PRLog (Press Release) –
Aug 17, 2009 – February 14, 2000, Women’s Wear Daily
gazelle.com, an e-commerce legwear and leg care site, is now up and running.
With over $8 million in financial backing, the Stamford, Connecticut based company went online two weeks ago, according to Preston Hammer, founder and chairman. Reached Thursday in gazelle.com's satellite office in San Francisco, he said there are plans to raise additional capital.
Beyond the standard socks and sheers, the company offers a variety of advice about leg-related issues such as liposuction, varicose vein treatment and leg-hair waxing.
This year, the Internet startup plans to spend heavily on advertising, marketing and public relations, said Mr. Hammer, who holds a bachelor of arts degree from Stanford University (where he served as president of his senior class), and a master’s degree in business administration from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Although the well-educated gazelle.com founder has been an entrepreneur most of his life, he spent six years in the investment banking industry. DDB Needham has developed the advertising.
With a staff of over 50 employees, gazelle.com is leaning on some industry veterans for their input. Among the executives Preston Hammer recruited to serve on gazelle.com's advisory board are Nicole Miller, designer extraordinaire; Manny Mashouf, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Bebe Stores; Peter Cobb, founder and vice president of marketing for eBags; Jerome Fisher, founder and former chairman of the Nine West Group, and Lou Weisbach, founder and chairman of Ha-Lo Industries.
Other veterans in the apparel industry, who also believe in Mr. Hammer’s vision, are working with the company. Sid Smith, president and chief executive of the Hosiery Association, is on the company's board of directors, and Elizabeth Rose, a former executive at Liz Claiborne Inc., has joined gazelle.com as vice president of finance. Alison Weil, who previously worked as a marketing consultant for Dana Perfumes, was recently named the director of leg care.
gazelle.com dedicated its first "Gazelle Gazette," an online newsletter, to its former employee Andrea Coscia, who died February 3rd from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. Prior to joining the company as director of legwear, she was national marketing manager for Ralph Lauren hosiery at The Hot Sox Co.
Among the labels that are offered on the site are Hanes, Givenchy, American Essentials, Hot Sox, Evan-Picone, Belly Basics, Donna Karan, DKNY, Oroblu, Danskin, Nicole Miller, Levante, Berkshire, Round-the-Clock, Falke and Greg Norman. The site offers legwear for women, men and children. At first, most of the brands were extremely hesitant to offer their items for sale on the Internet, but gazelle.com eventually landed all of the major labels through Mr. Hammer’s persistence and his ability to negotiate win-win partnerships.
Online shoppers can browse for legwear by brand, category or lifestyle, which is broken down into work, in style, sport and family. Work, for example, is then sub-classified into corporate America, flight attendants and casual Fridays.
In addition, gazelle.com users can review products based on hosiery, socks, bodywear and leg care products. To narrow their searches when shopping by these departments, they can specify their price range and preferences.
There are also "Unique Boutique" areas for plus-sizes, evening wear, maternity, dance and seasonal items, and products for men and children.
In terms of leg care, Preston Hammer tapped five physicians to join the company on a part-time basis -- two dermatologists, an orthopedic surgeon, an aesthetic skin and laser surgeon and a plastic surgeon. This “health and wellness panel” fields online questions from visitors about their leg care issues.
Shaving cream, cellulite trimming gel, self-tanning lotion and foot balm are among the leg care products offered. In terms of legwear, items posted Friday included Oroblu $30 Shock-up sheers, Danskin's $30 capri pants, Ellen Tracy's $5 ankle trouser socks and Silk Reflections's $8.50 Beyond Bare sheers.
gazelle.com visitors can check out styles by clicking on "open package," which presents an image of the item on a model. As of February 22nd, shoppers will be able to sign up for the site's "never run out" replenishment program, allowing them to order merchandise on a pre-set schedule.
By the end of the month, the site will have an online dressing room that displays the product on a model with a similar skin tone and body shape as the shopper's, Hammer said. There are also plans to set up a "sizing wizard," an online consultant who directs shoppers to their appropriate size.
Shoppers who purchase $40 or more worth of merchandise do not have to pay for shipping. The company charges $3.95 for U.S. postal shipping and $19.95 for overnight delivery.
According to founder and chairman Preston C. Hammer, consumers who registered on the company's site prior to the launch received a free gym bag. Since the site is now live, the company is giving its first 5,000 customers a gazelle.com mesh hosiery bag as a gift-with-purchase.
The company will launch a print advertising campaign next month in women's magazines. Mr. Hammer said there are also plans to air its first TV commercial, a 30-second spot, in about eight markets during the February 28th edition of the "Ally McBeal" show.
So long as funding for promising dot-coms remains available, this gazelle certainly seems to have legs.
By Rosemary Feitelberg
Women’s Wear Daily, Conde Nast Publications, Inc. - February 14, 2000
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