Pursuits
Band of Outsiders and the Business of Casual
With his first U.S. store, Band of Outsiders’ Scott Sternberg proves that—e-commerce be damned—brick-and-mortar is still the best way to sell stuff
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Scott Sternberg, the designer of a preppy line of clothes called Band of Outsiders, hasn’t really been shopping since he introduced his Los Angeles label 10 years ago. On the first chilly day of September, he’s hanging out in a Manhattan store trying to remember how it goes. “It’s interesting how long people spend with a shirt before they buy it,” says Sternberg, who’s wearing a Band of Outsiders nautical-striped tee and spying on a group of young men and women as they browse. “For guys, it’s not this thing where you pick it up and say, ‘It’s cute, let’s go.’ They sit on the bench, think about it, text somebody, make sure they’re going to do it.”