A rendering of what the new stall might look like.
Cheeky e-commerce startup Shinesty is bringing its first brick-and-mortar location to Cherry Creek Shopping Center.
Shinesty CEO Chris White said the apparel company will bring its in-your-face underwear patterns — the “The Never Nude” (White’s personal favorite) underwear that look like jean shorts — to the mall Nov. 1.
“A lot of people come in because of the marketing and humor and they stay because of the quality – quality-wise it’s every bit as good and deserves to be in high-end retail,” White said.
Instead of opening a traditional storefront, White said Shinesty is experimenting with a roughly 200-square-f00t stall in the middle of the mall.
“You don’t need that much square footage to display underwear,” White said. “We thought the open air concept in the middle of the mall was interesting because it gets more eyeballs … and hopefully acts like a nice billboard for people who have never heard of the brand.”
White founded Shinesty in 2014 with Chief Marketing Officer Jens Nicolaysen and Director of Operations Michelle Frey-Tarbox to force “the world to take itself less seriously.”
White said Cherry Creek mall will act as a testing space – with a short-term lease to start – to see if the brand should venture into more storefronts.
“Everything we’ve done for the past eight years has been online,” White said. “It’s totally different, a huge learning curve for us. Cherry Creek seemed like the most obvious best place we could test it … it made sense to go into the best mall in Colorado.”
And while the mall currently holds more serious name-brand stores like Chanel, Coach and Gucci, White thinks Shinesty will thrive.
“People have a sense of humor in Colorado,” White said. “I think the majority of people will find it refreshing.”
He said marketing will still be toned down slightly, displaying more PG-13 patterns, and it’ll carry exclusive products that can’t be bought online.
The tight ship boxers.
Shinesty releases new patterns every month. This month it released “The Tight Ship,” which has images of sailor-style tattoos such as mermaids, dice and tropical flowers.
White said the top-selling pattern right now is the June golf-themed release. He declined to disclose revenue information. The company is known for its underwear, but it also sells gaudy patterned suits, pajamas and dresses.
The startup moved its headquarters from Boulder to Denver in 2022 and turned it into a 1970s-style playhouse earlier this year.
