Tom James brings an old-school mentality to the world of suits.
“We’re the largest custom clothing manufacturer in the country and we’re in our 60th year in business,” said Jim Ziemer, the company’s regional director in Denver. “The model has always been we come to you.”
By traveling to meet their wealthy clientele rather than inviting them into a store, Tom James posted a record $450 million in revenue last year across its 100 international offices. The Denver team’s $9 million in sales placed it in the top 10, Ziemer said.
His staff of 15 isn’t the only thing that’s on the move. Come September, the local Tom James is also getting a new office at 8181 E. Tufts Ave. in the Denver Tech Center, right down the road from its current digs at 4610 S. Ulster St.
“They really jacked up our lease,” he said of his landlord at the soon-to-be old space. “Usually leases go up 5% or whatever, but this was like 40%.”
The new 5,000 square feet won’t require much of a build-out, he said, and will mainly be used as a typical business office rather than a retail store. The business does have a small set of clothes on display, but everything Tom James sells is custom and made to order and shipped to the office.
“Everything is done at the customer’s office,” he said of the Tom James process. “It’s based on the premise that men don’t like to shop or have time to shop. And the women’s workforce has grown so much too since our founding that it’s in the same category.”
Ziemer’s clients are lawyers, financial professionals, people in commercial real estate, CEOs and vice presidents of companies, he said. He and his staff service 5,000 clients across the Front Range, he said.
“My typical appointment is I meet them at their office, take measurements and make them whatever they want in any style and any size,” he said. “Once I take all the measurements, I could do business by email, text or even FaceTime.”
A Tom James suit starts around $1,200, and the average transaction across the company is $2,000 between ties, shirts, pants, coats and other accessories like Johnston & Murphy shoes or a piece of TUMI-branded luggage.
All the company’s fabrics are made in-house under a private label, he said. The business also designs and sells higher end brands wholesale like Oxxford Clothes, whose suits start around $5,000. About 8% of Tom James’ total revenue comes from that line, he said.
“You might have a guy that buys one shirt, but you’ll have another guy that buys four suits,” he said. “We have a huge business between $1,600 to $2,800. The client needs to be able to afford it.”
The Denver office’s $9 million in revenue from clothing sales last year was the best in its history. That channel also makes up half of the whole business’s $450 million in revenue – which is pacing to be up 3% this year, Ziemer added. The other 50% comes from its manufacturing and wholesale arms.
Having several streams of business has allowed Tom James to be nimble in a world where people dress more casually, he said. Controlling manufacturing in-house is also a plus so the enterprise is not at the whims of third parties when trying to flip inventory each season. Tom James also makes upholstery for furniture brands, he said.
“While COVID was going on, we were making masks out of our fabrics, and we sent them out to all our customers,” he said. “They weren’t N95 masks, but it was better than nothing and kept a few workers busy.”
On top of that, Tom James has been expanding its catalog beyond traditional suits into sweaters, jeans, jackets and the like. Having offices around the country, like in the hotter climates of Florida and Texas, also allows for a diversity of material in its offerings, he said.
Not having a retail floor helps too, compared with other custom clothiers that have recently gone out of business.
“We’ve been able to positively react to it,” Ziemer said. “Corporate casual has been around for 35 years, so this is not new to us.”
