This article has been revised and corrected from the original version.

Nursing student Cindy Brown got her first pair of scrubs from the Figs Inc. website about two years ago, inspired by the hype surrounding the Santa Monica-based health care apparel company.

“At first I was just jumping on the bandwagon, but now I really like them,” Brown said while perusing the racks at the company’s first store that opened on Nov. 2 at the Westfield Century City shopping center.

While Figs scrubs are comfortable and durable, she noticed that “sizing is not consistent across the styles,” which can make shopping online somewhat tricky.

“When I bought my Casma top it fit smaller than my Catarina top,” Brown said, referring to scrubs that Figs offers. “I want to wear them when I buy them; I don’t want to have to send them back.”

Aside from sizing, she was also interested in garments made with water-repellent material.

“I heard that they are a little bit noisy, so I want to see how they feel and how they sound,” she said.

Shopping at the store which Figs refers to as the community hub provided peace of mind for Brown. But Chief Executive Trina Spear sees the company’s foray into a physical retail space as something a bit different: It is an opportunity to deepen its relationship with its fan base and bolster the bottom line along the way.

“Stores are great from a growth perspective, but they’re also really great for brand awareness it’s essentially like a profitable billboard,” Spear said. 

No wholesale?

Spear co-founded Figs with Heather Hasson in 2013. The digitally native brand has about 360 employees and outsources its garment manufacturing operations to factories in Southeast Asia, China and South America. It has a market value of about $1.15 billion, and during the last quarter generated $6.1 million in net income on $142 million in revenue.

Figs dabbled into the brick-and-mortar space some five years ago with a short-term pop up on Melrose Avenue in Beverly Grove, followed by another one in SoHo in New York. The Century City store is the first location where the company committed to a multiyear lease. It sits a short distance from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Saint John’s Health Center and “all the medical offices of Beverly Hills,” Spear said, adding that another store near Philadelphia’s major medical centers is also in the works, and is set open early next year.

She declined to provide specifics about the full retail rollout but signaled that more’s to come if the two stores are successful.

“We double down on things that go well,” Spear said.

The company is prioritizing retaining control over its brand message so rollout will likely not include the traditional wholesale channels.

“We’ve really done a great job of making sure the (shopping) experience is elevated … the Figs way,” she said. “When you go wholesale, you’re literally saying, ‘Hey, somebody else, you go manage the marketing, the merchandising, the look and the feel of my brand.’ You’re giving that to somebody else. We think the best way is to control the experience, to make it as the best we can.”

Spear added that a typical consumer is not shopping for scrubs, which makes it difficult to align with the right wholesaler.

“The health care profession is nuanced,” she said. “If you were to walk into a Target or a Nordstrom and you saw Figs it might not make sense, ‘What is this doing here?’ There is not really that natural wholesale partner.”

While a presence at large department stores may not be the right fit, Spear said opening Figs stores at or near hospitals or universities is something the company is considering down the line.

“I think there’s an opportunity (for) a store-within-a-store … like a mini-Figs store within a college bookstore, or even within hospitals,” she said. “They have (gift shops) where you get the balloons and the bunnies, so why isn’t there an employee store? We are the employee store.”

Figs’s Chief Business Development Officer Devon Duff Gago, who joined the brand about seven years ago and until May served as its chief operating officer, is spearheading the retail rollout.

“She moved into overseeing all of our growth levers, with retail and community hubs being one of our key growth levers,” Spear said. “She has the operational background, and she understands the leases and construction and also the brand.”

Retail journey

Figs is one of several popular digitally native brands that have invested in brick-and-mortar stores, a cohort that includes apparel designer Everlane, eyewear brand Warby Parker, sneaker company Allbirds and bed-linen brand Parachute.

“We probably could have done this or should have done this about three or so years ago, but then the pandemic hit,” Spear said, adding that Figs has since helped foster “an amazing community of health care professionals,” that’s invited to not just shop at Figs stores, but to use them as meeting points.

“We’re going to have events… speaker series (and) all different types of ways to connect the community around yoga, around meditation, around mental health, around whatever they care about,” she said.

“If (you) were to start a brand tomorrow and you open a store, no one knows who you are, it’s very hard. But we have this ability now because we’re a digital brand, because we built it for 10 years, now’s the time. We’re going to open up a bunch of stores, a bunch of community hubs,” she added.

Opportunities

Another benefit of providing in-person shopping experience is a potential increase in average order value. Consumers tend to walk in the store looking for specific items, but often leave with additional merchandise such as socks, fleece jackets or underscrubs.

“You see all these things, so you shop more,” Spear said. “You also shop more or you’re more loyal to a brand that has both digital and stores 40% higher loyalty.”

Case in point, Princess Lucio, who stopped by Figs store for a pair of scrubs but ended up checking out their rompers and shoes.

“I just love how comfortable they are,” she said, adding that she spent at least $1,000 on Figs merchandise since she was introduced to the brand last year by one of her teachers at UCLA, Stephanee Beggs, who along with educational content, posts about Figs on Instagram.

The company is counting on the same word-of-mouth advertising as it looks to continue to expand internationally. Figs recorded an 81% uptick in international revenue, stemming from its longstanding markets in Canada, UK, and Australia, as well as Poland, Kuwait and Singapore, which came online during the third quarter.

“I think what we did that really worked was we built a digital marketing engine … and we built an ambassador network of … the most influential people in health care that are representing our brand all across the country, so we’re replicating (that strategy) internationally,” Spear said. “In the U.S. when we first started we were like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get in the hospitals and then they’re going to …’ No, that didn’t work. Direct-to-consumer is our North Star.”