Almost exactly three years ago, Ralph Lauren Corp’s CEO Patrice Louvet announced an ambitious strategic growth plan, called “Next Great Chapter.” Two years in, it showed modest success, then Covid hit and the bottom fell out. Now the company’s revenues are at levels passed by in 2007. Ralph Lauren faces a long steep climb back […]
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RSS feed for this sectionKanye West Gets What He Always Wanted In Partnering With Gap
Successful brand partnerships are made when it’s a win-win for both brands. That is what the just announced Gap partnership with Kanye West’s Yeezy brand promises. The Gap brand desperately needs a turnaround plan, with global sales falling from $5.3 billion in 2017 to $4.6 billion in 2019. After trying so hard and failing so […]
In Retail First Impressions Count: Suitsupply Is a Brand That Understands That
A recent midweek afternoon shopping trip took me to the King of Prussia Mall. Truth be told, I am not an enthusiastic mall shopper and King of Prussia, as the nation’s third-largest mall, is a monster to navigate. Whenever I go, I almost always park near Nordstrom because of all the stores in the mall, […]
What’s Needed to Turnaround Gap?
For nearly a year, we’ve been anticipating Gap Inc. to split off Old Navy, the largest of its six brands with about the same number of stores globally as the flagship Gap brand – 1,219 Old Navy stores compared with 1,221 Gap – but with nearly half ($5.7 billion) of total corporate sales ($11.7 billion) […]
15 Ways to Fix Shoppers’ Fashion Fatigue
We’ve all seen the headlines: “Low prices aren’t fun anymore – consumers have reached peak happiness with clothing purchases,” on CNBC and “The ‘retail apocalypse’ is an apparel apocalypse,” on Retail Dive. After looking around the industry and studying the research and analyst reports, I find the conclusion unequivocal. American consumers are over their […]