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Paige Mycoskie (Photo by Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

But don’t let her laid-back look and flippant tone fool you. At 42, Mikoski has gone from sewing T-shirts on the kitchen table (in Venice Beach 16 years ago) to running one of the country’s most popular fashion brands, especially famous among TikTokers. Known for emoji sweatpants ($160) and rainbow-striped zip-up sweatshirts ($190), Aviator Nation has surged in popularity during the pandemic, with teens and 20s alike swapping out designer jeans for tracksuits.

The company increased its sales from $70 million in 2020 to $110 million in 2021 and expects that figure to at least double by 2023. Its gross margin is estimated at over 70%. Aviator Nation, still headquartered in Los Angeles, has been so successful that Mikoski, who owns 100% of the shares, paid herself a $47.5 million dividend last year for the first time in her life. Forbes estimates her a fortune of $ 350 million, although Mikosky herself claims that the figure should be at least twice as much. She just bought her ninth property, a $15 million lakefront home in Austin, to complement homes in Malibu and Venice Beach, two Marina del Rey beachfronts, and a ski chalet in Aspen.

Much of its financial success was due to the fact that it did not attract outside investment, but relied on loans from various banks, including Wells Fargo and Frost Bank – $8,000 in 2006, $35,000 in 2007, $100,000 in 2009 – developing the business in the early stages. “If I took money from someone, I would owe something to someone, and it would be out of my control. I would not feel the freedom that I feel now when I create what I create, says Mikoski. “You can’t unleash your creativity when you’re under pressure.”

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Mikoski designs each piece of Aviator Nation clothing herself. “I used to hire design assistants…but I never liked it,” she says. The garments are hand-sewn at the company’s Huntington Park factory, with six signature stripes sewn on one after the other. Seamstresses are paid a minimum of $17 an hour. Local production has allowed Aviator Nation to almost completely insulate itself from the supply chain crisis that has disrupted many competitors.

But the prices of Aviator Nation are surprising: here you will pay three times what you would pay for a pair of adidas pants. Alixandra Barash, assistant professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, says the brand’s success is partly due to its incredible pricing. “From the point of view of those people who can afford it, it gives them the opportunity to subtly demonstrate their wealth and other values, like, ‘I lead a quiet life,’” she says. The models on the site—predominantly white, tall, and very fit—exhibit the same understated sporty style of surfers.

Mikosky attributes his prices to the high quality of the fabrics, the complexity of the hand-sewn pieces (most clothing companies use computer technology), and the unique ability to manufacture everything in the USA.

Blake and Paige Mycoskie, then aged 25 and 22, traveled around New Zealand and jumped off Sugarloaf Mountain in Brazil in the second season of The Amazing Race. They finished 3rd out of 11 teams. (Photo by DR)

Despite skyrocketing sales, Mykoski sticks to his business plan. She saw an alternative. Her older brother, Blake, 45, founded the Toms shoe company the same year it launched Aviator Nation in 2006 (coincidentally, they even came up with their business ideas on the same day; Paige also designed the Toms logo). For every pair of shoes sold, Toms donated another one to charity, which quickly made the company a success. In 2014, Bain Capital paid Blake $300 million for a 50% stake. But the novelty soon passed, and attempts to diversify the business failed – and in 2019Toms went to the creditors along with Blake’s share. He left the company the same year. The flagship store near Page’s Point on Abbott Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach closed in January, but the company is still in business.

“Despite the fact that we started our business at the same time and despite the fact that we are brother and sister, she did it all herself,” says Blake, who now lives in Costa Rica, taking a break from “entrepreneurial circles” and devoting time to family . “When your business reaches the size of hers, everyone starts saying: “Hire such and such managers, attract such and such investors … But she remains true to her vision and her instincts … I should do the same at Toms.”

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American success story

Despite the demonstrative connection with California, Mikoski is actually from Texas. She grew up in Arlington near Dallas in a family that loved sports and creativity. Her mother, a former aerobics teacher, wrote cookbooks about healthy eating. My father was a doctor for the Texas Rangers baseball team in the 1980s and early 1990s.

It wasn’t until she was 22 that Mycoskie finally made it to California after participating with Blake in the second season of The Amazing Race. It was a CBS action-adventure reality show in which players travel around the world and compete in wacky tasks like looking for a tree in Rio de Janeiro called “Fat Maria” or operating a truck crane in Hong Kong – all for a prize. at $1 million. The “Most American” brother-sister duo, as they were called, took third place and went on a press tour in Los Angeles.

Then Mikoski fell in love. “I will never forget how I went to the beach and saw people roller-skating, cycling, throwing frisbees, playing volleyball, surfing, and I thought: “God, this is a dream,” she recalls. She dropped out of the University of Arizona just a semester short of completing her journalism degree and moved to Hollywood, where she began helping CBS with casting for The Last Hero, another famous reality show.

Skating in the morning before work and looking after the houses of film producers while they are away – Mikoski’s life seemed like a twenty-year-old dream. However, at some point she herself experienced frustration from the fact that she abandoned her children’s creative hobbies. So she quit her glamorous job and took up photography, combining shooting weddings and documents with a part-time job at her family’s surf shop in Venice Beach. It was there, typing order data into a computer, that she discovered she loved retail.

With $200 donated by her grandparents, she bought a sewing machine and used instructional DVDs to learn how to sew second-hand shirts. Because she had no formal training, her products were simple. She cut individual strips and sewed them onto the fabric, a technique still found on most Aviator Nation products. Despite their simplicity, Mikoski’s clothes evoked reactions from those around him. “I went to the grocery store, and people asked: “What are you wearing?” After just a week, I realized: “I need to sell this.”

Her parents weren’t surprised: they said that as a child Paige was always looking for ways to make money. She sold lemonade at the local golf course (and earned hundreds of dollars a day), then she sold homemade baubles. “She really enjoyed trading,” says her mother, Pam Mycoskie.

Young Paige’s first attempt to monetize the fledgling brand Aviator Nation (named after the cool and classic sunglasses worn by Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun) was wildly successful. In September 2006, after months of sewing in the kitchen and dyeing fabrics on the stove for months, Mikoski rented a booth at the Venice Beach Street Fair for $500, sold out her inventory, and made $8,000 in a day. And then immediately quit her job at the store.

By 2009, with her products selling well in local shops and industry shows, she began looking for a location for her first outlet and found the perfect location on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, now Venice Beach’s most popular street. The building’s owners, Walter and Patt Mehring, were almost done with another tenant, but Mykoski persuaded them to give her a chance. Walter recalls how, after her speech, his wife turned to him and said, “There’s something special about this girl.” “It convinced me. We continued negotiations with her and never regretted it.” In April of this year, the couple sold the building to Mikosky for $5 million. “This is one of the truly American success stories,” says Walter.

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Pandemic growth

When the pandemic hit in 2020, Mykoski panicked. It opened six new stores in the previous year, doubling the number of Aviator Nation outlets. The day after the last one opened, at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, she got a call from a store manager in Aspen: everything was closing.

Her next move was instinctive. “I called the head of the online trading department and said that over the next day we should earn as much as possible,” recalls Mikoski. With stores closed and work at the factory suspended, she realized that she would soon be unable to pay her nearly 300 employees, many of whom had worked for her for years.

All stock from the new stores has been moved online, and a rare discount (20% off everything) has been sent to anyone who has ever contacted Aviator Nation, with profits going to employees. On the day of the sale, the store earned $1.4 million online, despite only $30,000 the day before. factory – initially for sewing protective masks). She credits this decision as the main reason behind Aviator Nation’s recent growth. “All these items were sold, and it was like a giant word of mouth because people were sitting at home and posting pictures of our stuff out of boredom,” she says. “I really think it was incredible.”

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As you might expect, Mikosky claims that her company has no direct competitors (“We’re kind of in our own world”), but in fact, many other companies make luxury sportswear. Streetwear brand Supreme sells sweatshirts for over $150, while LA-based FREECITY, founded in 2001, specializes in handmade and locally made sweatpants that sell for $250.

“It’s a very competitive market, and one where everyone copies everyone else,” says David Schwartz, retail analyst at Morningstar. “Many people create online brands, and most of them fail.”

In addition to fighting for a place in an industry renowned for its volatility, the Aviator Nation has faced design challenges with adidas suing over the use of three stripes. The companies entered into a settlement in 2012 for an undisclosed amount, but adidas, known for its love of litigation, continued to claim that Aviator Nation was infringing trademark rights until 2019. In addition, Mikoski’s company has drawn ire from Native American groups who have accused the brand of cultural appropriation by using their traditional patterns in its products and by decorating its booth in the form of a wigwam at music festivals like Austin City Limits. “We love and respect American Indian culture. I have many friends and employees who are connected with the Indian culture, and my goal remains not only to respect these cultures, but also to give them their due, ”Mikoski replies.

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Thanks to the huge cash flow and the lack of debt, Mycoskie is now able to expand. Coming soon, Aviator Nation will be showing shoes, sunglasses and homewares, including towels, which will be available this summer, as well as tennis and golf equipment. “I want to be seen as more of a lifestyle brand than a clothing store,” Mikoski says. “I would be happy if, when someone goes on vacation, all the luggage consisted of Aviator Nation goods.