Dive Brief:
- Actor Mark Wahlberg’s Municipal performance-driven clothing brand has opened its first permanent brick-and-mortar location at 8609 Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood, California, according to details emailed to Retail Dive.
- The Municipal Pro Shop, which spans more than 1,000 square feet, comes after the brand ran a seven-month pop-up shop in New York City’s Hudson Yards.
- The Municipal Pro Shop is designed to have the feel of a sports club. It showcases the brand’s collection of performance apparel and footwear for men and women and takes its inspiration from tennis, golf and pickleball. In addition to the Municipal label, the store features apparel and accessories from emerging brands in the Los Angeles market, including Les Monts eyewear, LAB Putters and Sub 70 golf, per the company.
Dive Insight:
The West Hollywood store marks the first permanent location since the active lifestyle company was founded in 2020 by Wahlberg, Harry Arnett and Stephen Levinson.
Municipal is planning to open a second 6,000-square-foot retail store in Carlsbad, California, in September, per a company spokesperson. It will feature a coffee shop, barber shop and lounge. More stores are on the drawing board for Las Vegas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Boston and New York.
Visitors to the West Hollywood Municipal Pro Shop will find indoor putting mats and a lounge patterned after resting stations on a golf course. Shoppers will also be offered complimentary snacks and beverages from local eatery, Urth Caffe.
Municipal has recently partnered with several high-profile professional athletes who serve as ambassadors for the brand. Among them are Myles Garrett, All-Pro defensive end for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns who joined the company as an equity stakeholder in 2023. Other sports influencers to partner with Municipal include Detroit Lions quarterback Hendon Hooker and linebacker Matthew Judon of the New England Patriots.
Celebrity-backed brands offer companies a way to reach massive audiences through their followers. As social media has become a dominant avenue for brands to advertise products, having a celebrity endorsement serves to increase awareness and credibility among consumers who follow that influencer.
A report last year by JLL found that celebrity-backed retail brands have opened over 300,000 square feet of space in the past decade. The report also found that Los Angeles was the top destination for celebrity-backed brands to open their first permanent location.
Other celebrities who have recently backed new brands include Beyoncé, who launched the hair care brand Cécred in February, and Lady Gaga, who expanded her Haus Labs by Lady Gaga cosmetics brand with Sephora across 12 countries in Europe after an initial launch in the U.K.
