Los Angeles-based Lane Seven Apparel, a supplier and manufacturer of blank apparel, announces its expansion to the East Coast with a new warehouse.

The new 65,000-square-foot facility in Gastonia, North Carolina, is just outside Charlotte. It will allow Lane Seven Apparel to serve the East Coast better with more inventory, faster turnaround times, and two- to three-day shipping.

Asking about space specifics, Lane Seven Chief Operating Officer Talha Sarsiwala tells Apparelist:

“It’s a brand new building so we are really getting to break it in, we took full advantage of our experience at Lane Seven’s HQ in Los Angeles to inform how we implemented the infrastructure and operations. It has energy-efficient lightening and HVAC systems, which reduces the impact on [the] environment and overall operational costs. As a company, we are really working to reduce our overall environmental impact wherever we can, so these features were an incentive for us.”

Lane Seven Apparel’s Continued Growth Strategy

“This warehouse is a significant investment in our company’s growth and underscores our commitment to meeting the needs of our expanding customer base,” Sarsiwala says. “Our goal is to provide customers across the country with what they need when they need it — the widest and deepest inventory with the best accessibility in reliable transit times.”

Sarsiwala adds that an expansion has been in talks since before COVID-19, but plans were put on hold in 2020. The team started to explore the idea and look at locations again in 2023, and while Nashville was on the list of possibilities, it was ultimately ruled out.

“We then set our sights on North Carolina,” he adds. “Gastonia’s strategic location just outside Charlotte, robust transportation infrastructure, and favorable business climate made it a really compelling choice for us when establishing our distribution location on the East Coast.”

A blog update on the company’s website states: “It has been a whirlwind of a couple of months getting things up and running, assembling the racking system, installing cabling, setting up shop for the warehouse crew, and syncing our inventory.”

Located at 3145 Aberdeen Blvd., Ste 400, Gastonia, North Carolina 28054, the new warehouse is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Lane Seven Apparel hopes to have its full range of inventory available in August. Currently, the facility has 12 employees on staff, and the company anticipates hiring more employees soon. As it gets a feel for the space and demand, Sarsiwala says the company will decide where to add staff.

“We are just really excited about this next chapter in Lane Seven’s growth!” Sarsiwala continues. “We’ve come so far, and this really is a reflection of that.  And this of course is all thanks to the loyalty of our amazing customers, without them none of this is possible. So we are just really grateful to be in the position that we can expand our reach ever more and continue to provide our customers what they need, when they need it.”

The expansion comes as the company builds toward its long-term growth strategy. Earlier this year, it launched a direct-to-consumer e-commerce site to further generate brand awareness and reach.