September 2008
On Abby, a combed ring spun cotton baby-rib, double-ruffle T-shirt (3338) in white and turquoise, from L.A.T Sportswear (asi/65948; RSN #130); 100% cotton jersey shorts (0256-000) from Kavio! (asi/64152; RSN #131).
Gen Millennium Rules
Think it’s a challenge to up your kids’ wear orders even more? It’s not. We’ve got some great tips from distributors who are doing just that. Plus, we’ve got some of the hottest kids’ wear around.
Really, who can resist children’s tiny duds? Certainly not their parents, whose spending on their offspring’s clothes surged 13% in the retail segment (up to approximately $30.6 billion) between 2001 and 2007, according to reports released by Mintel (www.mintel.com). As with style cues, spending patterns also translate from the retail world to the promotional apparel world. Here’s how you can make the trend profitable for your company.
On Shane, a youth Euro-fit T-shirt in sail green (511BC) from Article.1 (asi/36993; RSN #132); youth woodland vintage paratrooper pants (2546) in camo from Rothco (asi/83708; RSN #133).
Of course, higher gas prices and the ripple effect it creates are affecting everyone from kids’ wear suppliers to end-users. While Morey Mayeri, president of Royal Apparel (asi/83731) in New York City, hasn’t seen these increases affecting his business as far as sales are concerned, he has felt a pinch regarding raw materials – and anything having to do with petroleum products.
“We’re doing our best to keep prices at bay by being more efficient in our production cycle and buying in bulk,” Mayeri says. Surprisingly, kids’ wear sales are on the rise, especially in regard to Royal Apparel’s new organic line, Mayeri says. “It has a lot to do with the fact that we’re made in the USA and can turn things around quickly,” he says.
Feelings are similar at L.A.T Sportswear (asi/65948) in Ball Ground, GA. “Kids’ wear is considered a necessity. Parents will keep buying their kids clothing, so the category isn’t as affected as luxury or nonessential items,” says Mindy Anastos, vice president of production planning and marketing at L.A.T Sportswear. “Also, from a promotional aspect, kids’ wear is extremely affordable. Companies that may have used a more expensive promotional item in the past, such as a plush toy, now may switch to kids’ wear to get more ‘bang for their buck.’”
A popular kids’ wear market is resorts, Anastos says: “These are actually not suffering as much as one might think, for a couple of reasons: Families who may have gone overseas for a vacation are now more likely to stick closer to home, and we are having a large influx of foreign visitors because of the value of the euro and yen. Also, a lot of kids’ wear is sold at the collegiate level, and this continues to prosper even in harder economic times.”
On Kelsey and Birdie, 100% polyester micro-chenille hooded robes, and on Joely, a 100% polyester scalloped-edge, hooded jacket with contrasting knit trim, all from from Colorado Trading & Clothing (asi/45792; RSN #134); hooded jacket (CC6368) in kiss-white and children’s robes (CC6367) in kiss-white.
And on the distributor side, there are still plenty of success stories. For example, Gary Powell, president and owner of ImageWear Solutions (asi/230410), went one step beyond offering his grocery store client children’s logoed apparel. He instituted a reward program for kids wearing it. “They have prizes for the children of the employees if the children wore the shirts when they came in the store,” Powell says.
The program started off as uniform logoed polo shirts for adult employees. Later, the grocery store added a more casual shirt that employees were allowed to wear one day per week. It featured a small, cartoon grocery bag character on the left chest.
Then Powell presented the option of offering shirts for toddlers through preteens. The grocery store jumped at the chance, and ImageWear created a full-chest image of the bag character with the store name and the city under it. By going a little bigger than life, the character was better suited for kids. “It’s gone over great, and they’ve talked about reordering soon,” Powell says.
On Birdie, tie-dye has always been a popular trend in kids’ wear. T-shirt (TDPY) from Virginia T’s Inc. (asi/93917; RSN #135); youth ankle length sport tights (5110) available from Pizzazz (asi/78230; RSN #136).
Bouncing babies
A few prominent trends are emerging in baby gear: black clothing for babies and styles that closely mimic adult fashions, says Andrea Engel, vice president of merchandising for Broder (asi/42090). Although classic pastels will always be popular, “black is really emerging as a big color,” she says. “Now parents want kids to look like themselves, which is different from 20 years ago.”
Engel is also seeing more demand for organic baby items, reflecting the eco-conscious trend. Organic clothing would be perfectly suited for promoting “green” business or any health-care organization.
Distributor Barb Burcham, owner of Ad-Specialties & More, Ltd. (asi/113357), added bodysuits for newborns to a hospital program, and also items for the gift shop, including baby items imprinted with “Grandma’s Little Angel,” “Little Bundle of Joy” and other slogans to make the items even more appealing to relatives eager to spend on the newest family member.
And, Powell has sold baby apparel and accessories to a few unlikely clients, such as a janitorial company he serves. “They were ordering company uniforms and wanted something for baby gifts,” he says. Powell offered several items, and the company selected baby beanie hats, blankets and bodysuits, all emblazoned with the company logo.
Tons of toddlers
Burcham didn’t forget about the new big brothers and big sisters when calling on her hospital gift shop account. She included T-shirts in toddler sizes also. Slogans that related the toddler to the new arrival, such as “I’m a big brother,” and the hospital’s name or logo, made these items a hit.
On Kelsey, this 100% combed ring spun cotton ruffle sunflower dress is great for school, play dates and birthday parties. Sunflower dress (0331-000) from Kavio! (asi/64152; RSN #131).
Just as with babies, toddlers’ clothing has become mini versions of adult clothing. Burcham has ordered kids’ camouflage tees for a construction company’s employees’ small children. “They’re for the kids to wear when the dads are going off hunting,” she says.
By relating to the employees’ interests and hobbies, her promos proved irresistible. But don’t forget that toddlers want to mimic their older, school-age siblings, too. For example, as you’re supplying a school athletic program, why not pitch toddler-size tees in school colors showing the team mascot?
Any business serving this demographic – day cares, tot activity centers, zoos, children’s entertainers – could also use tees, hats and mini bags as giveaways and/or prizes.
Young grade-school kids
Children in this age group want to be just like their parents probably more than at any other age. This is the perfect group for pitching pint-sized clothing for grown-up soirées: fund-raisers, company picnics, grand opening events and so on. “It’s always a big hit for the parents,” Burcham says.
Ad-Specialties recently provided kids’ tees in a goodie bag for an oil company’s picnic. “They loved that their kids got an itty-bitty package like they did,” Burcham says. “Packaging is important.”
Last year, each child received his own six-pack mini cooler holding a tee, sport bottle and hat. This year, they received beach pails, shovels, kites and shirts. “It’s a great thing for a company, because employees know that the company puts family first,” Burcham says.
She likes to have the kids’ clothing resemble but not identically match the grown-ups’ clothing. For the picnic, she coordinated the children’s shirts by ordering white-and-red ringer shirts to go with the adults’ solid-red shirts that bore the classic left-chest logo.
On Abby, toddler fleece zippered hoodie (3396), available from L.A.T Sportswear (asi/65948; RSN #130), and navy skort (0208-000) from Kavio! (asi/64152; RSN #131).
Trendy preteens
This growing market is “more savvy and fashion-conscious than ever,” Sims says. “They want to dress more like older siblings than ever before.”
Success with “tweens” depends upon keen trend awareness. Sims reports an uptick in sales of girls’ shirts with details: lettuce edging, half-snap front closures and ruffles on the sleeve cuffs. For boys, ringers are a big hit.
Powell has noticed that with this age group, image is very important. “They don’t want to mimic their parents,” he says. “Alter the look a little with different color schemes to make it more appealing.”
Fashion colors such as eggplant, gold and dark colors have jumped in popularity. Sims also sees lots of requests for offbeat color combinations, such as chocolate brown with pink or light blue.
You can also move more children’s apparel by introducing promotional clothing to businesses that directly touch this demographic. Most general medical practitioners won’t buy apparel for their patients; however, Brian Greul, president of Printomic Inc. (asi/79566), has noticed that orthodontists represent a hot market for promotional apparel.
“Putting braces on a child is expensive, and orthodontists are doing five- and six-color imprints on multiple locations,” Greul says. “It’s high-end work. They tend to reorder frequently, too.”
Sell orthodontists on the concept that not only are apparel items terrific gifts for their young clients, but they’ll also help attract new clients as their friends’ parents notice the logo.
From babies to preteens, children are probably the most appreciative age group and can be a very successful means of promotion for your clients. “If you can get children wearing stuff with your logo, it’s great advertising,” Powell says. “Kids get really excited when they’re part of the program and you don’t forget about them.”
Deborah Jeanne Sergeant is a frequent contributor to Wearables.
Katherine Schneider also contributed to this report.
