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April 10, 2008
Grabbing Share From Surf & Street Wear
Several retailers have asked me if Surf and Streetwear product can sell beside their cornerstone brands. In my opinion, all Outdoor Operations need to be asking themselves this question.
It's a never-ending quest to evolve our identity and drive more traffic, and many of the Surf/Streetwear lines are a nice complement to the sportswear lines we carry today. Most importantly, these collections add another dimension to our business without taking away from our core categories.
It simply adds annual rate to a fun, new exciting business. Many of our customers intersect both of these business models, so why not embrace the opportunity?
Here are a few observations:
- A large segment of the 'Outdoor' customer base is wearing fashion items (t-shirts, sneakers and denim with some surf and skate influence).
- Online Outdoor heavyweight Moosejaw is representing a Street mix as well as Surf. They have moved from core brands into lesser known labels. In addition, these labels are now taking up valuable e-commerce space. These are both clear signs of success.
- The customer wants more options and there's a lot of product availability.
-The core Surf, Skate and Street brands have moved into lifestyle brands. In addition, several key vendors have moved into lifestyle brands for the 35-55 age groups, such as Quicksilver Edition.
- There's potential for slightly higher margin opportunities in Surf/Street. In addition, the initial commitments to test these lines are not very high.
-Reorders and chasing product 'closer to need' is a cash flow opportunity. Product seems to be readily available in this market.
I know several retailers who have added these categories and had some early success. Surf is probably the best category to start with since the surf lines of old have abandoned their core surf strategy. They now consider themselves to be lifestyle brands and as a result they complement the mix of product that we already have in our stores.
Merchants who have dipped their toes in this market usually start with the Quicksilver, Billabong and Hurley lines and then expand into lesser-known brands. But remember, you have to be committed if you are going to successfully enter this market. The new lines need to be presented front and center. I also recommend a separate planning category for Surf to truly understand what the opportunity presents.
If you do well in the Surf category the next step is to extend into Streetwear. Plan these tests into your Sportswear OTB's. A small dollar risk could lead to a great opportunity.
If you aren't in either of these categories yet, test the waters and let me know how you do. I'm betting that there's an opportunity to grab some market share.
Posted by Jason LeBlanc at April 10, 2008 07:14 PM
