Anyone who’s dialed into a virtual meeting in a button down and sweatpants knows how the Covid-19 pandemic has altered the world of apparel. Are 2020’s prevailing apparel trends a sign of a lasting shift or a momentary adjustment until the old “normal” returns?
Last Monday, Retail Brew sat down with two leading retail experts to unpack that question. Sucharita Kodali, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, and Nate Checketts, CEO and co-founder of Rhone, told us about athleisure’s rise, formalwear’s fall, and how apparel brands can make it to the other side of the pandemic.
Keep reading to recap their biggest takeaways. (You can tune in to the full event recording here.)
Last brands standing
Clothing has declined more than any other sector in the U.S., Kodali told us. An apparel brand’s current success depends on how essential it is to a six-hour Netflix marathon.
- The winners: “Certainly anything that is in the comfort space seems to be doing much, much better,” Kodali said. Athletic footwear has also been resilient.
- The los—I mean, stragglers. Brands that relied on workwear and event-specific clothing, like prom gowns or wedding apparel.
On the ground...Checketts worried about Rhone at the start of the pandemic: Rhone’s considered a “performance lifestyle brand,” and a lot of its business comes from comfier versions of dress shirts. “As people were shifting more toward at home living and working [...] we pulled back on our production, we pulled down on lines of credit to prepare to weather the storm, as we know a lot of brands did in our space,” Checketts said.
But consumers’ newfound preference for comfort worked to Rhone’s favor. Checketts said: “We were already growing triple-digits since inception, but the pandemic has been a big boost for our business because the stuff we make is the only clothing people are wearing the majority of their time.”
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More of this? We’ll be living in an all-athleisure world until at least spring 2021, by Kodali’s estimates.
For Checketts, that means apparel brands need to prioritize cozier styles—even when life reopens. “To go from a situation where you can wear t-shirts and sweatpants all day to wearing something else, comfort is going to be the most important thing for clothing brands going forward,” he said.
The caveat: Demand for occasion-based apparel will come back when the pandemic ends. At that point, Kodali said the question is which brands will stick around to see that future. “We’re going to see a shakeout because a lot of the providers that are household names today may not be the purveyors three to five years from now,” she said.
The way forward
Apparel brands may be tempted to launch new athleisure collections in this environment. But Checketts said shopper data, not momentary trends, should inform category expansion. “Just because you made luggage before doesn’t mean your customer is going to trust you to make clothing," he said.
So how can struggling brands adapt? Kodali said brands that haven’t been on Zoom’s good side should prioritize cash preservation above all else. But they can also explore service-based strategies to keep shoppers engaged like loyalty programs, curbside pickup, and expansions to online marketplaces.
In-house, Checketts reminded brands to review each part of their business for negotiating potential. Whether it’s revisiting online vs. in-store distribution or inventory, “every element of the business has to be on the table” to keep a brand alive, Checketts said.
For even more...you can watch the entire event here for Checketts and Kodali’s complete insights.