Indie Fragrance Brand Ranger Station Opens NYC Store—And Plots More Locations

Ranger Station has traveled north to set up shop in the Big Apple—and is looking to spread elsewhere. 

Opening May 17 on Bleecker Street in New York City’s West Village neighborhood, the Nashville-based brand’s 500-square-foot store will sell unisex perfumes, candles, hand and body care, diffusers, room sprays, car scents and limited-edition items from its Features line that’s struck collaborations with country and folk musicians Noah Kahan, Dan + Shay, Ernest and Shooter Jennings. Calling itself “a fragrance house for the everyman’s luxury,” Ranger Station’s prices run from $39 to $122. 

In the past year, New York City has become the decade-old brand’s leading market online, which married co-founders Steve and Jordan Soderholm attribute to products from its Features line that have gained from the explosive popularity of country music. They view the store as a means to boost awareness—and sales—in an area that has already proven receptive, and it’s been a personal ambition of theirs to plant a location in New York City. 

“If you go to the city, 99 out of 100 people still have not heard about us. So, New York had become our No. 1 market, but it also still had more opportunity than anywhere else,” says Steve, a former touring musician and Ranger Station’s perfumer. “What better way to present ourselves…than through a very physical analog representation of the brand where they can actually walk in and experience it.”

He adds, “Outside of Nashville, it definitely does feel like a second home to us. We want to make sure that we’re coming in and being a part of the community that’s already there.” Jordan, Ranger Station’s chief growth officer, chimes in, “We really believe in this space, and our brand has a lot of momentum. Our brand is one of those attainable luxuries. It’s priced where you can justify it. This is the moment, and New York is the city.”

The New York City location kicks off a period of brick-and-mortar expansion for Ranger Station. It plans to open a store a year and is considering Charleston, Austin and Dallas for future locations. The company made its retail location debut in 2023 in Nashville’s 12 South neighborhood. In the first year of the store, Ranger Station reports sales at it rose 145%, and they’re forecast to rise 120% this year. 

The Nashville store currently accounts for about 5% of Ranger Station’s business and is profitable, according to Jordan. Direct-to-consumer sales account for 45% of the brand’s business, with wholesale accounting for 25% and StudioRS, the brand’s private-label business, accounting for 15%. Ranger Station is in roughly 300 retailers across the country like Urban Outfitters, Orvis, Huckberry and Tecovas. The brand’s overall sales advanced 60% last year and 86% the year prior. Its core customers are millennial women. 

Ranger Station is plotting store expansion at a fortuitous time for fragrance. Fueled by rising demand from TikTok-obsessed gen Z shoppers, the category is on a white-hot streak. According to the market research firm Circana, it was the fastest-growing beauty category in both prestige and mass last year, when dollars were up 12% and 9%, respectively. In prestige, it became the second-largest category after makeup, accounting for 28% of sales. 

Ranger Station faces stiff competition for fragrance lovers’ attention in the Big Apple, where fragrance stores abound, particularly in downtown neighborhoods. Multi-branded retailers Scent Bar, Olfactory NYC and Aedes Perfumery join stores from niche and powerhouse brands Commodity, D.S. & Durga, Byredo, Le Labo and others. 

In the crowded field, Steve and Jordan are hoping Ranger Station’s non-traditional positioning will stand out. “We’re bringing this American heritage quality and craftsmanship to something that’s been traditionally pretty exclusively French,” says Steve. “There’s a handful of people in the U.S. doing it, and we just want to be a big part of that and really push that.” 

“This is the moment, and New York is the city.”

Ranger Station’s homegrown aesthetic is mirrored in the design of its New York City store. The space features furniture and accents made from materials like leather, quartz, travertine, burlwood and walnut alongside pops of brown, red and green. Known for its hand-poured bold woodsy-scented candles housed in reusable cocktail glasses, the brand’s New York City outpost includes a bar where customers can grab a cocktail or glass of whiskey.

Steve sees commonalities between music and Ranger Station’s approach to fragrance and its retail setting. “A fragrance is a song in that it creates this really cool story,” he says. “So, we want…the space to evoke an emotion and for someone to feel like they’ve been invited into our living room.” 

Began as a side project when Steve was looking for a creative outlet between touring gigs as a drummer and living in a refurbished ranger station, Jordan developed a website to introduce Ranger Station online in 2015 with a single candle, $39 Leather + Pine, inspired by Steve’s childhood summers in the woods of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters. As Steve and Jordan became serious about its business, the brand branched into wholesale at boutiques like White’s Mercantile in Nashville.

Although it was previously stocked in larger retailers such as Nordstrom, Ranger Station has resonated most in general stores and specialty retail outlets. Fragrance and candle bestsellers are Leather + Pine, Santalum, Daisy Perfume and Jordan’s Perfume, which recreates a scent that captivated Jordan during a trip she and Steve took to London. The brand offers seasonal products like Rich ‘90s Mom, a candle it describes as smelling akin to a tennis bracelet, ladies’ lunch, cosmo and Louis Vuitton Speedy handbag. 

Self-funded Ranger Station’s organic growth is covering the cost of its New York City store. Its buildout was almost doubly expensive the buildout of the brand’s Nashville store. Jordan says, “We have high confidence that we will at a minimum be covering our costs and be in a good spot within a year.”

To generate buzz for the location, Ranger Station is sharing behind-the-scenes videos of the store’s construction on Instagram and handing out samples to retail neighbors in the West Village. In addition, it’s participating in IRL activations like a member’s event at Soho House and a three-day pop-up with Nashville-based skincare brand Nemah at Shopify’s New York flagship store starting May 2. Jordan says, “We’re kind of just coming at it from all aspects.”