Lifestyle apparel manufacturer/marketer Horny Toad Activewear announced June 24 that it has acquired the assets of Nau, which sells a clothing line similar to Horny Toad’s. Nau had ceased operations a month earlier because it could not secure additional financing.
Horny Toad will run Nau as a separate company headquartered in Portland, OR, with its own team focusing on product and brand development. It plans to relaunch Nau’s Web store on Aug. 1 with a fall/holiday 2008 collection, fulfilling orders through its partner, Planet Access.
While Santa Barbara, CA-based Horny Toad has no plans to reopen Nau’s five stores, it will begin partnering with select, like-minded retailers to carry the Nau line.
“The goal is to pursue a growth strategy that is more organic and builds in relationship to the demand for the Nau product,” says Horny Toad president Gordon Seabury. “We will also be looking at boutiques that are evolving their merchandising mix to reflect the growing interest in sustainability from a design and fashion point of view.”
One of those boutiques will be Horny Toad’s experimental store concept in Portland, OR, the Lizard Lounge, which opened in late June 2007. The company describes the place as one part retail venue and one part urban social hub that carries a variety of lifestyle apparel brands.
Horny Toad also dropped its first print catalog in February. Seabury says the merchant has no plans to sell Nau merchandise in the book, however.