Nordstrom (JWN) announced Monday that Brian Spaly has "chosen to depart" Trunk Club, the men's fashion subscription service he founded in 2009 and sold to the Seattle retailer for $350 million in 2014. Terry Boyle, president of NordstromRack.com/HauteLook, will lead Trunk Club in addition to his current responsibilities, according to a release.
Trunk Club is one of Chicago's most high-profile consumer startups, raising just over $12 million in venture capital before securing a successful exit seven years after its launch. Trunk Club was established as an online personalized clothing service for men, connecting customers to stylists who curated hand-selected boxes that were then shipped directly to users. In 2016, Trunk Club expanded into women's fashion. In addition to e-commerce, Trunk Club also has seven clubhouses across the country where customers can visit stylists in person.
"We're moving into an exciting next phase of Trunk Club and we're excited to welcome a seasoned leader like Terry into this leadership role," said Erik Nordstrom, co-president of Nordstrom, in a statement. "Terry comes into this role with a tremendous amount of knowledge about Trunk Club, having served on its advisory board since it was acquired by Nordstrom in 2014."
Added Nordstrom in the release, "Brian has created an incredibly unique business and has been instrumental in getting Trunk Club to where it is today. We now have a strong foundation on which to build and we thank him for everything he's done to support Trunk Club from its inception and partner with Nordstrom over the past several years. We wish him well as he seeks out new opportunities."
In July, Trunk Club announced that it will close its fulfillment center in Goose Island and cut 250 full and part-time positions, mostly as a result of integrating with Nordstrom's distribution centers. In the fall, Trunk Club revealed two significant changes to its business model, adding a $25 'home try-on fee' and cutting the time customers have to return boxes from 10 days to 5 days. At the time, Nordstrom said that these changes were in an effort to "support a more sustainable business" and that Trunk Club has never been profitable, which contradicted a statement co-president Erik Nordstrom made two years earlier, in which he told Crain's following the acquisition that the Chicago startup was profitable.
In November, Re/Code reported that Nordstrom's was taking a $197 million write-down on Trunk Club, with the retailer stating that "While this business continues to deliver outsized top-line growth, current expectations for future growth and profitability are lower than initial estimates.
In addition to Spaly's departure, Crain's is reporting that COO Rob Chesney has also left the company.
Spaly is an active angel investor in the city of Chicago and has invested in startups Spotlite, BucketFeet, and EverTrue.
(Image via Trunk Club)
