When it comes to staying strong in the women’s sportswear business during a rough economy, it’s all about two major things — providing quality product and having a lot of optimism.
Manufacturers in the women’s sportswear sector are pulling out all the stops for the spring season by fine-tuning everything from production practices and inventory control to fabric quality and pricing. The bottom line, they say, is if the product is what customers want, at prices they cannot refuse, then they’ll make it through this time.
Todd Howard, president of the Los Angeles-based Not Your Daughter’s Jeans brand, said since his product is manufactured right in Los Angeles, he is able to make sure he reacts to customer needs as quickly as possible.
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“One of the reasons we continue to do well is because we haven’t veered away from our original foundation, which is to be able to react right away to both the fashion trends and the business trends of the moment,” he said. “We are seeing that this really is a business model that works even better in this kind of economy.”
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Also, Howard said, since the brand’s average retail price sits somewhere between $100 and $130, its value is evident on the sales floor where it generally sits with higher-priced brands. Also, Howard said that since the Not Your Daughter’s Jeans philosophy has always been about making a jean that makes a woman look and feel slimmer, that has been beneficial to the company as well.
“Our mission has been to design a jean that when a woman puts it on, she feels better about herself,” he said. “What could be better in an economy like this?”
He said for MAGIC , he will show mostly holiday season, since many of his accounts will not be ready to write orders for spring.
“We expect to see a lot of people looking to book those buy-now-wear now items, which we will have plenty of,” Howard said.
Jennifer Ashley, owner of the Los Angeles-based Hippie Ink, said that in order to pump up her business, she has begun producing some private label. That, she said, has given her the money to expand her own line, which consists mostly of graphic T-shirts.
“A lot of the boutiques have gone out of business, which has been really sad to see, and the major department stores are not ordering as much as they were since they really have to watch their dollars,” she said. “But, those specialty stores that are still in business seem to be doing pretty well, which has been good for my business.”
She said that in order to get through these tough times, she has had to give many of her retailers a break, by offering them special discounts if they order a large amount of product. For example, for many of them, she has given 10 percent off or free shipping, which stores have certainly been picking up on.
“I can also react quickly to orders. In most cases, I can have things ready to be shipped in two weeks,” she said.
Ashley said she has also sent many of her sales reps on the road more often, traveling to stores, since many buyers have been forced to cut back on travel.
“Overall, my financial situation is the same as it has always been,” she said. “I keep my overhead as low as possible, with really only a couple of employees, but I don’t have large expenses. I’ve seen that we can do more with less. For me, the most expensive thing has been ordering new sets of samples, which I refuse to cut costs on.”
For Jean Mercier, account executive for the New York-based Berek brand, getting through this tough time has meant adding additional sizes — XXL has meant a great deal of extra business — and working through the collectionto make sure pricing is as competitive as possible. In addition, it has added more product classifications in order to make Berek a full sportswear company, rather than the sweater firm it was once known as.
“We have much more sportswear than ever before,” Mercier said. “While we still do well with our Christmas sweaters, most of the holiday sweaters have phased out a bit, so it was key for us to expand our offerings.”
The expansion into sportswear —blouses, tunics, jackets, etc. — has already opened new doors for the company, she said.
“We have been looking very closely at the pricing of the line and have come up with the sharpest wholesale range that we can,” she said. “By doing this, we’ve had to cut our gross profit a bit, since price really is driving the business.”
Mercier said customers have been buying a great deal of the brand’s new assortment of suede and leather jackets, which are at the higher end of Berek’s overall price scale, which ranges from $14.75 to $159 wholesale.
“We are seeing that our better specialty stores still want semiextravagant news and they need those more-special pieces that customers are asking for,” she said. “The top that you wear under the jackets can always be lower priced, but a jacket is more of a statement item, which still has to have good value, but people are still reacting to them.”
Julie Jordan Browne, director of sales at the New York-based Nic +Zoe, said the company has managed to make its business more efficient by controlling inventories and encouraging stores to place their orders as soon as they can.
“If they can place orders early, we can ensure them the product,” she said. “We really don’t want to run to a situation where we can’t fill late orders because we have limited inventory.” Browne said the company has also focused the product mix on key classifications.
“There’s not as much fluff in the line, it’s not necessarily a smaller line, there are just more options in categories like skirts and sweaters and less in wovens,” she said. Browne said these new adjustments have helped business so far and for spring, she is expecting increases in overall volume. “We exceeded our expectations for spring 2009 because we were very focused,” she said. “We are keeping that same confidence for [next] spring. It’s been heartbreaking to see some of our stores close down, but we are seeing things getting a little better for fall, which is positive going forward.”