Dive Brief:

• Nordstrom will begin carrying Revtown jeans online and in-store in five select markets (Pittsburgh; Roosevelt Field, New York; Burlington, Massachusetts; Austin, Texas; and Dallas), Revtown told Retail Dive in an email.

• Revtown, an online brand that uses proprietary performance fabrics and Italian-milled denim, was founded last year by several former Under Armour executives who spent more than a decade at the athletics retailer.

• Aside from a holiday pop-up at the Roosevelt Field Mall in New York, this is the brand's first venture into a brick-and-mortar environment, the company told Retail Dive in an email.

Dive Insight:

Revtown is based on one overarching message: simplicity. The company offers only one product (jeans) at one price ($79) that comes in two styles, "Sharps" or "Automatics." In product messaging, everything is wrapped around the idea that men don't want or need a lot of options, but do want practicality and versatility. Those things lend themselves well to online ordering. However, pure-play businesses come with challenges.

Like many online-only brands navigating how to sell clothing without the ability to try it on first, Revtown offers free shipping and returns. It also publishes customer reviews and has a digital tailor tool that helps users calculate their size using a few data points like height, weight and build.

But as close as such features may get to finding the right size, they don't replace the physical experience of trying on an actual pair of pants and feeling the fabric itself. That makes partnerships with the likes of Nordstrom critical.

"To this point, Revtown has sold directly to consumers from our website," CEO Henry Stafford told Retail Dive in an email. "In teaming up with a retail partner, it was important to us that our partner align with our core values, providing premium, well-made products with an incredible user experience. Nordstrom not only delivers on those values, but does so with a super knowledgeable and accommodating team."

For Nordstrom, partnerships with trendy digitally native companies allow it to watch how its customers respond to such nimble, direct-to-consumer brands. The department store chain has previously partnered with Reformation, Away, Everlane and other online retailers.