Outdoor Voices is closing all stores this week

Outdoor Voices, a sportswear company, will close all of its stores on Sunday, according to four employees at four different stores who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the news.

In an internal Slack message reviewed by The New York Times, some employees were informed Wednesday that “Outdoor Voices is entering a new chapter as we transition to an exclusively online company.” According to the Slack message, products will be discounted by 50 percent in stores.

The news came as a surprise, two of the employees said, adding that they were not offered severance packages.

Outdoor Voices, which lists 16 retail locations on its website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Founded in 2014 by Ty Haney, the brand became popular for its muted tones and highly Instagrammable aesthetic. Think matching crop tops and leggings in light earth tones. The hashtag and company mantra, #DoingThings, became popular on social media, where brand loyalists regularly shared photos of themselves participating in athletic activities such as running, walking or spinning. The company often hosted events, such as group classes, and even built an editorial platform called The Recreationalist.

Many Outdoor Voices customers weren’t just shoppers; they were devotees. The company was a chic athleisure brand perfectly positioned to attract millennials, but it also sold a lifestyle. A lifestyle that has helped the brand raise millions in funding. In a 2019 profile, The New Yorker compared Outdoor Voices to Lululemon.

However, behind the facade of hashtags and spandex, unrest is brewing. In 2018, the company was valued at $110 million. (That same year, Outdoor Voices released its sports dress, a stretchy dress with shorts underneath that inspired many copycats.) By 2020, that valuation figure had dropped to $40 million. Several senior managers successively left the company. Ms. Haney and Mickey Drexler, a retail industry veteran known for his work at Gap and J. Crew who became an investor and chairman of Outdoor Voices in 2017, reportedly did not get along. In February 2020, Ms. Haney stepped down as CEO and retained a seat on the company’s board of directors.

A store manager said she was informed of the store closures on Tuesday and was offered $500 to stay the rest of the week. She said it felt like a slap in the face.