Stephen Gordon's last retail stand

MILL VALLEY, Calif. – Step inside Guideboat Company's lone store and you're immediately transported to another world. You half expect the skies to cloud over, leaves to start dropping and a placid lake to materialize in the parking lot.

The effect – achieved through merchandise that ranges from actual boats to carefully collected nautical and outdoor apparel – is the handiwork of Guideboat founder Stephen Gordon, 63, whose passion for such fare dates to his youthful paddles on glassy Adirondack lakes in update New York.

"Guideboat fulfills my love of tradition," Gordon says of his one-year-old company as he sits in the shade of tall redwoods with Allman Brothers music filling the air. "Besides, I come from a history of really liking to project larger than life brands."

Starting a new apparel company with designs on national expansion isn't for the faint of heart or wallet. But Gordon has the goods to get this project out of the dock and into the minds of consumers. Although Guideboat is principally an e-commerce venture, it will be goosed by two old-school retail traditions.

The is first is a limited catalog rollout that launches today, followed by an even broader one in November just in time for the holidays. And the second involves more stores like this flagship, likely in Seattle and New York. Despite our collective penchant for online shopping, Gordon's retailing instincts tell him it's imperative to "first have a place where people can come and connect with what you're all about, before they then go to your website."

He would know. In 1979, Gordon decided that home fixtures needed an injection of class. So he decided to start selling them from his home in Eureka, Calif., after sourcing a range of goods for the restoration of his Queen Anne Victorian home. He called it Restoration Hardware.

In 2005, Gordon exited the company and set about helping Sundance apparel – part of Robert Redford's broader Sundance label – start a line of men's clothes, commuting weekly from his home in the Bay Area to Salt Lake City. By 2010, he was ready to take a break. But he quickly found something he was bad at. Relaxing.

"One day my girlfriend, who was working, asked me what I had done, and I was very proud of the battery I had gotten at Sears that day," he says with a big laugh. "Some people are good at filling their days. But I realized I had to do what I do."

GOING BACK TO BOYHOOD ROOTS

Guideboat popped into his creative head in 2012, inspired specifically by a desire to replicate with modern methods a prized 1892 Adirondack guideboat – a fast, lightweight craft meant for guiding fishermen and hunters – that Gordon still takes out religiously on Lake Tahoe.

Contracting with southern California craftsmen to make the composite hulls to help reduce cost, Gordon insisted that his guideboat ($4,850) feature cherry wood trim, caned seats from Vermont, handmade oars from British Columbia and brass fittings cast locally in Marin County.

Although he quickly added two other models to the line up (a $5,250 Peapod and a $2,975-plus-sail Sabot), Gordon intuitive knew that his company could not thrive on boats alone.

"There are only so many boats you can sell, but I have always had an affinity for genuine goods such as Hudson Bay axes and 1,000 Mile Boots, so I decided to focus on a style with largely American and European roots," he says.

For his first store, Gordon chose a former lumber yard and offices in this town with genuine sawmill roots. Mill Valley also boasts a bit of chain-store roots magic; both Banana Republic and the onetime gardening outlet Smith & Hawken got their starts with small shops not far from where Guideboat Company welcomes visitors.

"I like that part of being here, you bet," he says with a wink.

Gordon will need all the mojo he can get if his latest venture is to reach the heights of his first, says James Fallon, editor of Women's Wear Daily.

"There is always room in the market for new brands but (Gordon) is entering a very competitive category already dominated by the likes of Ralph Lauren, Gant, Sperry and even Tommy Hilfiger to some extent," says Fallon. "On the other hand, the surge in online shopping means (new) brands can establish a global reach even if they only have one store."

In Gordon's favor is the fact that consumers are always looking for something fresh, says Marshal Cohen of the NPD Group. "This past holiday, 54 percent (of shoppers) stated that the offerings were boring and they wanted new and exciting, so yes launching a new concept now is good timing," he says. "Provided it is the right concept."

TEAM FUELED BY GORDON'S "ENERGY"

While Gordon has decades of retail world chops to lean on with Guideboat, in some ways he feels most comfortable sticking with best-practices he learned years ago.

As with Restoration Hardware, his start-up team is small — five "overworked, over-leveraged and brilliant people," he says. One is Mary Britton-Rose, who left Williams-Sonoma some 16 years ago to join Gordon's housewares company in product development.

"I long ago fell in love with the energy he creates on a project, beyond that fact that he just has a great edited eye for merchandise," she says. "He sets high expectations, but you get motivated to make things happen for him."

She adds that while in many ways Gordon is the kind of man who isn't happy when he's not finding unique products to share with the world, he's also at a life stage where "he's only going to tackle an evocative idea that really speaks to people."

Gordon seconds that. Although he says "no one does it better than Ralph Lauren," particularly the experience consumers enjoy when walking into his flagship mansion-cum-store in New York, he still thinks he can create "a company that has more of a level of authenticity if you will." Case in point: "The boats in his shops are props. They're not in ours."

As the time nears for that first Guideboat Company catalog to hit targeted mailboxes from coast to coast, Gordon is busy checking on his newest goods flying under newly named sub-brands. Rook and Raven hacking jackets, Tennessee Valley field jackets and Red Feather flannel shirts, with materials sourced from Europe and assembled in New York.

For a man who could and maybe should be resting on retailing laurels, it's a busy schedule. Why bother?

"I questioned myself before I started, asking whether it was to prove myself one more time and did I need to do that," he says. "I'm sure there's always a component of that in people who start companies, but in the end I concluded I was OK if this didn't work. It's really just about the fact that this is what I do."