Chris Riccobono Disrupted Menswear With Untuckit. Now He’s Tackling Athletic Apparel

Chris Riccobono built the clothing brand Untuckit on the belief that there was unmet demand for men’s shirts designed to be worn untucked.

Now Riccobono believes that he, along with three high-profile celebrity athlete co-founders, can capitalize on unmet demand for better quality workout gear.

In June, Riccobono, along with athlete partners baseball superstar Derek Jeter, hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, and ballerina Misty Copeland, launched Greatness Wins, a direct-to-consumer line of tops, hoodies, shorts, joggers, golf shirts and other athletic wear. The company currently is producing a men’s line but a women’s line is planned to launch next year.

Riccobono, who co-founded Untuckit with Aaron Sanandres and built it from an online brand to a company with 86 stores and sales of more than $300 million, said he found himself, when retail ground to a halt at the start of the pandemic, with the time to work on disrupting another category.

Just as Untuckit was born when Riccobono couldn’t find a shirt that looked good when he wore it untucked. Greatness Wins is a response to Riccobono’s dissatisfaction with athletic wear.

Riccobono and his athlete partners are betting they can parlay the lessons Riccobono learned about fit, manufacturing and marketing with Untuckit into a premium athletic brand that fits, and performs, better.

Jeter, Gretzky and Copeland are true co-founders, Riccobono said, not just brand ambassadors, and are directly involved in the development of products and in guiding the company.

The company is being funded privately by friends and family and Untuckit contacts.

Riccobono said his experience wearing, and researching athletic wear from the top brands convinced him there was a market opportunity for a new brand.

“The quality was just terrible. The stuff would measure four inches out of spec, the fit was terrible, it didn’t wash well, it pilled. You could tell they just weren’t focusing on quality,” he said.

“I could see that there needed to be a new higher-end athletic brand, – a true athletic brand – and none had come into the industry since Under Armour,” Riccobono said. He defines an athletic brand as one that sells products for all sports, which Greatness Wins plans to do eventually.

Then there were the ath-leisure brands, where the products were high-quality, but the messaging is a bit muddled, Riccobono said.

“They’re trying to be everything to everyone. They promote laying on your couch in the most comfortable clothing, that you can go out in it and also work out in it,” he said. “I know enough about fashion that you can’t be all things to all people. You can’t pick a fabric based on five different things.”

The Greatness Wins take on ath-leisure is “there’s no athlete in ath-leisure, and you shouldn’t be working out in the same stuff you’re laying on your couch in” Riccobono said.

“And that’s not just if you are a pro athlete,” Riccobono said. “That’s if you’re going for a long walk. We think you should be wearing the best product available.”

“We wanted to become kind of the Lululemon of athletics – a super-high curated brand. Not having 500 joggers like the big guys do, but having maybe eight joggers with an understanding by the customer which should be worn in which activity,” he said.

The company uses high-end fabrics designed to withstand a workout and multiple washings, and chosen for their sustainability. Eighty percent of the company’s shorts are made with recycled polyester, and 98% of its base materials are Bluesign or Oeko-Tex certified as being free of harmful chemicals and dyes and other negative environmental impacts.

The price points will be higher than Nike or the other mainstream athletic brands, with t-shirts priced at $55, shorts at $69, and joggers at $99.

Riccobono said he believes consumers will pay more for better quality merchandise that lasts.

“Our product, just like Untuckit, costs a lot of money to make. It’s something we’re willing to do,” he said.

Riccobono said he enlisted his athlete partners as co-founders because he learned with Untuckit that brands with a story are more likely to resonate with consumers.

With Untuckit, the story was his frustrating search for a shirt that fit right and looked good, untucked. With Greatness Wins, he wanted the story to be top athletes and their desire for better workout and performance wear.

“I decided I should get some of the greatest athletes of all time to verify that there is room for a better product out there,” Riccobono said.

Ballet star Misty Copeland is involved in the design and launch of the Greatness Wins women’s line, which will be released next year.

Jeter, Copeland, and Gretzky have been promoting the brand on Instagram, and Riccobono said additional social media marketing and commercials are planned.

While the brand currently is only sold online, Riccobono said he expects to eventually open Greatness Wins stores. “I’m still a strong believer in stores,” he said, noting that sales at Untuckit stores have rebounded strongly after the initial pandemic pause.

“Seventy percent of men won’t buy product unless they touch and feel it,” he said.