Girls Get on the Board
As the number of girls skating, snowboarding and surfing increases, sportswear manufacturers are getting in touch with their feminine side. With functional suits, girly rash guards made for riding waves, sporty cover-ups and fashion-driven streetwear, girls are driving sportswear sales.
According to Marie Case of Board Trac, a market research firm based in California’s Orange County that focuses on the action sports industry, the board-sport industry is worth $11 billion—and girls are steadily increasing their share.
A report released this year by Board Trac says women account for 27.4 percent of the nearly 24 million surfers, skaters and snowboarders in the United States. “About 25 percent of girls between the ages of 9 and 25 participate in board sports on some level,” Case said.
Besides making waves by embracing the action sports lifestyle, girls are raising their profile with their spending habits. “These girls buy more items, spend more money and shop more frequently than the boys,” Case said. For example, the average surfer girl buys 16 T-shirts in one year while her male counterpart purchases 11, she said. A study conducted by the company in 2004 found girl skaters spend roughly $128 per month on themselves, while the average male skater spends about $97.
Sportswear manufacturers are in the unique position to benefit from the swell, said Case, “because girls read the magazines related to the sports, and they’re influenced by the ads and what they see in specialty shops.” Planted firmly in the activewear arena, sportswear manufacturers are well placed to carry over their credibility and sport sensibility to girls’ activewear and junior fashion.
Volcom, the Orange County action sports manufacturer that made waves recently when it went public, has made its junior division a major focus. According to a market performance report released last month by Piper Jaffray, an investment banking firm, junior apparel accounted for 31.3 percent of Volcom’s sales in 2004, growing 61 percent from 2003 with “little marketing or sales effort.” The report states that Volcom believes its juniors business has the potential over time to represent 40 percent of the company’s overall sales.
Volcom isn’t the only sportswear manufacturer championing junior apparel. According to Piper Jaffray, junior apparel makes up 40 percent of Quiksilver Inc.’s apparel sales and 45 percent of Pacific Sunwear of California’s apparel sales.
Jeff Turpin, president of Vista, Calif.–based manufacturer 2J Group, is in the midst of expanding his junior offerings. The company holds the license to manufacture Aaron Chang brand casual active apparel for men and juniors and debuted its most recent addition, a contemporary line called Aaron Chang Exposure, at Surf Expo in January. “Our projections are up,” Turpin said. “We’ve already done second cuts.”
The emerging girls’ sportswear market is very exciting to smaller manufacturers, said Turpin, because “it levels the playing field.” “The core customer for this category shops in specialty stores,” he said. “We’re already in there, and we are just as capable of creating good product. The category lets us compete with the big guys.”
Surf Diva, a La Jolla, Calif.–based all-women’s surf school, has grown into a licensor of surf boards, swimsuits, stationery and apparel. New York–based Sand-n-Steel Apparel Group acquired the license to manufacture Surf Diva apparel and unveiled its first collection at the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo in San Diego this month.
The line, which is geared toward 15- to 35-year-old surfer girls and surfer wannabes, is divided into basic lifestyle apparel (tank tops, hoodies, sweat pants) and fashion apparel (denim blazers, embroidered jeans, embellished tops). Suzanne Witrock, Sand-n-Steel’s owner and executive vice president, expects the line to be represented mainly in specialty stores for the launch.
Although girls are a growing target for action sports manufacturers, they’re not necessarily an easy target. “Girls want their clothes to be functional and look cute,” said Witrock. “They have athletic bodies, and they’re very conscious of the cut and fit of their activewear. Everything has to be fashionable.”
Specialty shops welcome girls’ sportswear, but some cast a wary eye on sportswear-inspired fashions for girls. “Girls’ fashion changes all the time, much more so than men’s,” said Rocky Sabo, owner of San Clemente, Calif.–based retail shop Rocky’s Surf City.
“The trends come so quickly that you have to be quick to stock it and hope it sells before it goes out of style. I can buy men’s T-shirts, and if I don’t sell it now, I can sell it three years later because it won’t go out of fashion. But if I buy too many layered skirts and I don’t sell them this summer then I have to discount them.”
But it’s not just the “core” girls who are buying sportswear. Jennifer Nichols, the store manager of the San Clemente branch of World Core, a board-sport retailer that specializes in gear for girls, says about 75 percent of the girls who buy T-shirts and other apparel at her store are not actual participants in a board sport. “They just want to look the part,” she said, “and they like the style.”
Todd Kellogg, senior buyer at Anaheim, Calif.–based Beach Bums, said the push for girls’ apparel is huge. To meet the demand, he hired a buyer to keep the girls department stocked with fresh merchandise.
Dress your skater in stretch denim and corduroy
According to Scott Bailey, chief financial officer of Costa Mesa, Calif.–based skate apparel brand KR3W Apparel, the days of skate rats sporting oversized jeans and tent-sized T-shirts have passed. “These kids want old-school, punk-inspired pants—basically tight jeans with stretch,” said Bailey, who describes KR3W (pronounced “crew”) as a fashion-driven skate brand for male skaters ages 14 to 22.
To meet the need, the three-year-old brand introduced the “Andrew Reynolds,” a super-slim pant available in 2 percent stretch denim or 4 percent stretch corduroy. “It’s our hottest-selling pant,” Bailey said, noting that beyond being popular in classic black, the pants also sell well in more fashionforward washes and colors, including a vibrant plum shade. KR3W’s denim retails for $60 to $120.
Suit up
Blazers are big news for surf- and skate-apparel manufacturers trying to keep up with their customers’ evolving style. Brands with roots in surf and skate are offering a variety of blazers, including vintage-inspired and slightly shrunken styles, to suit everyone from the punk kids to the preppy set.
Relative newcomer Brendan Mignogna debuted Zayd by Brendan Mignogna in 2004 and gained popularity at the 2004 Orange County Design Collective (OC/DC), a three-year-old exhibit recognizing Orange County designers and labels. Participating designers and labels create one-of-a-kind outfits that are auctioned to benefit the America Works for Kids charity. The 2004 event was held at The Lab shopping center in Costa Mesa.
The new line includes reworked vintage blazers, vests and T-shirts. The blazers, individually screen-printed, embellished and hand-stitched by Mignogna, caused a stir at last month’s Waterman’s Ball, the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association’s (SIMA) annual gala in Dana Point, Calif.
“Four guys were wearing them that night,” Mignogna said, but he hesitates to categorize his line as a surf brand. (Those “guys” included Op marketing director Gary Siskar and former SIMA President Peter Townend.) Rather, Mignogna thinks his San Clemente, Calif.–based brand simply appeals to the surf market because of its “indie executive look,” which will soon include reworked vintage ties, scarves and pocket handkerchiefs. “Surfers like the handcrafted details that make these blazers look killer,” he said.
For now, the line is sold in two Habit boutiques in Southern California, and there are no plans to sell in surf or skate shops.
