Doug Wood on how Tommy Bahama outgrew apparel: 'Our guests wanted the whole lifestyle'

Tommy Bahama sells camp shirts. It also sells beach chairs, furniture, rum, Airstream RVs, restaurant meals and, since 2023, hotel rooms in Indian Wells. Doug Wood, who joined as chief operating officer in 2001 and was named chief executive officer in 2015, says almost all of it came from the same signal: customers asking for more than the clothes.

"The guest experience is so much richer in our restaurants and retail environment," Wood told FashionUnited. "It told us that we have a women's guest who wants to see what our brand can bring to her in sportswear and swimwear. It also brought a home and gifting opportunity. Our guests wanted the whole lifestyle."

Licensing is what makes that list possible, and what makes the brand considerably bigger than its own sales suggest. Tommy Bahama's licensing agreements generate more than 700 million dollars a year in retail sales on their own, across categories including Lexington Home Brands furniture, eyewear, luggage, fragrance, a rum made in Barbados by R.L. Seale and an Airstream Resort Edition recreational vehicle. Counting the brand's own business and its wholesale accounts, Wood has put the total footprint at about 1.8 billion dollars. The discipline, he said, is in the refusals.

"In the licensing area it's hard. You say no more times than yes to opportunities that don't meet the expectations of our guests. However, when the right product appears it can open new markets and opportunities," Wood said.

Wood puts everything through the Tommy Bahama lens, he said, before closing a licensing deal, adding that those opportunities need to be vetted for product quality, distribution channels and appropriateness for the brand. "It's been a great way for us to expand the Tommy Bahama lifestyle into more areas; however, we are also very careful not to disappoint our guests," he said.

Leading a brand within a public company

Wood has previously described licensing as uncomfortable because it requires letting go. Asked for a case that was difficult to hand over, he named one that worked: the beach chair, which now sells around two million units a year, according to the US Chamber of Commerce's CO. publication.

"The hardest decision was maybe our most successful. Tommy Bahama Beach Chairs. This has been a very successful product for us; however, we needed to make sure that the quality and design met our standards. We also needed to have a partner that shared a common vision for our guests."

The resort follows a similar licensing model. Under a licensing agreement signed in fiscal 2022, the Miramonte property in Indian Wells, California was converted and relaunched in the third quarter of fiscal 2023. A third-party hospitality company operates the resort, which pays Tommy Bahama royalties calculated as a percentage of its revenue. Wood rejected the idea that the property functions primarily as a marketing vehicle.

"We are a for-profit public company, so we don't do anything because we aren't trying to make money and resorts are no different," he said. "The Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells, CA, took years of effort. We wanted a resort to show how Tommy Bahama can deliver an upscale resort experience in a relaxing way. We are very happy with the performance and the experience we developed and [we're] exploring where we can open our next resort."

From wholesale to direct-to-consumer

Tommy Bahama was a wholesale men's apparel business when Wood arrived and is now overwhelmingly direct-to-consumer. Wood is credited with driving that transition. The hardest part of it? People, systems and structure, he said.

"You really must address the strengths of the people that have been building the company and see if it matches what the needs are going forward," Wood said. "Also, your systems and processes are different. We benefited from an incredible loyal guest that wanted more from the brand than what we were able to deliver through a wholesale experience."

Wood had arrived from outside the industry. He began his career at Boeing's defence and space group and moved to McCaw Cellular and AT&T in 1994 as vice president of operations, joining Tommy Bahama in 2001 for the scope of the role rather than the category.

"This was a chief operating officer job that gave me responsibility for all things operations as well as HR and Technology, that really interested me. The Tommy Bahama founders were visionaries when it came to the wholesale men's apparel market and the idea of learning from them made this opportunity really appealing," he said.

Two years later, Oxford Industries bought the company, and the reporting calendar changed overnight. "Going from a private company one day to a public company the next, changed everything," Wood said. "I took over responsibility for the company's finance group immediately so we could structure budgets and reporting to the needs of Oxford. The importance of meeting fiscal quarter commitments while meeting expected growth plans has driven massive change internally. This was all while Tommy Bahama was in a massive wholesale growth period."

Tommy Bahama is now Oxford's steadiest asset.

Tommy Bahama x Stetson

The newest addition is a collaboration rather than a category: a capsule with Stetson that launched on September 3, covering embroidered denim shirts, printed silk camp shirts, shirtdresses, boots, hats, belts and accessories.

"This is where having a really talented Design and Art department in house is important. The collaboration was their idea, and they really brought our story telling together with Stetson and made it fun and on brand. We have always had a strong men's and women's denim business, and this collab allowed us to bring it closer to Stetson's Western roots," Wood said.

He indicated the collaboration will not be the last. "We are always looking for collaborations that challenge us and our guests to look at us in a new fun way. We aren't ready to announce anything at this time, but I promise there is a new collab just around the corner."

On where the brand goes next, Wood said "the obvious answer is bigger and more profitable, however when you have a lifestyle company like Tommy Bahama you need to think about your guests, products, and people. So, I hope we are able to bring more people into our brand while expanding our product mix."