SOB Clothing Company

By Robert Nordstrom

Interestingly, when you talk to Danny Anavim, owner of Los Angeles-based SOB Clothing Company, you hear the pronouns “we” and “us” much more often than you hear “I” or “me.” But after a while, you begin to understand why. Danny is a “people” person. Yes, business is about competition and achieving success as measured by dollar volume and growth statistics, but for Danny it is also about having fun and growing with a group of people who share a sense of loyalty to one another and the business that supports them and their families.

“I owe everything to my employees,” Danny says. “We’re extremely lucky with the crew that we have. Ayala, my wife handles most of the medium-sized accounts. Saul runs the warehouse and has been with us since we opened. He is like a brother to me. The rest of the employees have been here a long time. Roldan, Yaron, Cheryl and the entire sales staff have basically taught me how we can succeed together.”

Finding a Niche
Danny opened SOB Clothing Company with a partner in 1993. Although Danny bought out his partner Sean after a couple of months, SOB, which was an acronym for Sean’s Off-Price Bazaar, stuck. “It’s catchy,” Danny says, “the buyers remembered the name, and the factories that wanted to sell to us didn’t forget us.”

Located on a corner in Thieves Alley in the LA garment district, SOB got its start selling cash and carry goods to the swap meet people as well as retailers from Mexico. Danny bought whatever he could find as long as it was attached to a deal. Eventually, he even dabbled with manufacturing—primarily juniors dresses and tops.

Although he dumped the manufacturing after a year or so and now deals strictly with jobbed goods, Danny had found his niche in juniors. Today, SOB specializes in fashion forward juniors merchandise at affordable prices—more specifically, the hot, local brands that the younger and hipper consumer is looking for.

The decision to focus on fashion forward juniors proved to be a good one. SOB’s business volume has doubled every year for the past three years. According to Danny, “We didn’t have a niche before. Our niche was to find a deal, make some money on it, and move on. But with the juniors product, the business has sort of evolved into this monster that just keeps growing. We’re still in our infancy. We have a lot of room to grow.”
While the company sources goods from overseas, Los Angeles, a major center for juniors fashion, is the company’s primary source of juniors product.

Serving the Customer
In jobbing, pace is fast and competition fierce. “Obviously, the item you are selling is important,” Danny says, “but at the same time a lot of companies may have that same item. Customer service is key. That’s what my employees have taught me. Customer service is what separates us from our competition, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make our customers happy. If a buyer needs to be at a certain price point to look good in front of their boss, we’ll work with them. If they want goods shipped early or held back, we’ll do it.”

In the juniors business, today it’s hot…tomorrow it’s not. SOB’s buying and sales staff work quickly to get product information to retail customers. Before the goods are unpacked, photos are e-mailed to select customers.

“Our customers like that,” Danny says, “because they don’t have to go out and search for goods. We do the legwork for them. We pick out and present styles to them so they don’t have to search through hundreds of styles. They don’t have the time to deal with that.”

In the past 18 months, SOB’s website business has also exploded, doubling in volume every six months. “It’s been crazy,” Danny says. “Retailers outside of LA don’t have the same immediate access to juniors fashions as the LA retailers have. Our website is giving these non-LA accounts access to cutting edge fashions.”

While the fast-paced and sometimes capricious juniors business carries an element of risk, SOB minimizes risk by maintaining a broad customer base throughout the country. What won’t sell in LA may sell in South Dakota, which creates a trickle-down effect for sales. And the cash-and-carry store in the garment district caters to local businesses in search of current trends in fashion in contrast with buyers from major retailers who place their orders several months in advance.

The Personal Touch
SOB’s primary growth area is the 5-, 10- and 15-store mini-chain looking for inexpensive, trend-driven juniors fashions. They buy quickly and regularly. With the larger chains, numerous companies may be trying to sell the same basic denim pants to the same retailer. For jobbers working off slim margins, these scenarios tend to end up in bidding wars that shrink margins to anorexic levels.

But there’s another reason Danny likes working with the smaller independent stores—the contacts and relationships are more personal and enjoyable. If there’s a problem, SOB staff can work it out with them directly.

“It’s a more friendly atmosphere,” Danny says. “[When I started off] I loved the business. Then it got to be kind of blah. It wasn’t fun anymore. It was strictly business. Now it’s fun again, because we’re constantly in contact with owners and buyers who care a lot about their business. I want to have fun with my customers and my employees. I want them to enjoy what they are doing. Everyone makes a living and then you go home happy—that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

While SOB specializes in fashion forward juniors, the company continues to serve regional chains throughout the nation with a broad array of jobbed goods in other categories, including men’s, women’s, and children’s. According to Danny, SOB’s business is split into two different businesses: One, the fast-paced juniors business, and two, the mass merchandise business. In addition, SOB maintains the cash-and-carry business in the LA garment district.

“We’re very fortunate to have very good relationships with bigger chains throughout the country. We do business in every category: men’s, big men’s, plus ladies, kids, infants. If they have a special need in a certain category, they’ll call me and say, ‘I need some plus size ladies,’ and we’ll respond right away.”

Growing with the Off-Price Specialist Show
Danny attributes the company’s participation in the Off-Price Specialist Show as one of the key elements behind SOB’s success. An exhibitor since 1997, he believes that being able to meet with his existing customers face to face twice a year at the show, as well as have the opportunity to meet and develop new accounts, is an invaluable resource for his company.

“It makes a huge difference,” Danny says. It personalizes everything. We open new accounts at every show. While the sales at the show are always important, the relationships are just as important. I might not get the PO at the show—I might get a week, a month, or two months later—but the reason I get it is because we were at the show.”

What’s Important…What’s Not
In March SOB’s office, showroom and warehouse moved into a new 25,000-square-foot facility located a couple of blocks away from the Staple Center, where Danny holds season tickets for the Los Angeles Lakers—his “passion.” The new facility offers a convenient location and ample parking for his customers. Danny’s father Baba continues to run the cash-and-carry operation on Thieves Alley.

“He [Baba] is the anchor,” Danny says, his deep admiration and respect for his father immediately apparent. As a father of two children and one on the way, Danny today understands some of the difficult decisions his father had to make when Danny was a child.

In the summer of 1978, Danny, who was 10 years old at the time, visited New York to attend an English language camp. While he was in the U.S., the Iranian revolution started. Danny’s father gave him a choice: He could either return to Iran or stay in New York with his grandmother.

“Don’t ask me why,” Danny says, “because even now it sends shivers down my back, but I stayed in the New York.”

Danny’s father and mother returned to Iran in the midst of the revolution to sell the family factory, which manufactured bras, cosmetics, and colognes, and were not able to return until four years later, at which point Baba had to restart his career—this time as owner of a small jobbing company working out of New York, Connecticut, and eventually Los Angeles.

“I think that’s where I get my sense of priorities,” Danny says. “Money is great but it’s definitely not the most important thing. As soon as money becomes the priority in your life, you begin to lose much more than you gain. At the end of the day, the goal is to go home with as few headaches and worries as possible. The person who can achieve that is, to me, the lucky one. You could make a million dollars a month and go home every night with a headache and worries—that’s not for me.”