A formerly online-only apparel seller is continuing its push into brick and mortar with a store on Michigan Avenue. One item you won’t find on its shelves: traditional, tuck-in dress shirts.
Untuckit — best known for men’s button-down shirts cut to be worn untucked — plans to open its second physical store at 900 North Michigan Shops during the first week of May.
Co-founders Chris Riccobono and Aaron Sanandres came up with the idea for Untuckit in late 2010, frustrated by button-down shirts with such long tails that going untucked meant looking sloppy, not casual, Sanandres said.
“We realized a lot of people got it and had this real point of pain,” he said.
Sanandres said he has been working with the company part-time but recently became CEO after leaving PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The untucked style isn’t new. A 2004 New York Times headline heralded “Flying Shirttails, the New Pennants of Rebellion.”
But shirts cut specifically for untucked wear are a more recent creation, said Sanandres.
Though traditional brands have begun making shirts with shorter tails, and a small Chicago e-commerce clothing company, Reichardt Threads, also specializes in the untucked look, Sanandres claims Untuckit was the first to market the cut.
It’s also trademarked the tag line “shirts designed to be worn untucked.”
“At first when I heard about Untuckit I thought it was a bummer,” said Austin Reichardt, 29, of Lincoln Park, who created Reichardt Threads with his brother Dan in 2013. They’d thought they were the only ones after the untucked niche.
“The more I think about it, the more I think it’s building out the trend, and a rising tide lifts all ships,” he said. “I’d like to see the whole pie grow.”
Sanandres and Reichardt said the untucked look is here to stay, boosted by the growing acceptance of casual attire at the office, despite a 2015 survey by underwear brand Fruit of the Loom that found that men ages 25-60 who kept their shirttails hidden were more optimistic about their future, earned more and dated more often than nontuckers.
The same survey reported only 49 percent of the men said they tucked their shirts in at least three days a week.
Online menswear revenues were expected to grow 18 percent in 2014, hitting $9.6 billion, rapidly outpacing overall clothing sales, according to a 2014 report from business research firm IBISWorld.
With its shops in Chicago and New York, Untuckit joins the ranks of companies that started digital before adding stores where customers can check out products in person.
“There are a ton of people who just won’t buy a product unless they can touch it,” Sanandres said.
Untucked button-downs might seem like a narrow niche, but Reichardt said he hoped making the brand synonymous with one core product would help the company stand out amid the crowds hawking apparel online.
Sanandres said it was simply easier to get Untuckit off the ground with a few products he knew the retailer could make well and become known for, rather than trying to pay to develop and stock a full apparel line before building up a customer base.
Untuckit now sells polos, T-shirts, sweaters, jackets and women’s apparel in addition to the button-down shirts it sold at launch. But long-tailed shirts for the tuckers? Not likely.
“It’s just not who we are,” Sanandres said.
Twitter @laurenzumbach
