Nau is dead. What does this mean for the “green style” market?

Wow. Nau, darling of the green apparel sector (judging by the torrent of media coverage since its launch about a year ago - WWD, Coolhunting, etc), is dead. This, according to one of my favorite marketing/brand blogs, murketing.com. A quick visit to Nau’s website confirms the news.

I first heard of Nau when one of the founders made an presentation at the Lohas 12 conference one year ago. Lots of pizzazz. Very impressive. Attendees couldn’t get enough. One year later, with dream-team management, tons of buzz and a large chunk of capital raised ($20mm? $40mm?), they’re gone.

What happened?

We’ll find out soon enough; in the meantime, here’s management’s take (an excerpt from a note on the company’s home page titled “Goodbye for Nau”):

“In the current highly risk-averse capital market, we simply could not raise the necessary funds to continue to move forward. We believe this is not so much a reflection of the viability of our business, but there is also an unfortunate confluence of events.”

Assuming this is the reason for Nau’s demise, I wonder, was it the working capital? Did they layer on too many fixed expenses? Roll out a flawed retail model? Or, simply, did sales come in waaay below plan (if so, I would be curious to know why)? Hard to say right now…

What I can say is this: it’s easy to let the buzz get to your head if you’re a darling little brand in a hot new market. Startups that get lulled into this mode of thinking are severely challenged when (not if) things don’t go according to plan. (Btw, did any of the Nau crew have start-up experience?)

Stepping back, Nau’s demise is just a blip in the grand retail scheme. But it could mark the beginning of an exceptionally tough period for new, unproven brands in the “green style” space, even those with capable management teams, good product and robust funding out the gate.