Stepping Out In Style Gymboree Outfits Kids In Fashionable Clothing

If a new retailer’s wish comes true, Spokane children will become pillars of kiddie couture.

Gymboree, a California-based kids clothier that made its local debut at NorthTown Mall last week, hopes to deck local children in its brightly-colored yet durable fashions. With 250 stores already, Gymboree’s retail division is on a nationwide expansion blitz that will add 60 stores in 1995.

“They’ve been successful everywhere they’ve gone,” said Ronald Rotter, who tracks Gymboree for The Seidler Companies. “Nicer, high-quality children’s fashions is an underserved market, so they’ve done well in a relatively short time.”

The 9-year-old retail division went public two years ago and its stock price has risen from $10 a share to about $29, adjusted for a 2-for-1 split 11 months ago. In 1994, Gymboree added a direct-mail catalog and 57 stores.

Spokane and Gymboree were a natural fit, said Northwest district manager Michelle Hodges. NorthTown - already home to GapKids, babyGap and the children’s apparel sections of its anchor tenants - already had customers interested in newborn and children’s apparel.

Gymboree’s retail division designs and manufactures brightly-colored separates based on a “matchmatics” formula that lets parents create numerous ensembles from two or three outfits. The company features 38 new designs this year for newborns to 7-year-olds.

Gymboree’s 19-year-old play program division has become the worldwide leader in parent/child play centers, with more than 300 locations. The owner of Spokane’s center, which opened in 1992, said the new retail store will help promote the play program and vice-versa.

“We’re a mutually beneficial partnership,” said Debbie Phillips, owner and manager of the Gymboree play center in Lincoln Heights. A video at the retail store features kids frolicking at the play center, while play center employees pass out coupons offering 20 percent off Gymboree clothes.

Phillips said Gymboree’s play equipment is safer than traditional school playground equipment, which is made for children ages 5 and up. Also, she said, playgrounds don’t facilitate socialization.

“A playground has an element of anonymity,” Phillips said. “At Gymboree, it’s more of a classroom atmosphere where the parents and children all know each other.”

Gymboree’s best known play center competitor, Discovery Zone, pulled out of Spokane in January when its Valley franchise closed.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo