Inside Bonobos’ New Palo Alto Digs, Where The Startup Known For E-Commerce Is Investing In Bricks & Mortar

Colleen Taylor

Colleen Taylor is based in San Francisco where she is a reporter for TechCrunch and TechCrunch TV. Previously she worked as a reporter for GigaOM, the Financial Times’ Mergermarket newswire, and the semiconductor industry newsletter Electronic News. Disclosure: Colleen holds a small amount of shares in AOL, which were awarded as part of her employment contract with TechCrunch. She personally... → Learn More

Sunday, October 14th, 2012


Bonobos, the men’s clothing company, has gained lots of ground since it was founded in 2007 for its presence on the web as a mostly pure e-commerce play. But in recent months, the company, which is headquartered in New York City, has started to make more and more investments in the physical world of brick-and-mortar with “Guideshops,” appointment-only showrooms where customers can try on Bonobos’ wares in person.

Last month, Bonobos opened its third Guideshop in Palo Alto, in the same building as its new Silicon Valley engineering office which will serve as its headquarters for technology operations. We stopped by to get a look at what the Guideshop concept is all about and chat with CTO Michael Hart, who joined Bonobos nearly a year ago from Netflix.

Watch the video above to get a look at the Guideshop and hear Hart talk about why Bonobos is focusing on bricks in addition to clicks, the competitive landscape now that companies such as J. Crew are getting more web-savvy, the Bonobos tech edge, and more.


Company: Bonobos
Website: bonobos.com
Launch Date: June 1, 2007
Funding: $72.7M

Bonobos (www.bonobos.com) is an e-commerce brand focused on delivering great fit, a fun approach to style, and superb customer experience. Launched in 2007 on the Internet with better-fitting men’s pants, Bonobos is now the largest apparel brand ever built on the web in the United States. In 2011 Bonobos extended offline, launching Bonobos Guideshops, e-commerce showrooms that delivers personalized, one-to-one service to those wanting to experience the brand in person. In 2012, Bonobos expanded its distribution partnering with...

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