Love and Scout

For those who are not fashionistas, the name Scout rings few bells;

but you may be acquainted soon.

Scout is both its own branded clothing line and a fashion retailer. As a clothing line, the brand focuses on the basic outfit, bringing a high affection of design, colours, and art, that results in collections that cast a perspective of how fabulous basic outfits can be. As a seller Scout offers more than 200 labels and brands, including Adidas®, North Face®, Nike®, New Balance®, and on. What brands are offered vary from city to city, ensuring that the offering is most suited to local clientele.

Scout was founded in 2010 by Emilia Romagna, with an eye to creating simple, good quality products. The Emilian company has more than 400 stores across Italy.

“We are best known for making basic, solid-color cotton t-shirts,” says Simona, a manager in one the Rome stores. “But in recent years we have expanded to include vintage clothing, dresses, pants, denim, accessories in various prints and colors, socks, leg warmers, boho scarves and lace headbands, as well as fancy T-shirts and bycicles.”

An important part of the Scout clothing brand is actually unbranded: simple articles of clothing, such as solid color t-shirts or hoodies, selling a narrow range of basic t-shirts and jeans that are high quality but much cheaper than many of its competitors. Scout has created a template and provided some cues, but has left it up to people to define the brand in their own terms. This approach is attractive the brand can be molded and shaped, plugging a gap in the market with a desirable product: high-fashion clothing for middle-class urban guys and girls.

Without a huge advertising budget, Scout chose to promote using social media and trends, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and the direct word-of-mouth. This actually worked in line with Scout’s target audience. “We reach out to customers, asking them what they want. Our brand is young and our target goes from thirteen to twenty-six. It all comes down to photography and the way you style your items,” Simona says.

While it might seem frivolous and uncontrolled, Scout is about adopting a certain style, which certainly isn’t random. “In today’s fashion world, a branded dress from a mass manufacturing brand is often seen as dull and boring. These mass production clothing lines do not give you an opportunity to show your fashion sense, your artistic outlook and your vivid sense of fashion. Here is different. It’s important to have a certain personality and iconic design that runs through the pieces,” says Roberto, manager of another Rome store.

During our visits to the two Rome locations, a customer of the Via Tomacelli store explained, “Scout people choose a product based on their own preferences and research rather than on what’s proclaimed as being cool. Many brands could learn a lot from Scout in how to let the customer into play and shape.”

The Scout originality that translates catwalk styles into high-street products is the key to its success. In addition, the model stays on the shop floor for a limited period, which encourages Scout fans to make repeat visits.

“We cater to a broad range of profiles: someone who is is super-busy and doesn’t have time to shop but is excited to have fresh clothes. We also have the working gal profile, she’s more like twenty-eight. We have a lot of high school students too,” Roberto continues.