Plenty of women’s apparel companies go small when they want to grow their business and end up expanding into children’s clothing. Reformation makes matching mommy-daughter sets, as does Hill House Home. What’s rarer is a kids’ brand going big and making outfits for adults.

Say hi: Hey Gang specializes in coveralls and overalls for babies and children, but recently, the company introduced its classic onesies for women.

“It was kind of an accident,” founder Lauren Block told Retail Brew. After 20 years in the fashion industry—as a store owner, a buyer, and now a designer—she founded Hey Gang in 2018 after having a baby. “I wanted cute and interesting kids’ clothes that were actually functional...and then I wanted them for myself.”

In the brand’s second season, she rolled out women’s coveralls in three different colors. But the line really took off in the spring of 2020, just as the pandemic hit, when Block debuted Hey Gang’s natural women’s overalls. A few influential Insta followers picked up the product and made it go viral. “I kept constantly selling out. I couldn’t do ads because I didn’t have the inventory,” she said. Now, she says women’s wear makes up 60% of Hey Gang’s sales. (Block declined to share specific figures.)

• For this fall, Block ordered the same number of units for Hey Gang’s women’s collection as its kids’: 5,000.

Beyond moms: It’s not just moms buying Block’s clothes, and that’s by design. Children’s clothes and women’s wear are two different marketing ball games, so it’s been a delicate balancing act.

Block avoids your typical “mommy and me” imagery. She’ll occasionally shoot a mother and child together, but prefers a woman on her own. “I didn’t want it to be mom-specific...that would limit my audience. I learned that it needs to be two separate things,” she said. “In order for it to be successful, the category needs to be able to stand on its own.”

Creating solutions

The same goes for making the clothes. Kids’ and women’s bodies require different fitting processes and manufacturing techniques, different pattern makers, sometimes different denim suppliers, and different factories. “That means [brands] have to develop a whole new supply chain effectively,” Kearney’s consumer practice partner Brian Ehrig explained.

Block ended up moving most of her operations from Dallas to Los Angeles, where she could find a greater variety of manufacturing methods. “I have a lot more flexibility with what I can do. Like on my military pants, I wanted a triple needle stitch on the side. In Dallas, they didn’t have those machines,” she said.

But it’s come with a price, literally. “It’s more expensive to produce in LA, period,” Block told us, even if there are other benefits (like elevated quality).

Click here to read how Block revamped Hey Gang’s manufacturing process and what’s next for the company.—JG

Walmart seems to have things under control, reporting Q3 earnings yesterday that beat estimates.

Numbers game: Revenue jumped to $140.5 billion, a 4.3% YoY increase. Grocery was one standout, notching its highest quarterly growth rate in six quarters. (For all that talk of inflation, Walmart thinks it could actually play to its advantage.)

• The company also raised its forecast for the year.

As for that pesky supply chain, what the retail giant has done so far—including chartering its own ships—has Walmart feeling good.

“I’ve been walking away from these stores with a recurring thought, ‘We’re ready, we have the people, the products, and the prices to deliver a great holiday season,’” CEO Doug McMillon said in an earnings call, CNBC reported.

• Inventory is up 11.5%, he also noted. McMillon credited Walmart’s fleet of truck drivers, merchants, replenishment teams, and associates for getting goods past any bottlenecks.
• Still...the company’s shares fell yesterday.

Size matters: Walmart’s earnings are a testament to the advantage big retailers have when it comes to supply-chain issues, Nikhil Mitter, group creative director at innovation consultancy R/GA, told Retail Brew. “They can be more nimble with supply-demand models and diverse assortment scenarios by stocking up with leaner staffs,” he said.

• Home Depot, for example, also shrugged off supply-chain concerns. And Target and TJX say they’re stocked up.—JS

Heyday is making it rain: The Amazon roll-up company announced yesterday that it raised  $555 million, its largest round yet.

To do what? Beyond buying up more third-party brands, Heyday wants to bring in more experts to manage said brands and bolster its product development, according to TechCrunch. It also hopes to grow its presence in Asia, with plans to open a seventh office in China.

Oh, don’t forget the company was only founded in 2020.

“Our pace is insane,” Sebastian Rymarz, Heyday’s CEO and cofounder, told TechCrunch. “We were born 16 months ago and are already crossing $200 million in revenues.” (That figure is an annual run rate, though, the pub noted.)

• It just raised a $70 million Series B in May, and this new round brings its total to $800 million—that’s both equity and debt.

Cashing in: The Amazon roll-up space is rolling in it. As of September, it raked in about $3 billion in funding this year, per CB Insights; Laura Kennedy, the market intelligence platform’s senior lead analyst, said in a webinar that most of those deals were to early-stage companies.

• The bigger names, too, are still seeing the $$$: Thrasio landed $1+ billion in funding last month.—KM

Today’s top retail reads.

I quit: A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September. Morning Brew spoke to warehouse workers and labor experts to find out why. (Morning Brew)

Early bird: Black Friday sales are rolling out earlier and earlier, and if the supply chain has anything to say about it, this could be the new normal for years to come. (Retail Dive)

The great outdoors: Just how ubiquitous will “streeteries” become in the future? It depends on this winter. (The Atlantic)

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

For a retail newbie, Zuhairah Washington jumped right in. She’s the president at Otrium, an end-of-season online marketplace, her first job in the industry. (Well, technically, she worked at Foot Locker in high school.) The new role—Washington joined in September after years at Expedia Group and Uber—comes with a straightforward mission, at least: Get the company on the map in the US.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I try to wear clothes from every designer I meet with before pitching them to join our platform. It helps me connect with the brands in a more authentic way.

Another fact: Given the global nature of our team, I’m consistently either six hours ahead or six hours behind schedule.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Leading our expansion into the US tops the list. I have the privilege of working with several of the best and brightest of our global team to bring the US market to life.

One retail trend that you’re most excited about this year: I am endlessly interested in sustainability in fashion, and that it means more than just how clothing is sourced. So much unsold inventory ends up in landfills and contributes to environmental issues that need to be addressed.

Consumers are interested, too: A recent study found that more than 50% of consumers say they plan to switch brands in the future if another brand acts more environmentally and socially friendly than their preferred one.

We have to look at other activities, such as buying quality pieces and wearing them longer.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• The Starbucks unionization vote could mark a shift for the broader food industry
• Ulta Beauty’s Karla Davis on the evolution of the customer experience
• Curbside pickup is now a must-have for customers (and retailers)