True Religion Fills Key E-Commerce Slot
True Religion, a streetwear brand rooted in denim, has named Scott McCabe senior vice president for e-commerce, filling a critical position, especially in light of the company’s objective to aggressively grow online sales.
“Scott’s incredible track record of growth, profitability and innovation will help propel True Religion’s rapidly expanding digital commerce business,” Michael Buckley, chief executive officer of True Religion Apparel, said in statement. “His customer-first vision combined with broad expertise in performance marketing, customer acquisition and loyalty will be critical to True Religion’s goal of tripling online revenues and achieving 50 percent e-commerce sales penetration by 2025.”
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In 2021, e-commerce represented approximately 35 percent of the total volume.
McCabe has 25 years of experience in e-commerce. According to True Religion, McCade spent over four years at Columbia Sportswear during which time Columbia’s e-commerce business tripled and there was “continuous double-digit year-over-year revenue and operating income growth,” as well as a 65 percent increase in active loyalty memberships. In addition, he integrated chatbox integration, further improving customer response.
“True Religion is at a very exciting moment in its almost 20-year history as e-commerce becomes an even more important channel for the consumer,” said McCabe. He said he would be helping the team augment the company’s transformation with expanded digital capabilities.
McCabe is replacing Angela Clark, who recently joined Patagonia to head up digital.
True Religion in recent years has been through two bankruptcies; sweeping changes in management, sourcing and pricing; a downsizing of the store fleet, and a broadening of the offering and customer demographics.
But last fall, Buckley told WWD that the brand was back on a growth track and that its goal is to double the size of the business over the next four years. He said the company would generate about $240 million in sales in 2021, compared to $151 million in 2020, and will make at least $65 million in EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] in 2021.
True Religion used to sell $300 jeans at Neiman Marcus and other high-end, upscale stores. Now its top-priced jean costs about half that and is sold at stores like Macy’s, Selfridges, Nordstrom, Amazon, TJX Cos. and Dillard’s. The brand can be promotional, bringing the prices well under $100. Denim is still the core, though hoodies, joggers, T-shirts and accessories are a bigger piece of the business, and the iconography on the jeans — those signature horseshoe, Big T and Super T stitching — has been restored.
In 2002, True Religion emerged onto the Los Angeles denim scene by reimagining the construction of the classic five-pocket jean. The brand quickly caught on.
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