The Nau Way.

Nau takes a new route to retailing their high-performance outdoor apparel. They do everything backward. They designed their Web site before building a single store; they encourage customers to buy less; and they market themselves by not talking about themselves. An interesting aspect of their stores is that while customers can walk into stores to touch and feel products, they can’t buy the stuff right away. They go online using computers available in the stores, just like they would do from home. Read their story on the HBR site.