Big style online

To attract younger customers, clothes retailer starts social networking site

An employee at the Casual Male XL in Downtown Crossing stocks the shelves. Yesterday, the retailer launched its own social networking site. (Elise Amendola/Associated Press/File 2006)

Casual Male Retail Group Inc. this week launched an online community for fashion-conscious, super-size men who want to know: Does this make me look fat?

The Canton-based retailer's new site, www.BoldXL.com, adds a fashion twist to the MySpace formula and aims to get young men with a 50-inch waist or 6-foot-6 frame to talk fashion - and shop its big-and-tall brands.

By launching the social networking site, the retailer hopes to grab younger customers. Casual Male - the nation's largest chain of men's plus-size clothing with 493 stores and brands that include Rochester Clothing, Casual Male XL, LivingXL, and ShoeXL - said less than 10 percent of its customers are 18 to 24.

"Many young men view Casual Male as a place their fathers shop," said David Levin, Casual Male's president and chief executive. "So we created this online community where they can share fashion tips, and that also offers young-inspired apparel."

Retailers like Casual Male are trying to find new ways to reach customers, who increasingly are being squeezed by record gas prices, rising food costs, a housing crisis, and a weak job market.

Casual Male decided to launch the site where users can divulge shopping tips, discuss favorite looks, trade stories about being big and tall, and eventually post pictures after a survey it conducted of 55,000 existing customers ages 18 to 24 revealed 84 percent belonged to online communities. It also found that young men with larger physiques and taller frames were 50 percent more likely to shop online.

Casual Male hopes to tap into the growing popularity of social networking sites: Facebook and MySpace, once solely used to keep in touch, have evolved into a meeting place for members to job hunt, sell items, and buy products. Facebook has grown to more than 90 million active users and MySpace has 241 million members.

If BoldXL.com can capture a tiny fraction of that audience and turn site visitors into customers, it can become more profitable, said Robb Hecht, an expert on social networking and a media consultant at New York-based IMC Strategy Lab.

"Younger people have grown up with Facebook and blogs," he said. "Fusing a blog with a traditional clothing website will enable them to talk back to the brand and help the company make improvements."

In May, Casual Male said first-quarter net income sank to $96,000, or break-even on a per-share basis, from $1.12 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier, as sales slipped 2.7 percent. Sales at stores open at least a year, a key retail industry measurement, were down 2 percent. The company blamed the slumping economy and overall weakness in men's apparel for the declines.

Levin, the chief executive, said the retailer is hoping the new website will "grow the business even in this difficult retail time."

With its eye-popping lime green and burnt orange layout, the BoldXL website has a playful feel. Funny videos cover the homepage alongside articles that make light of some of the issues larger men face.

One site visitor, Dean, shared an experience of squeezing his 6-foot-4, 400-pound frame into a standard airplane seat. He said he typically pays a fee for seats with five inches of additional legroom, but in one case a flight cancellation forced him to sit by the window in the exit row, which has less room than the premium seats.

"That was dreadfully awful," Dean posted online yesterday. "Talk about feeling like a sardine. The only comical part of the whole thing is finding out what unlucky soul wins the lottery of having to sit next to you . . . and sometimes seeing the look on their face."

In addition, the site offers fashion advice, like Two Ways to Wear Guinness. One of the tips is to purchase a Guinness shirt from the online shopping mall, www.Shop BoldXL.com. In fact, most of the clothing tips link to the site that offers clothing with urban appeal in sizes up to 6XL and a 60-inch waist.

"Customers interested in the clothes the bare-chested model sports on the billboard can now get the look in their size," Levin said.

On a recent trip to Casual Male XL in Dedham, shopper David Guynn of Hyde Park fingered a white Rocawear T-shirt adorned with multicolored stripes. Guynn dropped into the store looking for khakis and a button-up shirt for a wedding, but was drawn to the trendy clothes.

Already a member of more than a half of dozen online communities, the 28-year-old said he would add another to that list, especially if it helps him dress his 230-pound stocky frame.

"I love myself," Guynn, 28, said. "And I want to look like I love myself."

Angel Jennings can be reached at ajennings@globe.com