California Apparel News

Novelty has always been important to the T-shirt market, but in the past 12 months the Lira brand has been focusing more on the concept.

Todd Kellogg, the founder of the Anaheim, Calif.–headquartered brand, has been pumping up his T-shirt designs with new washes and new silhouettes. “We’ve always done washes, just not to this extent,” he said.

In the past 12 months, he estimated that his brand has been doing 30 percent more washed tees. In the past, he did only one wash. Now he does five.

Still, the plain white T-shirt remains popular, and Lira continues to make them. But expanding into more novelty came after retailers told Kellogg they wanted more T-shirts with heavier washes. “Maybe a more vintage-inspired vibe is working right now. [Washes] were hot in the ’80s and ’90s. It’s having its cycle again. That’s why it is trending.”

Washed T-shirts typically start with something called a “prepared-for-dye” T-shirt, which usually looks off-white. Then it is placed in a solution or a wash to give it different designs.

Lira’s most popular washes are the crystal wash, the mineral wash, the enzyme wash and the enduring look from the 1960s and 1970s—the tie dye.

Kellogg described the crystal wash as a pattern that looks like shattered glass. Mineral washes give knits a faded look. Enzyme washes provide a similar faded look but with a tinge that appears brown and orange. All shades of tie dye are in demand, Kellogg said. Also popular is the multicolored tie dye, typically popular at concerts of hippie icons such as the Grateful Dead.

But the extra work comes at a price. Lira T-shirts without washes wholesale for $12 and retail for $24. T-shirts featuring washes wholesale for $15 and retail for $30.

Dotan Shoham, owner of the Pacific Blue Garment Solutions dyehouse in Los Angeles, agreed that manufacturers are more interested in washes. “It seems like a lot of brands are looking to beef up their collections with new kinds of looks next to their plain-color offerings,” Shoham said, noting that he mainly sees requests for pigment dyes, distress dyes and techniques to give garments a distressed look. “Marble washes totally came back to life in the past six to 10 months.”

While there has been more interest in washes recently, there has also been more interest in different T-shirt silhouettes. “We’re doing a lot of extended lengths. It is still popular,” Kellogg said. “We are starting to see a trend going back to regular lengths with boxy fits.”

Also popular are T-shirts with a “scalloped” side or an extended length with a slit.

Lira makes 95 percent of its knit apparel in California while it produces its other styles overseas. Those styles range from walking shorts, pants and woven shirts for men and women to boardshorts for men and swimwear for women.

Kellogg has a long history in apparel. He was the senior buyer and director of product development for the retail chain Beach Bums.

Kellogg started designing Lira in 2007 to fill a niche in the marketplace. At the time, he believed action-sports styles were changing because people wanted a little more fashion, so he wanted Lira to be a bridge between the two.

Kellogg designed eight T-shirts for the new brand and went to the MAGIC trade show in February 2008 to introduce them.

But his timing couldn’t have been worse. Kellogg was introducing the new brand just months after the start of the Great Recession. “The best I ever did was start in the worst economy. You can only go up,” he said, noting that good designs will always find a market.

At the trade show, he received orders from 12 accounts. The designs took off, powered by their own strength. “I’m not a pushy salesperson,” he said. “People saw something unique and different.”

There has been an extension of the brand every season. In 2009, Lira started making sweatshirts. The next year, it introduced outerwear. Then it started making women’s tees.

In November 2017, Lira opened an office in Montreal with the Canadian headquarters handling distribution across Canada. Previously, it relied on third-party companies to distribute goods to its 150 Canadian retail partners.

In the United States, Lira has been sold at retailers including Nordstrom, Tilly’s, Active and Sun Diego.