PARIS — Once selling only at the foot of Europe’s highest peaks, outdoor apparel brands in Europe are taking their sporty message to the city streets.
Spurred by a growing interest in casual apparel on the Continent, Portland, Ore.-based Columbia Sportswear last month opened in Paris its first boutique in a European capital, and has plans for another in London in December. Despite the fashion-finicky market in Europe, the company chose tony Rue Saint-André des Arts in the Saint-Germain area for its first urban location.
“Europeans are going toward a more casual look,” said Gert Boyle, the brand’s founder and president, who opened the Paris store with a local business partner. “The reaction to Columbia has been better in France than anywhere else in Europe.”
The Saint-Germain shop brings Columbia’s store count in France to five, but at 3,122 square feet, it is by far the brand’s largest, stretching over two floors and offering lifestyle and sports apparel and accessories for women and men.
Last year, Columbia’s sales in France, which represents 35 percent of its European activity, reached $44 million, up 11 percent from the previous year. In Europe, Columbia’s 2003 sales zoomed up 20.6 percent to reach $123 million.
“Europe is more demanding in terms of trends,” said Boyle, who added that Columbia’s lifestyle line was performing particularly well on the Continent. The women’s spring collection includes fitted T-shirts, lightweight pants, jackets and even skirts. “Columbia provides a slightly more fitted look for the European market,” Boyle noted.
Columbia is not alone in its active quest to conquer European capitals.
Last year, California-based The North Face opened its first European outlet in London’s Covent Garden, followed closely by a store opening in the ski resort of Livigno, Italy, in December of last year. In May, it opened a boutique in Amsterdam.
The company, a division of VF Corp., reported a 49 percent increase in European sales to $98.5 million last year, while the number of The North Face doors in Europe increased by 17 percent. The North Face brand registered 42 percent growth in France and the U.K., followed by Scandinavia with a 30 percent increase over 2002 and Italy with sales up 22 percent.
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According to a recent report by French tracking firm Arcane Institut and DLD Consultant, the outdoor, winter sports and surfwear markets racked up $7.92 billion in sales in Europe last year. Outdoor brands accounted for 2.9 billion euros, or $3.76 billion at current exchange, which is 47 percent of the market, followed by winter sports and surfwear, which reached 1.6 billion euros, or $2.07 billion, and 1.48 billion euros, or $1.9 billion, in sales respectively.
“Outdoor apparel targets a wider clientele as opposed to surfwear, which focuses solely on a 15 to 25 age bracket,” noted Columbia’s Boyle.
According to the Arcane Institut and DLD report, for every three outdoor apparel items purchased in Europe, two were not purchased exclusively for athletic endeavors. It noted that brands including Columbia, The North Face, Patagonia, Rossignol, Helly Hansen and Salomon were among the most popular.
“Outdoor brands were quick to observe that the remaining market to develop was the urban market,” said Dominique Demoinet-Hoste of DLD Consultant, which specializes in European sportswear. “Technical aspects have been perfected [so] now major labels are focusing on fashion details to expand their customer base,” she added, noting that Rossignol’s recent collaborations with Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Emilio Pucci were emblematic of such efforts.
Meanwhile, European outdoor apparel labels also are gaining considerable ground on city streets. French action-sports label Oxbow will open its first fully owned store in Lyon this month and the brand, known mostly for its outdoor apparel, plans to open 15 stores in France’s largest cities over the next three years. Oxbow sales in 2003 were $91.6 million, up 10 percent from the same period a year earlier.
“The development of Oxbow’s boutiques in France’s largest cities will increase brand access, control the product offer and create true retail laboratories that will inform and fine-tune the brand,” said Frank Heissat, the Mérignac, France-based brand’s marketing director. “Fashion and sportswear are clearly merging. European society now accepts wearing sportswear in a professional and urban environment,” he added.
Demoinet-Hoste of DLD Consultant agreed. “The rising popularity of outdoor apparel is not a fleeting fashion trend,” she said. “It’s reflective of a change in lifestyle in Europe.”