Retail Therapy: Knox Street picks up another cool brand, Yeti - The Dallas Morning News

Yeti, the Austin-based company that’s proved to the world that high-end could also be about beer coolers and travel tumblers, is opening stores.

And Dallas is getting one of the first.

Yeti opens Saturday on Knox Street in the space that formerly housed the On the Border restaurant. (On the Border now operates a takeout, delivery and catering kitchen in some of its former space with no seating.)

“We wanted to identify a popular and vibrant area for our first retail store in the market and feel the Knox-Henderson neighborhood is a perfect fit,” said CEO Matt Reintjes.

The 1,700-square-foot store at 3130 Knox Street is stocked with Yeti’s signature hard and soft coolers, some with the SMU Pony stamped in red, drink cups, tote bags, backpacks and other outdoor living products.

Yeti opened its first store in Austin in 2017 and has told investors it now plans to open four to six stores a year. Stores in Charleston, S.C. and Chicago opened this year. A pop-up just opened at the Domain, a shopping district in north Austin. Denver is scheduled for early 2020.

“We remain thoughtful in our approach to selecting future locations,” Reintjes said, adding it must be the right fit for the brand.

Protecting the brand is serious business for Yeti. It’s filed lawsuits against sellers of knockoffs, even Walmart. It recently sued a Minnesota company that makes ice fishing houses under the brand Yetti Outdoors. Yes, with an extra “t.”

The Yeti story is well known in Texas. The company was founded in 2006 by brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders, who were raised in Houston to love the outdoors. Roy Seiders was CEO until Reintjes was hired in 2015 and is still chairman.

SMU branded products are on display inside a new Yeti store in Dallas. The grand opening will be this Saturday. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

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“Yeti was built by forging authentic and meaningful relationships with our core communities through bonding over our shared passion for the outdoors,” Reintjes said in an emailed response. “And we believe it’s extremely important to continue that approach as we grow.”

Yeti has so far settled on cool streets: South Congress in Austin, King Street in Charleston and in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood.

Reintjes said the plan is to balance growth from retail by opening stores in markets where the brand has an established following and where Yeti has identified as “new frontiers.”

Reintjes said Dallas is not one of the latter.

“Dallas is a great market for Yeti with a strong existing customer base that’s passionate about the brand,” Reintjes said. Dallas “shares our affinity for the outdoors and has an appreciation for quality and premium products.”

While it’s planning to continue being a wholesale brand sold by other retailers, selling directly to consumers is showing up positively in results.

Coolers, cups, apparel and other products are on display inside a new Yeti store on Knox St. in Dallas.(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

Yeti on Thursday reported a third-quarter sales increase of 17% to $229.1 million led by its direct-to-consumer sales with drinkware as the leading product category. Third quarter profit was up 25% and it raised its outlook for the year.

In addition to opening stores, Yeti started working with Locally.com in May 2018 to make its products searchable by city and on the shelves in the Dallas area, for example at Academy Sports + Outdoors, REI , Westlake Ace Hardware, Saint Bernard Tailwaters Fly Fishing Co. “It has been worth the investment,” Reintjes said.

Yeti has set up international wholesale operations, first in Canada in 2017 and since then in Australia and Japan.

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The company went public a year ago this week and raised $288 million. Yeti stock has been volatile from day one. First day of trading, the stock closed below its IPO price of $18. But it’s doubled in the past year.

Here’s what you can expect at the grand opening: Whiskey tasting and beer. Local artist IZK Davies will be there to paint coolers. There will be free customization all day. If you’ve already been to one of its other new stores, this one is smaller.

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