Goth to guys: hot topic founder markets to men at malls.

N EARLY two decades ago, Orv Madden saw pale, pierced, teenage mall rats wearing ratty clothes, black makeup and plastic accessories--and he was inspired.

Madden opened Hot Topic Inc. in Westminster in 1989, a shop that catered to the goth look. And as the goth fad soared, he quickly developed hundreds of stores. He got out in 2000, after goth had gone the way of the carrier pigeon.

Unlike chain necklaces and studded collars, Madden wasn't ready to retire and be a footnote to a fad.

"It's a sickness," he said. "I guess I'm a startup junkie."

Now 58, Madden is betting big on Generation Y again, but this time with a narrow focus and more grown-up attitude. He launched Metropark in late 2004 in Glendale, with what he calls a music, art and fashion concept. Think strategically-faded jeans, graffiti-style tees--and huge, plasma screens everywhere.

But there's a twist: The needs of male shoppers are front and center.

"I spent a lot of time merchandising to Generation Y when they were teenagers and wondered where they were going," Madden explained. "And I didn't see a lot out there in the mall."

After some research, he realized a number of stores like Lucky Brand Jeans and Bebe were meeting the needs of women shoppers. Young men, whose interest in fashion has grown, were largely ignored, however. So he rolled men's and women's needs into a lifestyle concept.

Metropark is packed with wares from such boutique designers as Joe's Jeans, Monarchy and Triple Five Soul. The live DJ performances and pop and graffiti art for sale are designed to allow moneyed young shoppers to browse and maybe meet someone special.

Growth has been steady in the first two years. Metropark has 24 U.S. retail locations, and Madden plans to have 44 by the end of 2007, at which point he'll consider going public because he may need financing for his plans. He envisions up to 400 stores.

New Lease

Madden has held management positions in retail companies since he earned his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1973, but Hot Topic was the first business that he owned.

It turned out to be great--for awhile. As the goth-look became a craze, Hot Topic eventually boasted 800 retail locations. It went public in 1996 and made Madden a rich man.

But by the time he left the company in 2000, the look had dissipated and the company's stock had plunged to $20, less than half its price at its late-'90s peak. (It's now trading closer to $11.)

After leaving the company, Madden spent a year launching a plus-sized women's chain called Torrid Stores, a division of Hot Topic. Once he had built it up to more than 100 locations, he decided to kick back a bit.

"I took a couple of years off to get the batteries recharged," he said.

So he relaxed at his Pasadena home and worked on his pinot noir vineyards and Packard car collection. But he couldn't stop thinking about the teenagers he'd dressed in the 1990s. They'd be getting out of college, starting to earn money, and he couldn't figure out where they were going to shop.

Madden decided to bring a boutique atmosphere to his stores. He put men's and women's clothing together and added some accessories and gifts as well as some elements that reflected the Gen Y lifestyle, such as music and art.

And, perhaps unexpectedly, he's putting his stores in shopping malls. Getting back to the mall was important for Madden, because that's where he feels most at home.

"I grew up in the mall," Madden said, "and I understand mall economics."

He sees music and art as keys to making his shoppers more comfortable.

"At this age, music is still very important to your life and being able to bring in a live DJ performance may not sound so innovative if you shopped on the street; but in the mall, there's nobody else that does that," he said. Music was also a key component of Hot Topic's success, but art is an addition.

"When you're now in your 20s and starting to branch out in terms of interest, art can be one of those interests," Madden said. "Whether it's visiting galleries or seeing the artistry in clothing design, that really helps appeal to our customers."

Malleable malls

But could Madden's loyalty to the mall be problem? Many malls are in desperate need of a facelift, and young adults aren't always drawn to them.

In fact, when Look-Look Inc.--a research, marketing and trend forecasting agency specializing in youth culture--polled men ages 20 to 35 about where they had recently shopped, 24 percent said vintage or thrift stores, which aren't exactly staples of the typical mall. However, 14 percent had been to medium-sized chain stores and 10 percent had been to department stores, which do tend to be found in the mall. Smaller numbers had shopped online or at boutiques. The most respondents, 34 percent, hadn't shopped.

Sandy Potter of Directives West, a retail consulting firm, said a key to whether Metropark can continue to grow will be whether his hip clientele will go to suburban shopping malls "with a merry-go-round in the middle and a Mrs. Fields cookie shop."

She added, however, that she believed Madden wouldn't put a store in a mall that wasn't cool enough.

Madden admits that drawing his customers to malls is a bit of a challenge. However, he pointed out that he won't put a store in just any mall. Of the approximately 1500 enclosed malls, Metropark could play in up to 400.

His other strategy--appealing to Gen Y men--also is largely untested. Retailers have traditionally targeted women because they shop more.

However, some recent reports indicate that men are spending more time and money shopping and that they've started to view it as a leisure activity, rather than a chore. One report even suggests that males have really arrived as retail targets: an estimated 85 percent of men spend more money than they earn each month.

Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association, believes most of the 25 percent growth in the retail industry over the past five years is due to male shoppers. "Women's closets are full," Metchek said.

His bet on Gen Y--those born between 1977 and 1994--is also looking like a safe bet. Close in size to the Baby Boomer generation (with 73 million, compared to 78 million boomers), Gen-Y shoppers are spending five times the amount boomers did at the same age, with an estimated $200 billion in spending power. Madden is betting those numbers will rise as more Gen-Y teens finish college in the next ten years.

Other L.A. area retailers are seeing the same trends. Forever 21 and M. Fredric have both launched men's concepts and several L.A. boutiques have also followed suit. Robertson Boulevard diva Lisa Kline opened a men's store across from her starlet-packed shop early this year.

Laura Abeyta, owner of Harmonie, just off the boutique drag on Venice's Abbot Kinney Boulevard, has enjoyed success with a homier version of Madden's Metropark. As male shoppers browse, they're handed a Corona, women a mimosa. Abeyta also holds some happy hour parties at the store where the drinks are free and the clothes are all 10 percent off.

"We pour drinks, have a DJ spinning and I think a lot of men come to our happy hour in the hopes of meeting a beautiful woman," she said. "It's a modern way to meet people. There's someone who suits your lifestyle, your sensibility, your income level."

In fact, a big part of the Metropark concept was "to be kind of the social center in mall," Madden said, "where you might meet somebody really neat.

"So the social aspect of the store is something we're really interested in: good music playing, terrific style consultants and an environment you could stop in at and have fun."