Ivanka Trump dresses at Burlington Coat Factory (Melody Hahm)
It
is indisputable that Ivanka Trump’s apparel line has suffered greatly
in recent months, but the first daughter’s affiliations may not be
what’s killing her brand.
Ivanka
Trump’s online sales fell 26% in January compared to January 2016,
according to Slice Intelligence. It’s true that Grassroots movements
like #GrabYourWallet — a campaign that targets retailers that sell Trump
products — may have accelerated this movement to ditch Ivanka Trump
apparel and accessories. However, the brand was already in peril before
Donald J. Trump became president, according to two retail analysts.
“Whether
this was caused by politics or not, the brand was becoming less and
less relevant. The election certainly was an acceleration of retailers
choosing not to carry the line, but over time, the brand was not going
to continue to perform at the Neiman Marcuses and Nordstroms (JWN) of the world,” Jessica Bornn, an analyst at Merchant Forecast, told Yahoo Finance.
Beyond
people not wanting to purchase Trump-branded clothing, the core problem
is actually entirely unrelated to politics. The real culprit is the
dominance of athleisure, making Ivanka Trump’s structured dresses and
pumps seem out of sync with how people dress these days — more casually,
even to work.
Ivanka Trump heels at Nordstrom Rack (Melody Hahm)
US consumers spent $323 billion
on apparel, footwear and accessories in 2014, which represents an
additional $2 billion, or 1%, from the year before, according to The NPD
Group. NPD analyst Marshal Cohen noted growth in the activewear market
is driving that spending.
“Casual
and ‘athleisure’ have taken on a life of their own. This is no longer a
trend — it is now a lifestyle that is too comfortable, for consumers of
all ages, to go away anytime soon.”
And other analysts agree. Morgan Stanley forecasts
that the activewear industry could add $83 billion in sales by 2020.
Deutsche Bank, in a research note last year, pointed out that athletic
apparel was the biggest boost to the industry — up 4.1% from 2008-2015
on average. “As we believe the athleisure cycle is a bona fide trend
with further dollar share shift ahead, we expect the disparity between
athletic and non-athletic growth to widen in upcoming years,” read the
report.
As
Bornn noted, “We are experiencing a macro shift — very few women
actually need to wear tailored pantsuits or dresses to the office
anymore. People just aren’t dressing that formally. The business look is
falling out of favor.”
But it would be unfair to solely call out Ivanka Trump, because other brands in the same category are also struggling.
Ann Taylor storefront (Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ann Taylor (ANN), Kate Spade (KATE), Michael Kors (KORS)
and other players in the mid-tier apparel space — dresses retail around
$150 full price — are logging poor performance because they’re not
matching people’s changing tastes, or are doing so inauthentically,
noted Bornn.
Ivanka Trump: not a ‘destination’ brand
The
other issue may be that Ivanka Trump’s clothes were never a
“destination” category, according to Jan Rogers Kniffen, a former retail
executive and the current CEO of J Rogers Kniffen WWE, a firm that
consults investors in retail companies. For that reason, he’s not
surprised upscale chains like Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom dropped the
Ivanka Trump line. Particularly when shoppers peruse department stores,
all the brands blur into one another. It’s hard to tell one dress from
the next, Kniffen told Yahoo Finance.
Culled from Yahoo finance
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