The children’s sector hasn’t been hit as hard overall as has the rest of the apparel world, but trade-show business has suffered with foot traffic way down, as buyers continue to cut buying and travel budgets.
As such, with economic pressures high and inventories still tight, exhibitors of children’s apparel have tempered their sales expectations.
Sea & Sun LLC holds licenses for Marvel Comics, True Religion and Ed Hardy swim and beach apparel for kids and adults and is exploring fabrics that change color when
exposed to UV light or temperature changes, UV-resistant garments for kids with sensitive skin and 3-D swim goggles to differentiate its lines.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
“We used to project our sales and make a lot of everything. Now we do it the other way around, we see what the interest is first,” said Fawn Arthur, creative director for Sea & Sun. “People want more than just the clothing, they want more bang for their buck, so you have to be innovative. I think buyers are looking for things, especially in swim, that can be double-use and are street-ready.”
“The kids apparel sector is a little less subject to pullback because parents will cut out their kids last,” said Eric Beder, a retail analyst for Brean Murray, Carret & Co. “But, as is true across the entire apparel world, there is an overall reduction in volume, higher-priced lines are faring worse, and there’s a lot of flight to value.”
American Apparel Inc.’s new children’s line will be shown with the rest of the company’s wares. Founder Dov Charney said the youth line is a projected growth area for the company in 2010, despite the fact that American Apparel doesn’t sell to many outside retailers, relying on its own stores and private label accounts, like one with Levi’s, to sell clothing.
“We’ve had a lot of velocity in our adult styles so making those for kids wasn’t a hard decision,” Charney said. “If Daddy likes the shirt, then he’ll buy it for the little ones, because it’s cute in their size.”
The show is drawing some new children’s wear resources, like Bot Tots, a brightly colored organic cotton line of onesies, hoodies and T-shirts featuring printed drawings of robots. It’s geared primarily toward infants and toddlers, wholesaling from $5 to $12 with retail between $20 and $30.
“I definitely thought twice before going into WWDMAGIC because of the relatively higher cost, but for my first show I wanted to invest in something I knew was big and worthwhile,” said Erin Saelans, who launched Bot Tots in October. “As a new business, just getting leads and writing an order would be success enough for me. I think I’m in an appealing spot as far as pricing. And obviously, my bigger goal is to make enough money to cover the costs of going to the show.”
Jeph Hemmer, who co-founded Santa Cruz-based Avatar Imports in 1991 and has been exhibiting kids’ wear at WWDMAGIC for nearly 15 years, said buyers are pensive and waiting until later to write orders.
“It’s a smaller part of our business than it used to be,” Hemmer said. “The [sales] numbers outside are getting bigger and there are just far fewer people at the shows, which, combined with buyers being more conservative, drives that decrease in share of sales.”
Hemmer said Avatar actually saw better volume last show than the previous one, an increase he attributed to the company’s low- to midrange price points.
“People are trading down from higher price to mid- and lower price but still looking for quality, and that’s where we’ve picked up market share,” Hemmer said. “For us, the show is still a good return on our investment. Hopefully, the good times will come back. Those days were fun.”