them distinctive, Bledin added.
“Our main focus now is more the United Stated,” he continued. “The possibilities are endless, really.”
Helping him navigate all this uncharted territory is Fraser Kitson Ross, the founder of the Los Angeles store that bears his name.
Ross is a Canadian who opened Ice Boutique on Cumberland Avenue in Toronto’s trendy Yorkville area in 1989. He closed the store in 2004. Bledin said he and Ross have a rapport, based in part on their Canadian backgrounds. Ross is his mentor who helps him with his business decisions.
Kitson is continuing to open stores across the United States and is a go-to place for “celebrity shopping destination, and Lazypants is a featured brand.” Bledin expects Lazypants to be available in Portland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas by March.
Sales could reach $3 million to $5 million this year: “I think it’s achievable in every way,” he said. “We’re at the point of looking at a strategic investor,” someone with the capital to put into the company, but who’s also familiar with the industry and who could lend their expertise to the enterprise.
After that, who knows? Perhaps expansion to Japan, Australia, South Korea or Russia. The sky is the limit.
Not bad for a guy who used to enjoy lounging on his couch in the comfort of his lazy pants.