Children's Apparel: market research reports

The children’s apparel market comprises clothing, accessories and footwear for children ages 0 through 12, generally. Apparel for older children – teenagers – generally comprises a different set of products and manufacturers.

Children’s clothing sizes are based on at least six scales or types of measurement:

Infantwear is for babies and kids aged up to 18 months, or even 24 months. In fact, apparel sizes for infantwear are often expressed in age by month, or by spans of months, beginning with zero.

Clothing designed for babies born prematurely is sometimes called “preemie-sized.”

Toddlerwear is sized 2T-4T, and is designed to fit kids aged up to about 3 years.

Preschool-wear is sized 4-6X for girls, and 4-7 for boys. The preschooler age-bracket is roughly 3-5 years.

A few products, for example belts, are sized in inches, to correspond with a young boy’s or girl’s actual body measurements.

For all age-brackets, sizes are more and more often limited to “small,” “medium,” and “large,” especially in the case of loose-fitting casual clothes, and some underwear. The three sizes – or body types – are often abbreviated as S, M, L, or XL (extra large).

Obviously, the ranges above – except for measurement in inches -- must be considered relative, given that different kids’ bodies develop at different rates. Moreover, various styles are cut for tighter or fuller fits. Thus for the sake of accuracy, some manufacturers size and label ITP clothing according to weight ranges.