Kleinfeld Bridal is getting into menswear

Kleinfeld Bridal wants to carve out a bigger slice of the $65 billion American wedding industry. The 85-year-old bridal retailer—known to many thanks to hit TLC show Say Yes to the Dress—is expanding beyond its traditional bridalwear to the other side of the aisle. It’s partnering with Generation Tux to offer suits, tuxedos, and accessories.

Instead of creating an in-house label, the company chose to partner with the direct-to-consumer brand for its entry into menswear. While Generation Tux has several showrooms across the US, the partnership with Kleinfeld’s will give the company its first brick-and-mortar presence in New York City (inside Kleinfeld’s flagship store).

“We’ve been trying to figure out over the last several years what else could we do.” said Kleinfeld Bridal CEO Ronnie Rothstein. “We’re selling as many brides as we can sell now and so we were looking at the men’s business, but we’re not experts in the men’s business.”

Made to measure

Kleinfeld’s expansion into menswear is a natural next step for the bridal retailer. While Kleinfeld Bridal services roughly 21,000 brides a year—and wedding gowns can often go for up to $30,000 each—these are typically one-time customers. Accessories like veils and jewelry have always been offered, so the Generation Tux partnership emerges as another route to increase revenue per couple.

“It’s so much harder to acquire a new customer than it is to offer a practical add-on to an existing customer,” said Brian Lawrence, wedding industry marketing expert. “The more they could make the average sale of the average revenue from a customer higher, that means they can make more money without having to increase the number of clients.”

On the topic of category expansion, Rothstein explained Kleinfeld was bullish about the Generation Tux partnership after experiencing success with its in-house hotel room block offering.

While the company didn’t share any financial projections for the partnership, Rothstein is hopeful there will be a high level of conversions from Kleinfeld’s existing bridal clientele.

“Whenever you launch something that’s new, it always takes a few months to figure out where the strategic point is,” he said. “We’ll understand after several months what the percentages are going to be in terms of what people are going to purchase as compared to what people are going to rent.”

Brian Lawrence highlighted the potential synergies from the partnership, and the opportunity for Generation Tux to generate business it doesn’t have to advertise for. “They’re leveraging the trust of the Kleinfeld name,” he said.

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