67FALLSTYLE BloombergPursuits August 26, 2019
Babenzien grew up in East Islip, on Long Island, where he
developed what became Noah’s penchant for nautical stripes
and the classic polos, rugby shirts, hoodies, and sweaters that
dominate seafaring leisure pursuits. Imagine the staple items
of J.Crew, made with the premium fabrics of a Loro Piana,
with a supply chain managed as tightly as Hermès’s, but with
a subversive design angle that’s entirely singular. It’s the only
clothing shop in New York with An Introduction to Sailing and
a copyoftheSkateJawnzineonitsbookshelves.
Before Noah,Babenzienspentmore thana decade
leading design for Supreme, taking it from influential street-
wear brand to global luxury phenomenon. He left the com-
panytwoyearsbeforeprivateequityfirmtheCarlyleGroup
boughta 50%stakefor$500million,essentiallyvaluing
Supremeat$1billion.
Despite that success, Babenzien always wanted to run his
own company, his own way. “In a business meeting before we
launched this, when I said all the things we wanted to do—to
make cool clothes, but not so cool that they weren’t accessi-
ble, to be responsible when it came to the environment to the
best of our ability, to inform customers about making better
choices,tomakeclothesinFirstWorldcountrieswithenvi-
ronmentallawsandlaborlaws—Iwastold,‘Youcan’tdothat.
It’simpossible,’” Babenzien says.
And it might have been if not for Donald Trump. In the
early days of the company, leading up to the 2016 election,
Noah’s social media profiles were outspokenly supportive
of movements such as Black Lives Matter, and it released
shirts emblazoned with the words “Anti Nazi League”—all
of which garnered more than a few comments telling it to
“stick to business.”
Instead of apologizing, the brand did something, well, punk
rock: It offered a full refund on any Noah purchases for those
who planned to vote for Trump. “I kind
of freaked out on Brendon, because it
started to pick up some press,” says
Beau Wollens, Noah’s chief operating
officer. “I was scared of people taking
advantage of it.”
Not only did no one claim a refund,
the resulting attention brought a new
wave of like-minded consumers. By its
second year, Noah had opened a store
in Tokyo. Later it opened two conces-
sion shops inside the New York and
Los Angeles locations of the trendy
Dover Street Market retail outlet.
It’s begun expanding into new prod-
uct categories while still keeping true
to the tenets its customers have come
to love. For the fall, Babenzien has
introduced traditionally made top-
coats embroidered with ’80s-style
track-and-field graphics. A down vest is
made from patchwork paisley. There’s
even a leopard-print two-piece suit and penny loafers.
All of it is conscientiously made and sourced, and volume
is deliberately limited. “Brendon is very conscious of who
he works with in terms of production and factories, and he
makes sure the product run is not overly produced,” says
Federico Barassi, senior director of menswear buying at
Ssense, a luxury retailer in Montreal. “Every season we see
the T-shirts, hoodies, and caps all sell out.”
Crucial to the sell-through is a strategy of raw transpar-
ency. The brand takes a page of the Everlane playbook by tell-
ing customers exactly how much their clothes cost to make,
and why. The “aha!” moment came early in the company’s
existence, Wollens says, when he and Babenzien came up
with a blog post called “Anatomy of a Jacket,” explaining why
the two-tone parka at Noah costs $488.
The brand started communicating expenses and chal-
lenges more deliberately in a series called “Breaking Down
the Costs.” The first, focused on labor, explained how price
increases on Noah’s hoodies correlated to Canada bumping
its minimum wage more than $2. Another focused on tar-
iffs. “This is one of those things that sounds a world away,” it
reads. “But it’s frightening for small brands like us.”
Honest accounting such as this helps communicate these
pressures to consumers and to explain brand priorities like
a commitment to fine materials and fair wages. “Over the
last few decades, the American public has gotten used to a
price—whether it be for a T-shirt or a cup of coffee—that is not
an honest price,” Babenzien says. “If you had to factor in the
human component, other people’s lives, how much they’re
getting paid, what their life is like, then the price is a lot.”
Customers, Wollens says, have been overwhelmingly
receptive to the practice. “The younger consumer actually
has a better idea and understanding of those things than
the older ones,” he says. Oliver Chen,
a luxuryretailanalystatCowenInc.,
saysthissortofphilosophyfitsinwith
thevaluesofmillennialsandGenZ.
“Technology has really enabled trans-
parency,” he says. “The new genera-
tion of shoppers values sustainability.”
Patagonia Inc., the venerable out-
door outfitter, is viewed by many,
including Babenzien, as the gold
standardforresponsiblecapitalism
atscale.ButwhereasPatagoniahas
a party-agnostic,pro-conservation
ethos for protecting the environ-
ment, Noah’s “Save the Whales” shirts
look banal from the front but feature
detailed illustrations on the back of
howtheendangeredanimals are div-
viedandsold.
“Idon’thavea problem with choos-
ing sides,” Babenzien says. “Most
businesspeople do.” <BW>An expansion
of its shop this
summer includes
a suit station