Spending time at the family-operated Not Your Daughter's Jeans corporate office in Vernon is like hanging out in somebody's living room.
The daughters prop their feet on a coffee table, the son scratches his dog and patriarch George Rudes launches into a series of stories about his granddaughter.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday May 05, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
Jeans maker: An article in Wednesday's Business section about family-owned company Not Your Daughter's Jeans described Jeff Rudes as son of patriarch George Rudes. Jeff is George's nephew.
Everybody's laid-back, except maybe Rudes, 77, who is poured into a pair of the company's Tummy Tuck jeans. What can he do? He's crazy about the product, and they make jeans only for women.
By riveting attention on baby boomers who consider hipness a birthright, the company has struck a nerve that others have hammered at and missed. And his family's once-small business is popping out of its seams.
The jeans maker, which launched in 2003, expects sales of at least $55 million this year, said Rudes, a garment industry veteran whose daughters coaxed him out of retirement to help start the business.
Offering jeans that perform a function -- supposedly flattening the stomach and hoisting the rear -- is a smart strategy, especially in a cooling jeans market, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for NPD Group Inc. Jeans sales slipped 2% last year, the first drop since 2001, he said.
Everything, it seems, has to work harder these days. Even your jeans.
Women wonder: "If I buy a cellphone that does five things, why can't I buy a pair of pants that make me look slimmer and trimmer and sexier?" Cohen said. "The consumer is just waiting for a success story to emerge."
Mary Newton was hunting for a "younger look in an older pant," when she discovered a particularly snazzy pair of black Tummy Tuck jeans trimmed with amber rhinestones.
"I'm beyond just plain jeans," said the 57-year-old Huntington Beach resident, who was shopping recently at the Grove in Los Angeles. "You want to be hip."
But Ardy Paulsen, 60, isn't buying. The mortgage broker from Graeagle, Calif., tried on a pair of the Tummy Tucks -- which sell for $88 to $99 -- and didn't like them.
"They were so clingy, and so this showed," Paulsen said, clutching her stomach. "And they pushed things where they don't belong."
It's not easy to please baby boomers, a massive group of consumers who are both picky and quick to spend. San Francisco-based Gap Inc. recently gave up on its boomer concept Forth & Towne. Still, many companies are dueling for them, including department stores and specialty chains such as J. Crew, Chico's and J. Jill.
