Solo Brands, the direct-to-consumer maker of outdoor stoves, kayaks, and swimwear, has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after its stock was trading at “‘abnormally low price’ levels,” according to an SEC filing.
The outdoor equipment brand went public in 2021 amid a wave of IPO activity from buzzy DTC brands such as Warby Parker and Allbirds.
- The latter narrowly avoided a similar fate last April, when the NYSE issued a warning to the sustainable footwear brand that it needed to raise its stock price or risk getting booted from the exchange.
The delisting is only the latest setback for Solo Brands. Earlier this month, the brand warned in a 10-K filing that “our financial condition raises substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern.” The warning came on the heels of the company incurring a net loss of $113.4 million in 2024, and an accumulated deficit of $228.8 million. Net sales also fell 8.1% over that period.
In addition to a possible debt restructuring, it’s exploring operational improvements such as a reduction in workforce and the closure of select distribution centers.
Interim President and CEO John Larson told shareholders in March that Solo Brands is executing a turnaround plan to return the company to profitability and growth. While former CEO Chris Metz made similar promises to fix the business around the same time last year, this latest plan entails overhauling its cost structure, marketing approach, and pricing and promotion strategies, as well as creating a “metric-based culture to track performance in real time.”
The emphasis on metrics and feedback marks a refinement of the brand’s marketing strategy, which came under fire in early 2024 after a high-profile brand partnership with rapper Snoop Dogg failed to boost sales. This led to the ouster of then-CEO John Merris—even as the merits of the campaign are still debated in marketing circles.
“Although the Snoop ads created good brand awareness last year, we are working to better position spend to be more efficient and tied to the outcomes that align closer to our goals,” CFO Laura Coffey said in a recent earnings call.
As Larson noted, marketing is “our single biggest line item of expenditure,” raising the stakes for getting the strategy right.
This report was originally published by Retail Brew.
