February 2007

Fleece Flurry

This year brings fresh, unique fleece styles for women, teamwear and even corporate programs. Read on to find out what’s new – and hear how other distributors are kicking their fleece sales into high gear.

By Rock Neelly

In 2007, if you want to sell fleece, don’t just use the word unisex. This year, unique women’s styles are the must-have of corporate programs.

Until now, fleece was pretty much the last bastion of unisex attire in promotional apparel. Hey, a sweatshirt is a sweatshirt, right? Actually, no. It’s not. The separation of the sexes started about six or seven years ago in promotional apparel with the golf shirt market. Yes, reverse plackets had been available on a few styles, but suddenly (and by suddenly, I mean after 30 years of requests), in about 1998, women wanted – and received – color choices and cuts that flattered them. And let’s face it – women just weren’t having any more oversized left-chest embroidery locations.

The liberation of women’s promotional apparel soon spread to wovens, then jackets, most recently tees, and in 2007, fleece got on board.

Just for the ladies
Christi Pack, assistant marketing manager for Hanes Printables/Outer Banks in Winston-Salem, NC, says, “Just as it happened in the T-shirt market segment, we’re seeing a larger demand for women-specific styling.” In response, Hanes introduced three value-priced women’s styles: a women’s crew (W160), a women’s full-zip hood (W280) and the women’s fleece pant (W550). All three are 80/20 cotton/poly fabric.

Pack adds that, like tees before the separation in men’s and women’s products about three years ago, fleece was and is, in some quarters, still considered a unisex product. But Hanes has made a decision that its new women’s styles will mirror companion styles for men, but will have extra styling added to provide a unique fit.

John Rusk, director of product development and sourcing for Mooresville, NC-based Raging River Apparel, says the trick to selling fleece is to match the fashion looks women want in the sizes they need. “Our direction for the women’s Raging River product line was to offer the styling and fabrications trends traditionally found in the junior market in women’s sizing. In fact, 45% of American women wear a size between 8 and 12,” he says.

Rusk says that despite the fact that price and the conservative nature of purchasing agents have kept the brakes on additional SKUs being added in fleece categories, women’s fleece is here to stay.

Raging River is interpreting fabric, color and styling trends, and adding shape and details in the right places to give their women’s styles a great-looking fit. All of the line’s women’s styles are side seamed with tapered waists for a flattering fit. So more advice: Banish the word boxy from your vocabulary and incorporate flattering, fitted women’s garments into your sales presentations.

Distributors who venture into sales presentations with no women’s fleece styles to show do so at their own peril, says Lori Anderson, marketing manager for Hopkins, MN-based River’s End Trading Co.

“You just don’t see your typical oversized sweatshirts anymore in industry catalogs. So many new fleece styles and unique details in products are available. There are more ladies’ styles with slimming silhouettes, new color options and fashion fleece with more style,” Anderson says. “Fleece isn’t about a basic, pullover sweatshirt anymore. These new styles and treatments are more geared toward the women’s market, however. Men still look for a basic, heavy fleece, but also will like some of the new performance fabrics and technical treatments.”

River’s End’s best new fleece products are also for the ladies this year; the supplier added a quilted jacket with zip-off sleeves. The jacket is made of 100% water- and wind-resistant nylon, and has, in Anderson’s words, “cuddly, soft, micro velvet sleeves, collar and cuffs.” The company also has added a soft fleece vest and jacket to its Storm Creek line with a “wild hair” fabric treatment. And finally, River’s End added two additional women’s hoodies, both made with super-lightweight fabric.

Tom Flippo, vice president of sales at Indepen­dence, MO-based Dunbrooke
Apparel Corp., also has noticed a big shift toward unique women’s fleece styles
appearing on the market.

“About five years ago, retail was showing all these television commercials – The Gap and Old Navy – and Dunbrooke took this enormous inventory on fleece,” Flippo says. “We had quarter zips, full zips, scarves, blankets – just everything. But so did everyone else, and the market became saturated. But now things are coming around again. Fleece has been hot for us again this year – both in commodity price points and in fashion fleece. This time, women’s unique fleece styles are part of that comeback mix.”

Flippo says that this year is an exciting time for Dunbrooke. The company is kicking off a new product line called Dunbrooke Basics, featuring strategic partner, Anaheim, CA-based Alstyle Apparel. While Alstyle isn’t a household name for American consumers, nearly every household has Alstyle fleece in its closets and dressers. Alstyle is one of the nation’s largest private-label providers. Dunbrooke will take advantage of Alstyle’s retail styling insights and introduce the brands Tennessee River, AAA and Murina, and the retail fashion ladies line, Gaziani.
Dunbrooke expects its corporate program business to double with this fleece connection. Flippo reminds promotional distributors why fleece is so important. “Fleece jackets are a natural, a staple of the industry,” he says. “They definitely sell, and the styles are certainly needed additions to a corporate program. They round out product categories. So when our customers are putting together a program, we encourage them to offer fleece jackets – both a quarter zip and a full – zip – because of the incremental sales that’ll occur.”

Dunbrooke’s best new fleece pieces are reinventions of their previous quarter zips and full-zip fleece jackets. The new quarter zip in non-pill polyester fleece is called the Tahoe, and the microfleece full zip is the Tacoma. But why reintroduce two silhouettes already recognized as Dunbrooke staples throughout the promotional industry?

Flippo says, “The market is always balancing value – price and quality. The truth is that the price of fleece jackets is 25% during the last five years, and yet the quality and the fabric weight is up.”

Team spirit
The market for team, school and athletic fleece is also hopping, according to Lee Strom, senior marketing manager at Seattle-based SanMar. “We can’t forget a core audience for fleece, which is the school and team market,” he says.

The school and team marketplace has a much more traditional “Champion” super-heavyweight feel to product selection. Appliqué and large embroidery is still very popular here, although some vendors are reporting that wraparound screen prints have become more important in the last year. Pack suggests that nontraditional screen printing locations are increasingly finding their way into the team market.
“We’re seeing a return to athletic-inspired color blocking with last year’s retail trend back to the track jacket. In 2007, you’ll see those track jacket inspirations show up in the fleece market,” Rusk says.

Rusk says the window from when a look is available in the retail and athletic markets to when the promotional market makes it available has decreased to months. And Strom agrees, as he talks about how fleece makes the transition from school and team to corporate. “There’s room for fleece as a niche item in the corporate market. I’m talking about team-building outings and other event-driven programs,” he says.

“There’s also a place for more sophisticated fleece styles in corporate gifting.”

Corporate fleece
Anyone who believes fleece is too blue collar for corporate programs is missing the boat, says Mark Goldwater, sales and marketing manager for Sierra Pacific, which has offices in Houston and New York. It’s another part of the corporate identity process, he insists, that when his garment is tastefully embroidered, the employee will wear it beyond normal office hours.

Goldwater offers this bit of advice when placing fleece into a program. “The other factor not considered by many buyers is the size range available. Let’s face it: America is growing bigger around the waistline, and our orders are proportionally going up in the size scale,” he says.

Mike Trull, president of Pacific Fleece and Apparel, located in the San Francisco Bay area, says he sees retail looks arrive quickly in the promotional market. He recommends shopping retail for the looks you like and then searching good fleece providers for the same or similar products.

Don’t move too far into retail territory in terms of color. “Ladies’ wear has some nice light blue, raspberry, even chocolate colors, but men’s wear is still black, navy, khaki, tan and heather gray,” Trull says. “When it comes to fleece jackets, red is sometimes acceptable. Depending on corporate colors, a forest green or even maroon is OK, but unless it’s for a corporate function, men aren’t going to wear purple, yellow or even royal blue. I would say if your client’s corporate colors are any of these, recommend a navy or black garment with the corporate colors in the logo. The idea is to have people wear the garment.”

Color conscious
And as for fashion colors for 2007? Hanes is banking on brown, kelly green and pink, and River’s End has added light pink, apple green and brown.

“Yes, brown is hot again this year,” Flippo says. “Dunbrooke saw earth-tone colors – brick red and dusty pine, among others – really take off at retail, and we’re following that trend. Earth tones are definitely where the market will be in 2007.”
Strom believes the popularity of faded colors among youth will last into 2007. The firm’s District Threads line has a set of pigment-dyed sweatshirts in earth-tone hues. SanMar added two new colors this year to this grouping: sandstone and mustard.

But Strom doesn’t want to advise distributors to tell their corporate and team buyers to stray too far from the traditional. “In some ways, fleece is sheltered from shifts in color trends because it’s so often used for school and teamwear,” he says. “Whatever the school or team (or corporate) colors are, those are always the ones you want to bring to the table.”