Retailers Have High Hopes for Men’s Low-Rise Jeans
Youth-oriented retailers reported disappointing sales trends Wednesday--the latest sign that shoppers may be slowing their spending just as the important back-to-school shopping season launches.
Retailers blame some of the problem on the lack of “must-have” items for men, a trend they hope to reverse by marketing a male version of the low-rise jeans so popular with young women.
Los Angeles-based Guess Inc. said it had expected to sell the jeans for men only in top markets, such as L.A., New York and Miami. But the pants also are selling in Middle America, said Erik Joule, general merchandise manager for men’s clothing at Guess.
“It’s a big thing for back-to-school,” he said.
But the back-to-school shopping season depends on more than jeans alone, and so far youth-oriented retailers are seeing troubling signs.
Counterculture favorite Hot Topic Inc. said Wednesday that July sales were slower than expected and August sales also might fall short of expectations. Apparel retailer Gadzooks Inc., based in Carrollton, Texas, also said this week that July sales were running “significantly lower” than expected.
And footwear maker Genesco Inc., based in Nashville, Tenn., lowered its earnings expectations after sales slowed last week at its Journeys stores.
Hot Topic and Genesco’s stock prices got hammered. Hot Topic’s share price lost $6.90, or 31%, closing at $15.55 in Nasdaq trading. Genesco’s stock hit a 52-week low of $15 in Wednesday’s trading before closing at $15.15, down $6.13, on the New York Stock Exchange. Gadzooks stock closed at $8.90, off 14 cents, on Nasdaq.
It is too soon to know if consumers have slammed the brakes on spending but there’s still time for back-to-school sales to pick up, analyst Joseph Teklits of Wachovia Securities said Wednesday.
But the recent stock market turbulence may have kept some shoppers “frozen on the sidelines,” he said. Boring clothes also could be hurting sales, along with a lack of clearance inventory to draw bargain hunters to malls, Teklits said.
Gloomy July sales results are particularly painful for retailers because so many of them were hoping for a strong second half of the year. At City of Industry-based Hot Topic, “very disappointing” sales of men’s clothing have cast a cloud over third-quarter results, Chief Executive Betsy McLaughlin said in a statement.
“In the absence of a clear men’s trend, coupled with the historically significant contribution of men’s during the back-to-school period, we are also revising our original earnings expectations for the third quarter,” she said.
Other retailers also have struggled to move men’s products off shelves, leading some to push the new hip-hugger jeans for men.
Levi Strauss & Co., a San Francisco jeans maker that has been dogged with slumping sales, launched an advertising campaign this week to promote its low-slung jeans for men and women. The television spots show slim young people venturing into gritty parts of town and encountering danger while clad in what the ad calls “dangerously low” jeans.
“No one knows if low-rise are going to catch on with guys,” said Michael Wood, vice president of Teenage Research Unlimited in Northbrook, Ill. “I think it’s a risk Levi truly had to take.”
Though Levi may have the highest advertising profile for hip-hugging jeans, several other companies also have begun offering trim, low-rise pants for males.
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., an Anaheim-based retailer that caters to surfers and skateboarders, said this week it has begun testing the lower-cut styles in its stores.
Other companies cranking out the new men’s style include Diesel Inc., which sells jeans for $100 to $200 a pair, and V.F. Jeanswear, a division of VF Corp. in Greensboro, N.C., and maker of Wrangler and Lee brands. Hip-huggers account for 15% to 20% of Wrangler’s men’s business, said Angelo LaGrega, president of VF Jeans- wear’s Wrangler division.
“I think we’re all going to make sure our brands are represented in this emerging trend as it grows,” LaGrega said.
While men have been wearing baggy pants hanging off their hips for years, the newer style is less sloppy and more “James Dean,” as one industry insider put it. Skinny, low-cut jeans have become so popular with women, that men finally appear ready for the look, some apparel insiders say. Skimpier jeans won’t look as brief on men, though, since they aren’t likely to wear them with midriff-baring tops.
It’s far from clear, however, how well low-rise pants will work for back-to-school shoppers, since parents and school districts also are likely to weigh in on the subject.
“The question is, how low is too low?” said Marshal Cohen, co-president of NPD Fashion World, a division of NPD Group, a market information company in New York.
For young people, “the more radical and edgy, the better,” Cohen said. “School officials and parents are going to have a different opinion. The question is, how will they react to the low-rise?”
Meanwhile, many retailers continue to stock up on many styles of jeans, including the still popular relaxed carpenter-style pants.
Even if shopping gets off to a slow start, retailers can hope for a rebound in the “second wave” of back-to-school shopping, which usually occurs late in September after young people start school and discover they bought the wrong things, said Wood of Teenage Research Unlimited.
“It’s not like it was in the day when you went out and did one shopping trip and that was that,” he said. “They convince their parents to go back then and buy more clothes.”
