Meet the Member: Pennington & Bailes

Pennington & Bailes is an online retailer for high-end collegiate apparel. Recently, the company  relaunched its website and it was all done from the Cooperative Venture Workspace.

From their arrival in June as members of the Workspace, general manager Kristianna Purington, office administrator Danielle King, and consultant George Kiesewetter have worked collaboratively to get the launch off the ground.

The apparel offered at Pennington & Bailes feeds a passion of collegiate sports, particularly football, among colleges and universities and their alumni throughout the southeastern portion of the United States.

“Football is a religion there,” said George. “The passion they have for football and the rivalries they have are big time.”

The Pennington & Bailes history starts in 2005 when it was created in Gainesville, Florida — home of the University of Florida Gators — and had three sales components: A retail outlet store in Gainesville, a number of wholesale accounts through other retailers, and online.

“My family became involved in the company in 2012, and recently we became the sole owners,” said Kristianna. “We’re from the Manchester area, so we moved the business end to Portsmouth.”

Kristianna and Danielle are graduates of the University of New Hampshire; George is a Boston College grad, rivals in their own right in Division I hockey.

Distribution is still handled out of the Gainesville warehouse, and the decision was made to focus solely on online sales. “We are exclusively an online retailer now,” said George. The company is licensed with about 30 schools, and we’re not talking logos on beer mugs or replica jerseys.

“You can buy a t-shirt or jersey for your team just about anywhere,” says the company. “The same can’t be said for finely embroidered stadium pants, an immaculate fitting polo or a button-down with the perfect team colors. We make our clothes for fans who care – because we care. We care about fit, we care about style and we care about authenticity.”

Sales transactions, marketing and inventory are coordinated by Kristianna, Danielle, and George. As full-time members, the Workspace provides them with a stimulating community of other entrepreneurs. In addition to comfortable workstations, reliable high-speed network connectivity, telephone service, the team accesses conference rooms for presentations and meetings, all in the bustling entrepreneurial and cultural center of downtown Portsmouth, N.H.

“We’re too small for our own office, so this provided us with everything we needed,” said Kristianna. “The location is amazing,” Danielle added.

The Pennington & Bailes team was also appreciate of the encouragement and assistance they’ve received from Emma Partridge, the Workspace’s member relations coordinator, and Workspace general manager Scott Blidberg.