Madhappy will open its first store outside the US in Tokyo later this month, kicking off an international expansion plan that is expected to see the sweats brand add 8-10 new flagships across North America, Europe and Asia over the next two years.
The store openings are part of an ambitious effort to scale the brand, which was founded in 2017 and built off an offering of heavyweight hoodies, sweatpants, and T-shirts that promoted optimism.
Also coming soon is the brand’s first luxury collaboration, a sweats-heavy, 15-piece capsule with the Italian luxury label Marni, where all net proceeds will go towards mental health initiatives, that releases on Friday.
The Tokyo flagship, which opens on Oct. 18, is just the start of an ambitious expansion that will see the Los Angeles-based brand enter new categories and markets, co-founder Noah Raf told The Business of Fashion.
“Retail in general is something that is working quite well for the brand,” said Raf, whose business currently operates two flagship stores in Los Angeles and New York along with complementary “Pantry” cafes plus seasonal pop-ups throughout the United States. “It differentiates the brand from others that are selling T-shirts, hoodies, and products adjacent to ours.”
Raf said that since the millennial-founded brand raised $1.8 million in a seed round that was led by an investment from LVMH Luxury Ventures in 2019, the brand hasn’t needed to raise additional funds and that Madhappy has been growing at a steady rate. While Raf declined to provide revenue figures, the brand shared that Madhappy has seen 65 percent year-over-year growth so far in 2025.
“We have always built the business at its own pace. That’s by making sure that we grow the business in a way that feels appropriate for our brand and us internally,” said Raf.
Currently, what that looks like for the brand is offering easy-to-wear apparel in new categories that go beyond heavyweight fleece sweats with a soft feel, which Madhappy initially built its fanbase on. This year, Raf said the brand has begun offering its fleece sweats and jersey T-shirts in lightweight and midweight fabrications to make them more attractive for year-round wear. Additionally, the brand’s been finding success offering products that feel complementary to casual basics such as knitwear.
“Each year we’re slowly introducing the right categories and seeing how the customers respond to it,” said Raf. “Knitwear has been a great success for us and we’re going to continue developing that along with fleece.”
Raf said Madhappy also tests new product categories by collaborating with “best in class” brands. Instead of pursuing “flash in the pan” collaborations, Raf said Madhappy seeks out potentially recurring partnerships that can create specialized products Madhappy can’t produce like the fleece apparel it manufactures in Los Angeles—such as technical outwear produced with the heritage skiwear label Spyder. Its collaboration with Marni marks the first time the label’s releasing products like an Italian-made blanket for a luxury price point.
“We definitely are going to continue to see where the partnership can go and look forward to the possibilities of what that might look like,” said Raf.
Granted that luxury has fallen out of love with streetwear in recent years, brands that specialise in crafting sweats have persevered and seen financial success even after the pandemic’s sweatsuit boom. In 2023, Vogue reported that annual revenue for Jerry Lorenzo’s luxury menswear label Fear of God sat around $200-300 million and that its Essentials line of basics with Pacsun was its biggest revenue driver. Denim Tears, another nascent label that’s built a sizeable business largely off trendy sweatsuits, recently told BoF that it’s making “tens of millions” in revenue and also plans to open several brick and mortar stores globally.
“There’s just so much room to grow within jersey and fleece [apparel] alone,” said Raf. “There’s so many ways to make it fresh that I feel like we haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of how big we can grow the fleece business.”
Yet what Raf believes distinguishes Madhappy beyond offering fleece sweats in unique washes or fabrications is the label’s commitment to its core message of promoting optimism and mental health. Values-based messaging is key to building genuine brand communities and also resonates particularly with Gen-Z consumers who lean into brands that align with their own values. Raf said that 60 percent of Madhappy’s customers are women between the ages of 18 to 30, who he believes embraced the brand because they resonate with Madhappy’s emphasis on emotional vulnerability, optimism, and mental wellness.
“Its a little bit different than other businesses in our space, where we see a lot of heavy male-leaning brands,” said Raf. “So having a stronger women customer has been very exciting for us.”
