Ian Murray: Nantucket Store Outsold Martha's Vineyard 2 to 1 at Launch
Ian Murray · Shep and Ian Murray: Vineyard Vines. A Stale Product Transforms into a Lifestyle Brand. · Apr 27, 2026 · at 28:10
Vineyard Vines co-founder Ian Murray discusses expanding tie distribution to Nantucket stores via Murray's Toggery Shop in 1998.
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“And what we found like almost immediately is that Nantucket was selling like two X what we were selling on Martha's vineyard.”
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More from Ian Murray
Ian Murray: Giving entrepreneurs capital ensures they spend rather than produce
“One, if you give an entrepreneur money, they're going to spend it. There's no doubt if somebody gives a bunch of money, we'd find a way to spend it. But when you don't give them any, and they're hungry, you figure out a way to make it.”
Ian Murray: Vineyard Vines was funded via credit card cash advances
“So we financed the business with credit card cash advance checks that we wrote to ourselves. So while we still had our incomes, we signed up for like four or five different credit cards while we had credit.”
Ian Murray: Vineyard Vines targeted gap between $100 luxury and novelty ties
“We found that that was a price point over a hundred dollars. We found that you could get novelty ties that sort of had the same sort of motifs, but they were like 25 to 30 dollars. And we saw an opportunity to do something right in the middle.”
Ian Murray: Neckties offer high margins, zero sizing, and low retail footprint
“Ties have very good profit margins. And it's, and they have no sizing, and they take up very little space in retailers.”
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“And that night, that little clip was on every major news network on the Six 30 News nationwide.”
Vineyard Vines neckties cost $12 to $13 each to manufacture early on
“So the ties, I mean, just the cost of the tie itself, the physical tie and the components was probably somewhere around 12, 13 dollars, something like that. And we didn't realize it at the time, but it was a very high profit margin product.”