金融世家才女掘金运动时尚

    莱本索尔还没开始关注怎么让网站赚钱，也拒绝透露网站的实际流量。尽管她希望“运动风尚”以后能成为一个电商网站——目前网站上给出了其它一些电商网站的链接——她希望先专心“通过社交媒体、合作关系及培养受众”来增加网站的“吸引力”。

    到底哪些人算网站的受众呢？莱本索尔的设想是，吸引一些像她一样的读者（也是潜在的买家）——也就是那些不仅对运动感兴趣，也热衷时尚、艺术和摄影的人。至于“运动风尚”以后会不会变成纸质杂志，莱本索尔毫不犹豫地给出了肯定的回答，“会是一本体现我自己办刊理念的杂志，不是一本简编的出版物，它应该是一本拉风的运动期刊”。未来几年间，她甚至设想“运动风尚”会发展成高端精品连锁店，就像巴黎的柯莱特（Colette）和纽约的“周六冲浪”（Saturday Surf，时尚冲浪用品品牌店——译注）一样。

    她的设想是，到那时要做的也是小型连锁店的概念。她说：“限量版精品合作店现在确实很流行。”她指的是那些时尚产品与运动产品成功对接的合作店，如米莉（Milly）女装和斯佩里帆布鞋（Sperry Topsider）的合作，以及Pret-a-Surf（女性泳衣品牌——译注）和J. Crew（时装品牌）的合作，这种合作模式就是一个比较知名的品牌与知名度较小的生活类品牌联袂拓展市场。她说：“通过建立这么一个小型的精品店，就能和大牌合作，把自己的品牌和它放在一起——让两者的受众都产生兴趣。”

    这些想法对这么一个羽翼未丰的小网站来说未免显得有点过于雄心勃勃，但莱本索尔显然对未来毫不畏惧。“我觉得每个人都对与运动有关的生活方式有兴趣，但还没人把它们放在一个地方集中展示。”运动产品是个很大的领域，因此很难想象消费者最感兴趣的点在哪里，而莱本索尔计划从小处做起，看客户会把自己带向何方。对她来说，这番事业更多是为了打造一种“运动风尚”文化而非“运动风尚”生意——她希望后者会随着前者自发产生。如果梦想成真，它将为各种具备商业头脑的艺术专业人士带来启发，同时也将掀开莱本索尔家族事业的新篇章。（财富中文网）

    译者：清远  

    Lebenthal's not focused on monetizing the site yet, and she declines to provide any metrics on traffic. Though she expects Style of Sport will become an e-commerce destination in the future -- the site currently links to websites where products can be purchased -- she wants to first focus on "gaining traction through social media, partnerships, and building an audience" for the site.

    What kind of audience? Lebenthal imagines drawing a following of readers (and potential shoppers) much like herself – those interested not only in sport, but also in fashion, art, and photography. As for the question of whether Style of Sport has any future as a print magazine, Lebenthal's answer is a resounding yes, "and a magazine the way I want to do a magazine, not a dumbed down publication, but a chic, glossy, journal of sport." In the next few years, she even sees Style of Sport growing into a chain of high-end boutiques akin to Colette in Paris and Saturday Surf in New York.

    Until then, she has smaller-scale retail ideas in mind. "Limited edition partnerships are really popular right now," she says, referencing successful fashion–sport collaborations like Milly and Sperry Topsider, and Pret-a-Surf and J.Crew where more well-known brands have teamed up with smaller, lesser known lifestyle brands. "By doing a small capsule collection, you partner with an established brand, and put your name with their name in it – creating an interest you can tag to audiences on both sides."

    Although all this may seem like quite a leap for a fledgling website, Lebenthal is undaunted. "I think everyone is interested in the sporting lifestyle, but no one is really putting it together in one place." For a domain as large as sports, it's difficult to anticipate where consumer interest will be strongest; Lebenthal plans to start small and see where her customers take her. For her, it's more about creating a Style of Sport culture, as opposed to a Style of Sport business—she hopes the latter will follow the former. If that does happen, it will be an inspiration to business-minded art majors everywhere, and another chapter for the Lebenthal family as well.