She’s back.

Confirming a badly kept secret in the apparel industry, Ty Haney has officially returned to Outdoor Voices, the brand she founded in 2013.

Actually, Haney has been quietly working with the company for nearly a year, creating product and brainstorming on how to reimagine the brand. But with a capsule collection ready to launch on Aug. 4, it was time for the official reveal.

“I formally started last August,” Haney told WWD. “It’s been so much fun to reactivate, reconnect to the vision, work on product and evolve what was an awesome brand into an awesome brand for today.”

The first hints that something was afoot came last week when Outdoor Voices erased its Instagram feed, added the brand’s former motto “Doing Things” to its web page and followed just one person, Haney. That led to widespread speculation that she was returning.

Her official role is founder, partner and co-owner and she will lead product, brand and creative, along with community engagement and activations to help refocus the brand identity and engage with new generations, as well as core consumers who already have a connection to the company.

Haney said she has repurchased a company stake and is working with a team that includes Katie Siano, president; Tiffany Wilkinson, the former creative director who has rejoined the brand in that role, Jessica Guzman, the new design director, and Mariel O’Brien, general manager and chief operating officer.

Last June, Consortium Brand Partners, a fund manager and brand-building company founded by three former Marquee Brands executives, purchased the troubled activewear brand for an undisclosed price. Corsortium, which is led by Cory Baker, Michael DeVirgilio and Jonathan Greller, is one of the new players in the brand management business, joining Authentic Brands Group, WHP Global, Bluestar and the founders’ former firm, Marquee.

Over the years, Outdoor Voices had faced numerous financial challenges, internal management rifts, excess inventory that had to be sold at off-price channels, cash flow issues, a revolving door of executives and store closures. Last spring the company’s 16 remaining stores abruptly closed after Outdoor Voices reportedly stopped paying a number of its vendors and neglected to pay rent on some of the stores for months, according to published reports.

Once a direct-to-consumer darling, Outdoor Voices established a strong Millennial following for its colorful leggings and tops and its exercise dress with shorts underneath. It also created a popular social media presence with its hashtag, #DoingThings, where customers would share images of themselves enjoying athletic activities. The company frequently hosted events such as group exercise classes. In 2018, the brand was valued at $100 million, but that dropped to $40 million in 2020.

Haney abruptly resigned from the company in February 2020, and Mickey Drexler, an investor and chairman since 2017, stepped down the following July. The two reportedly clashed over management styles, among other issues. Haney was succeeded as chief executive officer on an interim basis by Cliff Moskowitz, the former president of InterLuxe, a New York investment firm.

Haney returned to Outdoor Voices in June 2020 when it received funding from NaHC03, the investment management company run Ashley Merrill, founder and CEO of sleepwear brand Lunya. She became the new chairman of Outdoor Voices and Haney took an active role as one of the company’s board members. Merrill took on the role of interim CEO last fall, but both she and Haney soon exited.

Haney said she was introduced to Consortium by Keith Miller, an early investor in Outdoor Voices, around the time of the purchase. But because she was already busy running her other two successful start-ups — Joggy, a plant-based energetics brand, and Try Your Best, or TYB, a Web 3.0 platform that brings together brands and consumers to build value — it wasn’t on her mind to rejoin OV. TYB recently closed an $11 million series A funding round.

“I have two companies that I’ve been running since I left after Outdoor Voices, and they’re both going very well. So I It wasn’t really on my mind to consider reengaging with OV,” she said. “But I got to meet Cory and his partners from March to August, and really get a sense for what they were excited about, and vice versa, and I got comfortable with the idea, and excited and energized about being part of it again. So I’ve formally joined back.”

She believes the niche that Outdoor Voices dominated in the early days still represents an opportunity today, albeit in an updated way.

“You’ll see in the product imagery, the collection still is rooted in movement and all materials meant to sweat in, but it’s much more bold and fashion-forward and lifestyle-oriented underneath this umbrella of recreation. So a fresh and exciting perspective and really pushing it into a new version of itself.”

She admitted that there were some dark days during the first go-round, but she looks at it as a learning experience.

“I look back on my experience with OV, and 90 percent that first chapter was awesome — 10 percent was hard. But I’m grateful for the masterclass in learning.”

The biggest lesson she learned was that any successful company needs to have a seasoned chief operating officer. Because no one had that position at OV, there was a “massive gap from an operating leadership perspective,” she said.

So Haney said when creating Joggy and TYB, her first hire for both was a chief operating officer. At Outdoor Voices, that role will be assumed by O’Brien.

“I’ve been a lot more thoughtful in my businesses since then,” she said.

When Consortium bought the company, its plan was to stabilize the business and eventually add categories, open stores and explore international distribution. That’s the game plan it is following for its other acquisition, Draper James. Consortium also owns Jonathan Adler, in which it bought a majority interest last January. David Peyser Sportswear is also an investor in Outdoor Voices.

“The consumer doesn’t see [Outdoor Voices] as depressed,” DeVirgilio said last fall. “We have to put time and money into this brand, and we will,” Baker added at the time. “Our job is to reengage the consumer with good product in an authentic way.”

The team is even more positive now that Haney is front and center again. “We are thrilled to welcome Ty back to the company she founded,” said Baker. “She is a visionary founder whose creativity and strategic insight are unmatched. With her at the helm, the brand is returning to its roots with renewed purpose and energy. This is a homecoming in every sense — and one that positions OV for an exciting new chapter.”

Haney said although the new Outdoor Voices will be online initially, she envisions the company eventually getting back into retail.

“For the foreseeable futures, we’ll be owning and creating strength with our own website. But given how important the IRL kind of activations and physical touch points are to a movement brand, I am certain that we’ll start to open stores at some point.”

The capsule that will launch next week will feature technical apparel and accessories that honor the brand’s heritage, but in a modern way. Haney said the brand will also be hosting an activation in New York in September.

Haney was born in Long Beach, Calif., and grew up in Boulder, Colo., where she ran track competitively. But the brands she wore to run were always boasting that they could make someone “harder, better, faster, stronger,” she said in 2018. So she set out to create an activewear brand focused on having fun rather than performing at the highest level. “As you get older, activity takes on a whole new meaning: it’s less about this harder, faster kind of pressure-oriented positioning and all about freeing fitness from performance, and that’s what OV is built on.”

Haney is now a mother of two and wife to country singer Mark Wystrach, lead singer of Midland.