Nasty Gal laying off 10% of staff

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Feb 5, 2016

In a move described by CEO Sheree Waterson as a “strategic restructuring,” the LA based start up Nasty Gal will be letting go about 10% of its current staff.

Nasty Gal originated as an eBay store started by entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso in 2006 who would sell her vintage clothing, and grew to become the $100 million empire it is today that sells private label. It has ventured into real lines and designer collaborations such as its recent Courtney Love inspired line of this season.

This is Nasty Gal’s second reorg, the first major reorg being 2 years ago in 2014 when another 10% of the staff was cut. This was the same year that Nasty Gal had raised $16 million in capital, bringing its total capital to $65 million.

While Nasty Gal had great growth initially, it is now facing competition from both startups and mainstream eComm retailers now that were not so big ten years ago. H&M and Zara were not playing in the eComm sphere as aggressively when Nasty Gal started.

The final piece of the puzzle on the “strategic restructuring” is Nasty Gal’s retail brick and mortar strategy. Currently the brand has 2 locations in the LA area, and seems to be unsure of what to do with its physical presence. Conversely however, ModCloth, which had a similar start to Nasty Gal as an affordable vintage eComm reseller, began creating IRL “In Real Life” pop up shop experiences and is currently considering a larger expansion in the brick and mortar arena.