Women’s professional sports have large contingents of young female fans who look up to the athletes and often aspire to turn pro themselves one day. In fact, part of the mission of women’s sports leagues is typically to bring young girls into the sports community as players and fans, as well as to support and […]
Archive | Demographic groups
Merchandise On A Mission
The last several years have given rise to a crop of new mission-driven apparel companies, launched by current and former athletes, that serve as sports licensees. The collaborative merchandise helps spread the word about the shared goals of the partners to support and promote social justice, diversity, equal rights for all, empowerment, and positive change. […]
Youth Movement
In the last year, fashion brands have been actively looking to the kids’ sector for growth opportunities, often by expanding their children’s businesses—or entering this sector for the first time—through licensing: Superdry got into the kids’ space in a licensing deal with U.K. retailer Next, announced earlier this month. The 95-piece collection, which Next will […]
Wearing Your Fandom at Your Wedding
Earlier this year, a deal between wedding gown maker Lulu Felice and manga artist Ai Yazawa produced a collection of wedding dresses and other wedding-appropriate formal wear tied to two of the artist’s properties, Nana and Neighborhood Story. Some of the pieces—each line features nine dresses and two tuxes—replicate gowns worn by the lead characters […]
Products for Living and Learning
Now that school’s out for the summer, home goods and other retailers are starting to debut their back-to-college collaborations in anticipation of the 2024-2025 academic year. Three such partnerships were announced in June: At Home launched its new home décor range with lifestyle expert and designer Joy Cho and her Oh Joy! brand in July […]
Celebrating Pacific Island Culture
During the past three years, fashion companies have ramped up collaborative activities with designers, celebrities, and labels from underrepresented communities, in an effort to diversify their industry. That includes seeking out partners hailing from the Pacific Islands, which are situated across a vast area of the Pacific Ocean, extending from the U.S. West Coast to […]
Finding Consumers Where They Work or Play
This past September, J.C. Penney paired with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products to release women’s and men’s sweaters, dresses, shirts and tops, jackets, tote bags, and other apparel and accessories tied to the TV series Abbott Elementary. The collection was designed specifically for teachers, emphasizing comfort and affordability as well as a casual-but-professional style. […]
Augmenting Adaptive Apparel Assortments
The fashion industry has been slowly putting more focus on consumers with disabilities since the mid-2010s, when it began picking up the pace of adaptive apparel releases. The technique has been flourishing in the last 18 months, as the business has seen several launches of adaptive clothing lines from retailers and brands, not to mention […]
Diversity and Inclusion at Play
For many years, entrepreneurs have been at the New York Toy Fair launching ethnically and culturally diverse product lines, created because they could not find anything similar at retail for their own children. In the past, these initiatives most typically have consisted of ranges of diverse dolls, often accompanied by books outlining the characters’ backstory. […]
Grabbing the World by the Lapels
A handful of womenswear designers known for very feminine styles have been bringing their sensibilities into the menswear space of late. The move makes sense as the lines between womenswear and menswear are increasingly blurring, as illustrated by the rise of gender-neutral collections and gender-neutral pieces within womenswear and menswear lines. Some recent examples: Laura […]