Outdoor Clothing Company Owner Decides to Reopen SF Store

An outdoor apparel store has reopened weeks after the company’s CEO announcing he would close a San Francisco store temporarily, because of what he said was rampant organized theft and concerns about employee safety.

At Cotopaxi, customers were coming and going again Friday. They’ve hired private security and in area, people tell us they’ve seen some changes. including those that neighbors have worked on a for a while.

Now, they want to make sure it stays this way.

Davis Smith, founder and CEO of Cotopaxi said their Hayes Street store is open again after a high profile temporarily closure. A closure triggered by crime concerns that smith detailed in an online post.

A post he never thought would get so much attention.

“We had just been so disappointed, at the same time that post that I made on LinkedIn got way more attention than I expected it to,” Davis said.

The post said San Francisco appears to have descended into “a city of chaos.” It described smashed windows at the store and said they’d been hit by organized theft rings, and other safety concerns.

“It actually ended up driving some conversations and some change that for us. The city, we had a great city that approached us and wanted to talk what was going on and listen and was helpful,” Davis said.

In a new post, Davis said there have now been productive meetings with the merchants association, supervisors and police. There is private security now at the store.

Davis told NBC Bay Area that he never expected the closure would become fodder for political attacks, adding that the emotions he was feeling that day led to the harsh words to describe the experience in the city.

Christie Smith has the full story in the video above.