An appetite for fast fashion and an ever increasing speed of trend
cycles has seen the jeans market in the UK diversify over the last decade
in terms of brands, mixed materials and popularity of styles. In 2014,
total jeans sales in the UK reached 2.2 billion pounds with the top 20
brands accounting for a value share of 44 percent and 71 percent of the top
20 representing fast fashion retailers. Subsequently, denim specialist
brands have witnessed a gradual decline in brand share and are at risk of
becoming an increasing minority of the high street denim market.
Source: Euromonitor International
This has been great news for high street retailers, flourishing in high
volume and a fast turnover of stock. Brands such as Asos, Next and New Look
have utilised the opportunity to capitalise on the UK’s enthusiasm for
cheap, trend-led jeans, gaining a healthy value share of the market in
return. Competition for brand share in jeans has intensified as UK
millennial consumers have become increasingly fickle with their denim
purchases. Whether super skinny, high waisted, boyfriend, ankle grazing or
distressed, the defined look of the moment has fuelled a desire for fast
fashion gratification, forgoing denim quality and brand loyalty in
jeans.
While many super-premium brands, such as True Religion and Armani,
continue to perform well, it is clear that the market is becoming
increasingly polarised with super premium and super value dividing
purchases. The mid-market once treasured staple pair of great fitting jeans
has been replaced by a cheap and cheerful wardrobe of multiple trend-led
varieties, leaving mid-market denim brands such as Levi’s and Lee (VF Corp)
struggling to compete with fast fashion brands.
On top of this, the athleisure trend for leggings and yoga or exercise
pants has enticed some UK consumers away from jeans as the go-to trouser
choice for casualwear. Between 2010-2014 leggings recorded a 4 percent
value CAGR compared to a CAGR of 2 percent for standard jeans, creating an
even denser playing field for jeans specialists.
In 2015, we are beginning to see signs of the UK apparel and footwear
market descending the peak of fast fashion. Marks & Spencer Plc. and New
Look Retailers Ltd both saw a decline in their jeans sales in 2013 and
2014. As traditional vintage styles and blue denim make a comeback in
mainstream fashion, specialist denim brands are looking to use this
combined opportunity to reclaim lost ground.
Looking forward, specialist brands are aware that they need to provide
consumers with more than good quality jeans and are responding to
competition from fast fashion in a number of ways. Levi is combatting fad
jeans styles by promoting the timelessness and longevity of its jeans,
tapping into a growing preoccupation with more sustainable eco fashion. The
company’s claim that a pair of Levi’s will endure the test of time,
remaining classically stylish and fully intact for a decade, is hope that
UK consumers will alter their focus back to sustainable denim as an
investment.
Another disenchanted denim brand Gap, have responded by expanding their
range of denim styles. Moving away from standard classic cuts they have
taken to offering a wider variety of styles as to be more fashion-led,
pairing quality with a choice of trends. Finally, denim brands are looking
to compete with leggings by incorporating new materials into their jeans,
with a focus on super stretchy denim and sculpting and shaping technology.
Levi’s, Lee and a host of other brands are hoping to take full advantage
of super stretch jeans over the forecast period.
Despite growing ethical concerns, a decade’s influx of rapidly changing
trends and affordable high volume jeans makes it seem unlikely that demand
for multiple styles, cuts and colours will fade or translate into the end
of fast fashion’s reign. Denim specialist brands offering a wider selection
of jeans styles may entice some consumers to focus on quality, however the
average UK consumer will still need to be value conscious and affordability
will be the defining line when buying into a current and potentially short
lived trend.
While traditional denim specialists will continue to fight back against
fast fashion it will be interesting to observe the fate of new entrants to
the UK denim market. America Eagle Outfitters, who launched in the UK in
late 2014, may be well positioned to bridge the gap between trend-led
fashion jeans and denim specialists, perhaps creating a middle ground for
consumers’ denim purchases. In the forecast period we expect to see UK
consumers looking for the best of both worlds – affordable styles from a
strong denim-focused brand.
By Karla Rendle, Research Analyst at Euromonitor
International