In its ongoing effort to build its urban athletic clothing brand, RYU Apparel Inc. (TSX-V:RYU) is opening new locations in Southern California, a hotbed of coastal style that embodies the fit and environmentally responsible California lifestyle.
Often associated with the mixed martial arts industry, the Respect Your Universe brand is an athlete-driven product line of performance shorts, tops, tees and more for both men and women.
RYU has been hitting its expansion efforts hard in recent months. Late in 2017, the Vancouver-based company said it was opening its first store in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, which was followed by news last month the select Nordstrom stores in the U.S. and Canada are now carrying RYU menswear and bags.
It was only yesterday that RYU disclosed securing its first California location, situated on the iconic Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach, which has been dubbed the likes of the "coolest neighbourhood in North America" by GQ and described by Forbes as where "cool meets urbane."
Only 24 hours later, RYU said it secured a second location, this one within Fashion Island, Newport Beach's premier shopping location. RYU CEO Marcello Leone called the company "beyond excited" and "incredibly lucky" to have been able to garner storefronts in the vaunted shopping strips.
Leone said that RYU already derives a lot of its online sales from California, so he expects the physical presence to help accelerate growth.
From the looks of the chart, traders agree with RYU's top executive and the recent efforts to bolster sales. Stumbling around nine cents throughout 2017 before slipping as low as six cents as the year wound down, shares have been reinvigorated by the expansion news, surging as high as 29 cents earlier this month from the depths of 2017.
The stock has pulled back modestly from those highs, bouncing between positive and negative territory with Thursday's news of the second So Cal storefront. As of 1:30 PM ET, shares are flat at 22 cents.
