FAYETTEVILLE — Fayettechill may be a clothing line, but the brand is about promoting the outdoor and laid-back Ozark lifestyle, said Mo Elliott, company founder and president.
That philosophy is working, and the four-year-old company is growing. Monthly sales have tripled compared to last year, and Elliott anticipates sales to hit between $1.4 million and $1.7 million this year.
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“People live life a little differently, and we look to represent that feel,” said Grant Holden, co-owner and director of development. “We like to show that off to as many people as we can.”
The Ozark lifestyle embraces outdoor activities such as biking and hiking and a laid-back, casual lifestyle, said Devin O’Dea, the company’s third co-owner and vice president of development.
Fayettechill focuses on quality and not quantity, O’Dea said. T-shirt prices start at $25.
“We aren’t selling throw-away shirts,” he said.
The company employs 12 people and hires an average of one or two each month, Elliott said. The oldest employee is 25.
Fayettechill also is growing the number of retailers carrying its clothing line. More than 30 retailers in the four-state area sell the Ozark-inspired wares.
Holden said they add more than eight retailers each time they roll out a new line. The company introduces new products twice a year; the next line comes out in September.
Elliott said Fayettechill just entered the Dallas market and is expanding into other metro areas.
The company will begin using a 1970 Airstream trailer in September, O’Dea said. The trailer allows customers and potential retailers to see a variety of products side-by-side. O’Dea said the Airstream can roll into a town to sell at special events. It also will allow them to test the water in potential markets.
Fayettechill also operates its own retail outlet, Basecamp, at 329B N. West Ave. in Fayetteville. The West Avenue site served as company headquarters until February when growth squeezed them out of the small space and into the 18,000-square-foot Ozark Mountain Smokehouse in southwest Fayetteville.
“It was a perfect setup,” Elliott said. “It gave us more space in the type of outdoor setting we like to promote.”
The smokehouse sits at the bottom of Mount Kessler off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and owner Frank Sharp is dedicated to preserving the area. Sharp and several of his neighbors created Mount Kessler Greenway with plans to raise enough money to purchase 387 acres on the hilltop.
“Our motto is, as we grow, let’s keep some country,” Sharp said.
He envisions outdoor classrooms, trails and natural wooded areas on the mountain that already features 8 1/2 miles of trail.
Elliott met Sharp at a meeting of the Ozark Offroad Cyclists. The not-for-profit mountain biking group also has an office at the smokehouse.
O’Dea said Fayettechill plans to create outdoor recreational space on the smokehouse’s 3.28 acres. Sharp sees the site becoming an outdoor hub.
“There is a lot of outdoor recreation going on out there right now,” he said.
O’Dea said there is plenty of room in the three-story building for meetings or social events.
Ozark Offroad Cyclists is one of four local not-for-profit organizations Fayettechill supports. The company also backs Arkansas Climbers Coalition, Buffalo River Foundation and Trout Unlimited. Fayettechill donates $1 of the sale of select items to one of the groups.
Elliott said everything ties back into promoting and selling the Ozark brand. The company’s goal is to become the premier outdoor clothier within a five-hour radius of Fayetteville.
It could reach well beyond that circle.
“I believe we can sell the Ozark culture,” he said. “Look at the surf culture. It is worn everywhere.”