The 31-year-old founder of women’s activewear brand Outdoor Voices, Tyler Haney, is stepping down as CEO. The company will bring in Cliff Moskowitz, the president of a New York-based investment group called InterLuxe, to serve as interim CEO.
Outdoor Voices confirmed Haney’s departure to Forbes in a statement on Friday afternoon, saying “as we look to grow and to scale, Tyler Haney has transitioned from her role as chief executive of Outdoor Voices to a new position as founder.” The news was first reported by Business of Fashion.
The Austin-based company said that Haney will remain on the board of directors and will assist with its CEO search. Outdoor Voices’ interim CEO comes from a firm that specializes in helping fashion and luxury brands accelerate growth by lending capital, strategic guidance and other resources, according to the firm’s site. Outdoor Voices also said it has raised another round of financing from its current investor group “to support our growth and expansion moving forward.”
Outdoor Voices investors and board members did not respond to requests for comment.
Haney founded Outdoor Voices in 2012, and the brand grew popular among millennial women for its brightly-colored leggings, tops and other activewear, and its success propelled Haney to the ranks of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2016. But in the last year, Outdoor Voices’ fortunes took a turn.
The company reportedly struggled to raise more funding at the end of last year and was losing around $2 million a month in 2019, with annual sales of around $40 million, according to the Business of Fashion report. Outdoor Voices has also seen turnover in its management ranks. Last summer, chief operating officer Pamela Catlett, who had joined Outdoor Voices after stints at both Nike and Under Armour, quietly left the company, according to her LinkedIn page. Former J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler became chairman of its board in 2017 but stepped from this role in mid-2019, according to the report.
Haney had her first child, Sunny, at the end of last year. She spent the holidays with her young family, but on February 13 posted a photo to Instagram from Outdoor Voices headquarters in Austin. The caption read: “Designing things with Team OV!”
Haney, who ran cross country and played basketball in high school and then received a degree from New York’s Parsons School of Design, had originally struggled to raise money for her company. She met with some 70 investors, all of whom turned her down. Outdoor Voices eventually went on to raise $67 million in funding from investors including General Catalyst, Forerunner Ventures, Collaborative Fund and Gwyneth Paltrow, according to data from startup tracker PitchBook. “I don’t have experience on my side, but I have persistence,” Haney told Forbes in 2016.
Haney pitched the company to investors as an approachable activewear company that made apparel for everyday activities like walking the dog or going on a jog. “I think the space is intriguing to big investors, looking at the Lululemons of the world, and how they were able to kind of bust through this more macho, traditionally competitive activewear scene,” Haney said at the time. “They saw me, this up and comer, addressing a pain point with an entire generation.”
—with reporting by Alex Konrad
Disclosure: Forbes has a small investment in Outdoor Voices.
