Vator Investment Club announces first investment

American Giant - The greatest hoodies ever made!

Try this on for size!  

We have invested in American Giant, the American-made clothing company that’s known for making “The Greatest Hoodie Ever Made.”

But American Giant is more than simply hoodies: It’s a strong brand, a new business model, an expanding product line, and a great team. 

The San Francisco-based company has a purely e-commerce model, which allows it to invest in product quality and world-class American manufacturing, instead of spending on expensive marketing campaigns and inefficient distribution channels.  By flipping the traditional apparel business model on its head, American Giant has gained industry-wide recognition and was named by Fast Company as one of the Top 50 Innovative Companies in 2015, along with Apple, Warby Parker, Google, Tesla and Instagram.

There is a tremendous growth opportunity in premium apparel brands. Did you know Lululemon has a $6 billion market capitalization?  The Internet offers new access to consumers, and new production models offer innovative ways to create high-quality products. This fits well with our investment thesis.

American Giant’s lead investor is Don Kendall, former Chairman and CEO PepsiCo.  Don and team led an oversubscribed round of $10,000,000, 95% of which was taken by existing investors in the company.  Vator was able to get an XS allocation in this XXL financing.

As American Giant CEO Bayard Winthrop put it, “Vator’s tremendous reach and unparalleled relationships allow them to be not only an investor, but, more importantly, a partner in our growth.”

Bambi is thrilled about what this investment signals for the mainstream investor. “American Giant is the kind of company an individual investor wouldn’t have access to until the IPO, which means they’d miss out on a great deal of value appreciation,” she said. “This deal is one of many Vator plans to get involved in to allow Club members a chance to participate directly in the innovation community.”

The American Giant investment was made through a syndicate of Vator Investment Club members, including Andy Kurtzig, CEO of JustAnswer, Brett Wilson, CEO of TubeMogul, Zafar Malik, CEO of Silicon Turnkey Solutions, Ravi Suria of Valmiki Capital, Kaaveh Letafat, CEO of Parma Floors, Cyril Brignone, CEO of Arrayent, David Dean Holdings, Alex Roizen, Principal at Ackrell Capital, Erin Flynn, Principal at Ackrell Capital, Tom Bjornson, CEO of Claremont Behavioral Services, Roman Arzhintar, Founder SideReel, and John Kim, CEO of IPLA.

To celebrate our first investment, American Giant is offering a promotional discount to the Vator community for use during the holiday season.  Please visit american-giant.com, and use code “VICLAUNCH” to receive a 15% discount through December 31.

If you would like to join the Vator Investment Club, please email vic@vator.co and we will send you a membership packet.

Participate in the innovation community!

To celebrate the Vator Investment Club’s first investment, American Giant has created a special promotional discount. Use code VICLAUNCH and receive a 15% discount until December 31, 2015!