General Pants is just months away from opening its first bricks-and-mortar stores in New Zealand, Inside Retail New Zealand can reveal.

The youth fashion chain that originated in Sydney in 1972 has experiment with overseas expansion in the past – it has opened Ksubi stores in Los Angeles and New York – but this marks the retailer’s first foray into New Zealand.

The retailer plans to open bricks-and-mortar stores in shopping centres and on fashion high streets in major cities around New Zealand, including Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, according to Sacha Laing, chief executive of General Pants Co.

Laing told Inside Retail the first of these stores will open in “a few months’ time”.

While many retailers test international demand for their offering online before investing in bricks-and-mortar stores, that wasn’t the case with General Pants.

According to Laing, the retailer has a “strong online business in New Zealand”, but it was the country’s youth and music culture that drove the retailer’s decision to ‘cross the ditch’.

“General Pants has always been embedded in music and fashion, and the New Zealand subculture around that has always been aligned [with that]. We just think it’s a great fit,” he said.

General Pants’ expansion follows the launch of several new brand partnerships, including Patagonia, The North Face, Dickies and Harley Davidson, and delivery methods.

The retailer has recently moved to a new fulfilment centre in Australia that enables it to offer more delivery options for online orders, including same-day and after-hours.

“It’s a really exciting time at General Pants,” Laing said.