Michael Preysman, founder of online apparel retailer Everlane, has insisted on more than one occasion that his company would never open a physical store, according to press reports. “We are going to shut the company down before we go to physical retail,” he told The New York Times five years ago. In March he told Quartz that he could think of no apparel stores that provide “a great experience.”

But Everlane is opening its first store next month in New York City, and then it will open a second, in San Francisco, in February. “Our customers tell us all the time that they want to touch a product before they buy it,” Preysman told The Washington Post, explaining his change of heart. Customers also prefer making their returns and exchanges at a physical store, he says. “We realized we need to have stores,” Preysman said, “if we’re going to grow on a national and global scale.”