Do you ever remember a time when you didn’t have at least one pair of jeans hanging or sitting in your wardrobe? We think not. Most of us grew up in the fabric, almost as if it were a uniform for life. We saw it being glorified in movies and being flaunted by the stars we all looked up to, while also taking it as our own unique statement of freedom and individuality.
So, after decades of denim love, it is only natural for the world to be certain that the fabric cannot be replaced by any other. Here’s what we have to say.
Denim caters to a massive global market, generating billions of dollars in profit every year. The industry was valued at over $57 billion last year, and is forecasted to continue growing in the future. With such tremendous profits and scope, it’s no surprise that competitors have sprung up to try and steal away market share along with the spotlight that denim has been enjoying for decades.
In fact, a trend known as athleisure recently came about and tried to threaten the universal fabric. Its emergence saw teens and twenty-somethings hitting the streets in yoga pants and workout apparel between 2011 and 2016, with sales of workout apparel brands like Lululemon, Nike and Under Armour going up. Celebrities like Beyonce and Kanye West also took this boom as a business opportunity and introduced their own lines.
But as expected, the all-new era of wearing athletic apparel out in public could only last that long. With the dawn of 2017, the same consumers were once again choosing to dress up smartly in jeans. Equity analyst Camilo Lyon was recorded saying that the athleisure trend had peaked , and would now undergo a downward trend – which means more and more people will be seen purchasing denim or taking their old denim out of their wardrobes.
The reason for this is pretty obvious – denim has been a tried-and-true staple in the States for a very long time, and has remained on the top of the retail chain. The fabric has also gained popularity around the world over the decades, even in places which had initially been resistant to it before.
The rise of athleisure and the culture of wearing yoga pants out in public might have impacted the growth of denim in a lot of markets, but it could not eat away the market share that denim has always enjoyed. According to Euromonitor apparel and footwear analyst Bernadette Kissane, the denim category is still strong, and is expected to return to growth with a global annual growth rate of 3 percent by the year 2020. Statista reported that by 2021, the market for denim jeans will most likely be able to generate about $129.8 billion in retail sales.
Although, let’s not only talk about forecasts. Let’s also discuss some facts of the current and past year.
This year, research from the NPD Group indicates that denim sales are way ahead of the overall apparel industry – the apparel industry is at 1 percent growth, while denim is currently enjoying a growth of 5 percent. Levi’s has also put out a strong report for the end of the quarter, which highlighted a reported revenue of $1.39 billion – a 10 percent rise as compared to last year.
Doneger Group’s Senior Vice President, Patty Leto, said that last year (2018) had been a good start for denim in the back-to-school teen category as well, and that the fabric continued to become the shopper’s choice as it had once again started appealing to those with the buy-now-wear-now mindset.
Denim has become symbolic over the decades, which makes it obvious that hyper trends such as athleisure can never dislodge it no matter how hard they try. Plus, denim has always been really good at reinventing itself, with different styles and fits to satisfy different eras.
And the verdict? Denim is egalitarian, universal, and everlasting. Nothing can ever replace it.
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