Trend toward casual office wear nearly claims another Minneapolis business

The rise of casual wear and remote work nearly claimed another victim this month.

After 49 years, the Minneapolis-based and custom clothier Top Shelf sold its building on Lyndale Avenue S. and is consolidating ranks with another tailor across town at a much smaller site.

The casualization of America "has changed the landscape for the type of highly tailored, investment-grade custom clothing that we have always aspired to be the best at." said 71-year-old John Meegan, who owns the company with his wife, Pat. "Today, special events are what keeps the doors open, and although people still want to own some good suits, they have much less occasion to get dressed up."

Two weeks ago, the Meegans informed customers they were taking a hiatus effective Jan. 30 and would eventually decide next steps. In the meantime, they are clearing out their building and referring tailoring orders to alteration firms in Hopkins and Minneapolis.

The swirl of changes affecting Top Shelf is hitting the entire industry, other custom suit sellers say.

Statistica reports the custom suit industry generated about $18 billion in global sales last year, about the same as in 2018. Sales are expected to grow only 1% between now and 2030.

But achieving even that meager growth is harder these days.

In Minneapolis, the Hubert White men's clothing store closed in 2023 after a 50-year run. Ribnick Luxury Outerwear sold its building and shut its doors at the beginning of 2022 after 76 years.

CircleRock House of Style opened with much aplomb in Linden Hills in 2018. By February 2020, it had merged with Faribault Woolen Mills and soon closed its store.

Even ready-made, high-end business clothiers such as Mark Shale, Polo Ralph Lauren, Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus are having to change with the casual shift. Men's Wearhouse and Joseph A. Banks filed for bankruptcy in 2020 and shut 500 stores nationwide, including a few sites in Minnesota.

Meegan said Top Shelf's future seemed fragile. COVID-19 and popular work-from-home trends simply accelerated casualwear trends.

"Lululemon ruled during the pandemic," Meegan lamented.

Today, comfy, stretchy athletic wear is all the rage, even in once formal office settings. Sweaters and fleece have replaced suits and sports jackets.

Meegan said he does not want to think about the people wearing sandals in offices or airports. "Keep your socks on your feet. Don't make people look at your toes," he said. "All decorum has gone."

To adjust with the times, Top Shelf has dabbled in making luxury custom jeans with imported Italian fabric that run $450 a pair. But they turned out to only be a smidgen of sales.

Half of his customers are under 40 years old, so "suits are down, but not out," he said. Professionals are still spending $2,000 to $3,000 for a custom suit, he said, but they aren't buying as many suits as their grandparents and not as often.

That dwindling business — and a bit of luck — has him downsizing instead of closing. Daniel Stensgaard, who owns Daniel's Custom Clothing in the North Loop, heard the news about Top Shelf closing and contacted the Meegans.

"I said, 'Bring [your company] under my roof. You can keep your brand'" and company, Stensgaard said. "We were giddy. I have always respected John."

Meegan was thrilled at the chance to keep Top Shelf going and serving his customers. "I'm making [suits] as good as I ever have in my life," Meegan said. "I love what I do."

He will relocate Top Shelf to the Daniel's site at 333 Washington Av. N. on Jan. 30. Pat Meegan will retire. Some employees also will not make the move.

By moving, "I will be able to keep the Top Shelf brand alive and all the file cabinets that we have with thousands of customers," Meegan said. "I have always had a large cadre of corporate executives from the Fortune 500s," such U.S. Bank and Ecolab, and Cargill.

Meegan is confident that a well-tailored suit will come back in vogue as regular attire in corporate offices. They give clients confidence when they are negotiating million-dollar deals, he says.

"People will start to dress. Not because you put a gun to their head and say, 'You must wear a suit.' Instead, they do it because they like it. They do it because it feels different and it feels good," Meegan said.

Twin brothers Kenny and Danny King said custom clothiers determined to stick it out could see a bump in business. Their King Brothers Clothiers in northeast Minneapolis has grown during the past couple of years as others stopped making suits.

"We just doubled down. We didn't dilute. We didn't lean into a lot of the casual culture," Kenny King said.

When the pandemic hit, the Kings' 700-square-foot store and studio, which operates by appointment only, dumped all discount fabrics from their inventory and focused on luxury. They raised prices and started making suits with only the highest quality wool from fabric mills in Italy and England.

Now that men no longer wear suits every day, they may spend more on the suits they do buy for special events or meetings, Kenny King said.

Today, a King Brothers suit costs $2,000 to $6,000. Revenue has tripled since 2019, he said, with total sales jumping 20% last year even as the store's volume fell 10%.

"We're focused primarily on a specific clientele who want to make that investment in themselves," Kenny King said. "There are fewer of them out there. But when you hit? … You don't need all the volume all the time."

When J.H. & Sons opened a year ago in the Galleria in Edina, former Hubert White salesman Kevin Luedke became general manager. Two other Hubert White employees also came to work there.

Former Hubert White customers followed them, and Luedke said "sales are healthy." J.H.'s inventory features Italian suit brands Canali, Brioni and Kiton, as well as occasional custom suits for weddings and events.

"Suits are still being worn by attorneys in courtrooms and by doctors at the Mayo Clinic," said Chuck Simpkins, who spent 37 years at Hubert White before it closed and is now at J.H. "But the tailored business is definitely being more driven by events [like] weddings and galas. It's not a day-to-day kind of tailored world anymore."

That means casual wear also must be in the mix, he said.

But he also agrees with Meegan that he's seeing an uptick in professionals wearing sports coats at the office. Some of the younger ones are even starting to wear ties, he said.

"To them, it's kind of cool," Simpkins said. "It's like the opposite of what they are supposed to be wearing."