{"id":24847,"date":"2015-05-14T12:05:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T16:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=24847"},"modified":"2021-04-22T23:31:15","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T03:31:15","slug":"power-list-melissa-austria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/power-list-melissa-austria\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Charge in a Menswear World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-24922 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24164950\/melissa-banner.png\" alt=\"melissa-banner\" width=\"1030\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24164950\/melissa-banner.png 1030w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24164950\/melissa-banner-525x197.png 525w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24164950\/melissa-banner-1024x385.png 1024w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24164950\/melissa-banner-100x38.png 100w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24164950\/melissa-banner-862x324.png 862w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/24164950\/melissa-banner-846x318.png 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Melissa Austria understands men, and that might be her best business asset.<\/p>\n<p>The 46-year-old owner of <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.gotstyle.ca\/\">Gotstyle<\/a>, a two-store independent menswear retailer in Toronto, Canada, that clears $5 million in annual revenue, says men want shopping to be easy. That&#8217;s why her shops\u00a0offer everything they need to \u201clook good,\u201d right down to grooming supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Men\u00a0shop for a purpose, not fun, so salespeople help them find an outfit for the wedding or job interview coming up. They\u2019re visual, so Gotstyle puts whole outfits together to help \u201cpush them out of their safe bubble,\u201d Austria says. They prefer neighborhood stores to fighting for parking at malls, so her shops are in cool residential areas with good pubs.<\/p>\n<p>They also want the truth, so Austria insists salespeople keep them from buying things that are unflattering (to reinforce that, she pays salaries, not commissions). \u201cAnd they don&#8217;t like to shop around,\u201d she adds. \u201cSo once they find a store that they like and a\u00a0salesperson that they like, then they&#8217;ll stay with them forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: right; margin: 0 10px 5px 0;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dHUyaexMdwE\" width=\"400\" height=\"225\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><strong>An On-the-Job Menswear Education<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Austria was born in New Brunswick to a geologist father and engineer mother recently arrived in Canada from the Philippines. But she was the athletic type, running track and competing in a high-octane cheerleading squad that accumulated trophies at local, regional and national meets.<\/p>\n<p>Her parents didn\u2019t push college &#8212; there wasn\u2019t much money for it &#8212; and Austria was more interested in fashion. So she moved to Toronto after high school to attend the Fashion Academy of Merchandising and Design (only briefly &#8212; she called it \u201ca joke\u201d) before deciding to get her education on the job.<\/p>\n<p>Austria\u00a0landed an office position at Harry Rosen, a leading Canadian luxury men\u2019s clothing company, whose hands-on founder Austria calls her role model. She soon moved to the sales floor to sell sportswear and accessories. After a few years, she left for wholesale menswear, which allowed her to work with companies like Calvin Klein, Valentino and Kenneth Cole and travel all over Canada, the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"width: 270px; float: right; background-color: #f4e977; padding: 10px; margin: 10px; border: 1px #444444 solid;\">Founder: Melissa Austria<br \/>\nCompany: Gotstyle<br \/>\nHeadquarters: Toronto, Canada<br \/>\nAge: 46<br \/>\nYear Founded: 2004<br \/>\nRevenue: $5.1 million<br \/>\nEmployees: 21-30<br \/>\nRole Model: Harry Rosen<br \/>\nWebsite: <a href=\"http:\/\/shop.gotstyle.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gotstyle.ca<\/a><br \/>\nFacebook: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gotstylemenswear\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">facebook.com\/gotstylemenswear<\/a><br \/>\nTwitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gotstyle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@gotstyle<\/a><br \/>\nInstagram: <a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/shopgotstyle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@shopgotstyle<\/a><br \/>\nPinterest: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/gotstyle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gotstyle<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Carving Space in the Middle of the Market<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when the dearth of independent, mid-priced menswear stores in Toronto became clear to her. Toronto\u2019s men had only Harry Rosen and the chains in shopping malls. To fill the gap in the middle, she started Gotstyle in 2004 with retirement funds and by re-mortgaging her house &#8212; along with a bank loan finagled by a former business partner.<\/p>\n<p>Her first \u201cbig break\u201d came in 2005 with a cable TV reality show called <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/13762303\">\u201cOpening Soon\u201d<\/a>\u00a0featured her store. Regular reruns provided a shot of visibility and publicity &#8212; and taught Austria about the power of marketing. She has invested in a full-time social media person, weekly email newsletter and is about to launch a print magazine called &#8220;The Gotstyle Man.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Building the company hasn\u2019t been easy. In her third year, a falling out with one of her two business partners led to so much stress she developed shingles, hair loss and almost lost the business. Thankfully, her other partner stepped up, and she was able to revive the business.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been 11 years now, and Gotstyle has 24 employees, including her brother, who manages the warehouse. Austria is thinking hard about getting a lot bigger and expanding into other cities, and\u00a0is looking for an investor with experience opening many locations.<\/p>\n<p>She thinks Gotstyle has legs. It\u2019s an asset to be a woman in the menswear world, she says. \u201cA man always wants to be told how he looks by a woman versus by a man.\u201d<\/p>\n<h1>Why do you deserve to be on our Power List?<\/h1>\n<p><em>&#8220;Because I&#8217;m a woman in a man&#8217;s world.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/power-list-landing-page\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>See our entire Power List!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Melissa Austria is flourishing by offering men affordable style just they way they want it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":24924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[19443,21558,144,21557,19731],"class_list":["post-24847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-power-list-tse-blog","tag-apparel-accessories","tag-customer-experience","tag-fashion","tag-menswear-retail","tag-women-entrepreneurs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Taking Charge in a Menswear World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Melissa Austria is flourishing by offering men affordable style just they way they want it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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