Walmart Seen as Finding Its Stride in Apparel - Yahoo Finance |
- Walmart Seen as Finding Its Stride in Apparel - Yahoo Finance
- “BloomfieldSWAG” ONLINE APPAREL STORE & POP-UP SHOPS LAUNCHED - Bloomfield College News
- KUIU Introduces A New Line Of Training Apparel For Spring 2021 - PRNewswire
- 8-Year-Old Entrepreneur Starts Apparel Line to Combat Homelessness - iBerkshires.com
- Finesse Says ‘FashionTech’ Will Disrupt Apparel Industry The Way FinTech Roiled Banks - pymnts.com
| Walmart Seen as Finding Its Stride in Apparel - Yahoo Finance Posted: 23 Feb 2021 02:26 PM PST  Walmart appears to be finding its groove in its apparel and merchandise offerings, as it builds large private label brands and plans for more e-commerce growth in the coming years, competing with the likes of Target and Amazon. The retailer's promotion this month of Denise Incandela to executive vice president of apparel and private brands at Walmart Inc. marks a significant moment in the evolution of its apparel offerings, observers said. More from WWD Incandela, who has helped steer Walmart's apparel evolution in recent years and brings longtime fashion industry experience to the role, will oversee not just apparel, but also private brands for general merchandising in all categories, the retailer has said. Through a combination of acquisitions, high-profile collaborations and its own creative push, Walmart has in recent years built up a roster of private label brands and elevated lines, including Time and Tru, Eloquii Elements, Jeans by Sofia Vergara and the Free Assembly line it launched in September. Retail watchers have taken note that as the retailer courts a shifting demographic of shoppers online, Walmart has sought to refine its apparel mix in recent years, seeking to strike a balance between basics and more fashion-forward styles. "I think this just fits a part of a longer continuum of what Walmart is attempting to do, to really leverage and elevate its overall brand proposition," said Stephanie Wissink of Jefferies. "Walmart has some of the largest brands already in apparel." "There is going to be a savviness around what the Walmart consumer expects," she said. "Walmart has always been viewed as much more of a mechanically driven organization — supply chain, scale, grocery, and general merch had fallen a bit to the side." She continues, "I think Denise now is being given charge to say, 'Our general merchandise needs to not necessarily be mechanical, it needs to be merchandise driven, it needs to be visually appealing, it needs to be on-trend.' "I heard someone in the trade recently say Walmart's going to talk to its consumer as a modern consumer, design-savvy, with access to influence from content and trends, and so you're not speaking to [them] as a basics customer in apparel anymore," Wissink added. Walmart has cultivated its shifting fashion image by adding hundreds of brands to its offerings, including Levi's, Champion and Jordache, as well as the private lines. Walmart has said it now has 13 general merchandise private brands that it said qualify as billion-dollar brands, and that three of its apparel lines are $2 billion brands. Competition from Amazon, and the receding importance of once prevalent fashion staple brands including Old Navy, may have pushed retailers like Walmart and Target to try to capture some of that market and boost their e-commerce infrastructure, said Jessica Ramírez of Jane Hali & Associates. "The way that Walmart and the way that Target have restrategized and reshaped what apparel looks like within their own private sectors has been pulling in the customer," said Ramírez. "There's been shifts within the retail industry — we had Old Navy, for a long time, be very strong, and we've seen some weaknesses in recent quarters. And I think some of these companies can pick up the share." "When it comes to apparel, I do think Walmart and Target have an advantage over Amazon," she added. "You don't hear much about those Amazon private labels…private labels can be strong for any retailer, but has to be done well. "Even just in the way you merchandise, and the way that you brand those brands themselves — Walmart is headed that way with the brands that they are handling," she said. In its fourth-quarter earnings call this month, Walmart executives indicated the retailer expects its global e-commerce sales to surpass $100 billion in the next couple of years, an ambitious goal that observers see as within reach for the retailer. "We're seeing underlying rates of growth in e-commerce that would suggest that that's achievable and support that number," said Wissink of Jefferies.  |
| “BloomfieldSWAG” ONLINE APPAREL STORE & POP-UP SHOPS LAUNCHED - Bloomfield College News Posted: 23 Feb 2021 01:46 PM PST  Bloomfield College in partnership with Fresh Collection, LLC has announced a new online apparel store at www.BloomfieldSWAG.com. A virtual launch took place on Tuesday, February 23, 2021. The virtual launch event included an interview with the apparel custom designer Fresh Collection, LLC, a virtual fashion show featuring Bloomfield College students and staff, a pop-up shop, remarks from Bloomfield College President Marcheta P. Evans, Ph.D. and Vice President for Student Affairs & Community Relations Patrick Lamy, Ph.D., and a Black History Month tribute from Bloomfield College Student Government President Kyle Smith '22. "It's very exciting to see the collaborative spirit of our students working closely with staff to create the virtual launch of Bloomfield College's new online apparel store," said Marcheta P. Evans, Ph.D., president of the College. "Our students are happy for the updated styles reflected in the new designs and fabrics." "One special feature of the new online store is that patrons can create their own unique designs, upload to the website and Fresh Collection will produce the apparel following approval and confirmation that all Bloomfield College branding protocols are incorporated," said Terrance L. Bankston '04, director for the Center for Student Leadership and Engagement & Special Programs. According to Bankston, entrepreneurial opportunities will be available to students and a percentage of the proceeds from purchases will help fund student life initiatives including leadership development and service learning opportunities for Bloomfield College student leaders. "Fresh Collection is also offering alumni discounts on the website, and everyone receives free shipping with orders over $100," he added. Fresh Collection, LLC, is a local minority-owned and operated custom design and production brand.  |
| KUIU Introduces A New Line Of Training Apparel For Spring 2021 - PRNewswire Posted: 23 Feb 2021 08:19 AM PST  DIXON, Calif., Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KUIU, the ultralight performance hunting gear company, announces the launch of its KUIU TRAINING line of fitness apparel, including long and short-sleeve tops, hoodie, short, pant, glove, and beanie—all collectively designed for training applications.  |
| 8-Year-Old Entrepreneur Starts Apparel Line to Combat Homelessness - iBerkshires.com Posted: 23 Feb 2021 12:50 AM PST    Tyer inscribed the book to Hadley. PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A local girl who is wise beyond her years turned her compassion for the community into action. Following a $1,900 donation last week to the Christian Center, 8-year-old entrepreneur Hadley Light received a gift from Mayor Linda Tyer to commemorate her clothing business that benefits the homeless. "So when I called your dad, I said, 'Do you think it would be OK if I could meet Hadley?' Because you are really special," Tyer said on Monday. "You are really special. So thank you for doing what you did. Raising all that money for the Christian Center was really, really hard. Some of us grown-ups work to raise that much money. And you did it. You did it." Hadley recently began selling T-shirts, bags, fanny packs, and drink koozies through her apparel company Waves, which donates all profits to two organizations working to fight homelessness in Pittsfield: The Christian Center and ServiceNet. The young advocate was inspired to help unsheltered folks after seeing people without homes forced to sleep on the street. Light couldn't imagine the struggles those people were going through. "I feel really bad for them," she said. Her father, Leonard Light, said this donation is only the beginning, as his daughter will be continuing the business as long as possible. "We're not done. It's only in that it's picked up a bit even since that first wave, no pun intended, of course, but again, the momentum has continued," he said. "What's been great is the way the community has reacted, I think we have a lot to be proud of as members of the community because everybody embraced the concept. It was a cute 8-year-old girl who embraced the concept of helping those that need help." Astonished by Hadley's drive to help, Tyer said she called Leonard Light and requested that she have a brief, COVID-19 compliant meeting at City Hall to commend Light and give her a gift. Tyer presented Hadley with Chelsea Clinton's book "She Persisted," which profiles 13 American women who helped shape the country, and noted that they were girls just like Hadley and herself. "You are amazing. When we met in my office today with your mom and dad, you are only 8 years old. But you have already united your creative spirit," Tyer wrote to Hadley in the cover, "And your heartfelt kindness into generosity for our neighbors who are less fortunate. Please accept this gift for me. With my deep gratitude for the young girl that you are and for the young woman you will become. This book is filled with powerful stories about brave kind determined women who just like you have left a lasting legacy in the world. I can't wait to see the brilliant things. Next. Keep riding your wave." Light and his wife, Kate Light, say their daughter is quite the young businesswoman and that they want to support her ideas. "We wanted to jump on it, that's really what we thought," he said. "Holy moly, I don't ever remember thinking when I was 8 that I wanted to start a business, and so every time she comes up with an idea, she's had a couple of them, we want to try and do it and let her explore that sort of thing." Hadley began with selling Waves merchandise — branded with three curls, or waves, overlapping in a circle — to relatives to make sure business was running swimmingly. After receiving all positive feedback, her parents shared the Waves website to their social media pages and sales blew up. "I guess we thought they would be receptive to the idea and want to help but it's gone above and beyond what we were expecting," Hadley's father said. "We severely underestimated everyone's appetite for helping an 8-year-old girl." One of Hadley's school friends is even interested in becoming a part of the business. After submitting an email on the Waves website voicing interest, the young man put a PowerPoint presentation together for Hadley and she conducted an interview. The Lights say their daughter's teachers at Williams Elementary School are very proud of her, along with everyone who hears about what she has done.  |
| Finesse Says ‘FashionTech’ Will Disrupt Apparel Industry The Way FinTech Roiled Banks - pymnts.com Posted: 23 Feb 2021 08:00 AM PST A three-month-old Los Angeles-based startup is using data analysis, artificial intelligence (AI) and 3D imaging to take on the traditional fashion industry, by only making clothes that people actually vote to wear — for a fraction of the cost and none of the waste. Finesse.us is the creation of CEO Ramin Ahmari, who characterizes his company as "Fashion 3.0" or " Zara meets Netflix," since it eliminates the traditional catwalk and glamour magazine shoots and replaces them with actual customer feedback and data in a much more environmentally sustainable way. "The fashion industry touches everyone's lives in one way or another," Ahmari said in a recent chat with PYMNTS, "but it's one that has been largely untouched by any technology, let alone deep technology." Most people would place fashion and tech at opposite ends of the spectrum — including the legacy industry itself — which is why fashion is an incredibly inefficient and unsustainable industry, he believes. "There are two trends that we see in this industry: one of them is the emergence of new data, and the other is this consistent inefficiency," Ahmari explained. "So that's really what Finesse is all about: using Big Data and AI to figure out how we can get rid of all the inefficiencies that are so inherent in fashion today." Even Faster Fashion "When you look at most fast-fashion houses — or general fashion houses — right now, they produce as much as they can and hope that something will stick and end up selling," Ahmari said. "That's an incredibly inefficient business model, because most things actually do not end up selling." And when they don't sell, designer goods and branded merchandise can sometimes end up in landfills or incinerators. Because Finesse creates all of its garments in 3D, it never has to incur the expense, time or waste involved in designing and making physical samples. Ahmaria said his company can do in 25 days what the typical fashion house would take at least five months to complete. "Both [those things] boost our timeline as well as our sustainable footprint," he said, which is an equally important selling point to the typical young Finesse customer. "Our audience is very much drawn to us by the sustainability aspect, because they love to 'look fire,' but they don't want to set the world on fire to do that. So that's one of the main things that draws them to us: They love fashion, but they're really bothered by how unsustainable fast-fashion is, but they also don't have the money to go to a Burberry or a Louis Vuitton." The Appeal of Being Affordable and Sustainable Ahmari says he already has "tens of thousands" of users signed up and voting on the new looks that get dropped each week on the site and then go into production. Those consumers are typically digitally native Gen-Zers, 16 to 24 years old. Because of the changing tastes and demands of this demographic, Finesse also strives to make clothes that focus on people other than "white millennial girls," especially embracing unisex outfits. "We don't think clothing should have a gender, and we think that's also a change that Gen Z is currently undergoing," said Ahmari. "It's something we want to support as well, and something I think fashion needs to keep up with." Because of the inherent cost savings in the business model, Finesse is able to produce garments that are lower in price yet higher in quality. "People are usually very surprised when they buy from us," noted Ahmari, referencing the customer feedback he has received. The Business Model The potential of Finesse and FashionTech to disrupt the multi-billion-dollar global fashion industry has already caught the eye of the investment community, which has given Ahmari and his team an initial $4.5 million of seed funding to scale the idea, including creating a pre-order function and an interactive app. "Obviously this is something that is very interesting to investors, because it can fit their thesis of hopefully becoming a billion-dollar business," noted Ahmari. "And you can only do that by disrupting a large industry with a very significant significant change." As he sees it, Finesse's process of only making clothes after people have voted and said "I want this" is uniquely positioned to take on the legacy industry, which is producing pretty much the same way it did in the 1960s. "We're completely upending what fashion looks like today and giving it a complete makeover, and hopefully pushing it into what it should look in the 21st century," said Ahmari.  |
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