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    Pursuit Expands with Mobile Truck

    Pursuit opened as pop-up shop in The South Campus Gateway in 2011, offering college-age men an alternative suit shopping experience. Two years later, business is booming with the original location becoming a permanent home along with a soon-to-be-rolling mobile Pursuit truck.

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    “It’s a miniature version of our current retail storefront,” says Founder Nate DeMars. “We can really give them the full experience of buying a suit in that small space.”

    The truck will have a limited number of suits, shirts and ties with the ability for customers to order from the entire Pursuit catalog. The truck is equipped with a fitting room so clients can either be measured for alterations or purchase their suit on-site and take it home.

    Columbus residents can expect to see the truck out and about within the next few weeks.

    “We did it in a way that we hope to make it a year-round experience,” DeMars says. The truck is equipped with both air conditioning and heating, eliminating the seasonality sometimes associated with mobile businesses.

    Once the truck is stocked, the Pursuit team will attend smaller events around town as they get the hang of the new mobile business.

    “Initially we want to do a lot of things locally,” DeMars says. He wants to take the business around Columbus to hit markets that might not make it down to the campus-area store. From Comfest to pulling up to an office building at lunch, the goal is to be flexible enough to serve different purposes when the truck is at different places.

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    DeMars says a mobile trucks was really in the plan from the beginning.

    “The truck we envision is a permanent component of the business model,” he says. A mobile business allows them to better reach their audience of college-age men.

    “The truck is a way to have a presence on other college campuses without having to invest in a brick-and-mortar storefront,” he says. Campuses in smaller cities don’t always have the young professional crowd to round out business when school is not in session. With a mix of college students and young professionals, like in Columbus, Pursuit can justify a store. However a town like Oxford, OH, home to Miami University, would not have the population for a store, but still has an audience that fits.

    The truck will start in Columbus then travel to colleges and universities around Ohio, but DeMars expects that it won’t take them long to grow outside the state.

    If adding a mobile truck to expand the business isn’t sign enough that the Pursuit concept is gaining popularity, the pop-up location has become a permanent brick-and-mortar location. By tapping into the young professional market and building a customer base in Columbus, Pursuit tripled their sales from 2012 to 2013.

    Check out Pursuit’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to track the truck. An interactive website page is also coming soon.

    For more information, visit pursuityourself.com.

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    Susan Post
    Susan Post
    Susan is the editor of The Metropreneur and associate editor of Columbus Underground, and also covers small business and entrepreneurial news and the food scene in Central Ohio.Susan holds a degree in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing from The Ohio State University. She sits on the board of the Central Ohio Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and loves coffee, whiskey, cooking and spending time with friends and family.
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