Infant, Toddler and Preschool Clothing Market in the U.S., 3rd Edition

Additional Information

Market Insights: A Selection From The Report

Insights and Opportunities: America's Turn to Be Overwhelmed by Foreign Brands

Packaged Facts anticipates that both clothing and footwear products under the Far Eastern firms' own brands, will be exported to North America on a much grander scale than ever before - at the same time that those firms will likely increase their prices for contract manufacture, leaving U.S.-based ITP clothing/footwear marketers not only without their own domestic infrastructure for making these products, but also without recourse to the costeffective contractors that will have transformed into competitors.

Upscale ITP Products

During the recession of 2008-2009, ITP clothing/footwear was not, generally speaking, one of those markets - like organic personal care products, or frozen raw dog and cat foods -- that was immune to America's belt-tightening. Overall, ITP clothing/footwear retail dollar proceeds were off by 4%, according to Packaged Facts' own estimates. The ITP clothing category slipped by 3%, and ITP footwear, by almost 10%. Decreases in sales of higher-end ITP goods were generally believed to be plummeting along with world financial markets, and during the initial phases of the slow recovery that followed the crash. Packaged Facts agrees that this was the scenario, but hastens to add that luxury goods, if an acquired taste, may be one that is hard to shed. This view is based on historical trends in ITP goods and other markets, in addition to simple observation of human nature.

Green and Organic Trends Are Highly Positive

Packaged Facts observes that, as of 2011, green-positioned ITP clothing/footwear brands have become quite numerous, as have brands that feature organically grown fabrics. One might assume that green or organic brands are strictly the purview of small marketers clinging to an ethos that forever limits them to obscurity, low fashion sense, and sell-through online or through a few kids' boutiques. It is true that there are hundreds of small marketers;however, the more comprehensive truth is that green-positioned and organic clothing/footwear has become a driving force in the apparel industry, especially thanks to marketers and retailers that have brought the message of purity, safety, and sustainability to mass channels (supermarkets, chain drugstores, and mass merchandisers), as well as to major specialty chains that greatly resemble their mass-retail counterparts, in both form and function.

In this report, Packaged Facts analyzes the U.S. retail marketplace for infants’, toddlers’, and preschoolers’ (or ITP) clothing and footwear, as sold through:

• Mass-Market Outlets, that is, mass-merchandisers (for example, Kmart, Target, Wal-mart), supermarkets (Pathmark, Ralph’s), and chain drugstores (CVS, Walgreen’s).

• Specialty Stores, from local boutiques catering to kids and their parents, to chains such as babyGap, Babies “R” Us, and buybuy Baby. A significant marketer-sector is vertically integrated, right down to chain retail operations that are frequently brand-dedicated (e.g., babyGap again, Osh Kosh B’Gosh, Kids Foot Locker), whether stores in the chains carry kids’ products only, or adult clothing/footwear (Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Timberland), as well.

• Department Stores, including Belk, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Sears, many others. Factory Outlets, which were originally located near clothing/shoe factories, to sell imperfect or damaged pieces that could not be sold to consumers through other channels, at regular prices. But ever since the 1980s, consumer demand has been so great that many factory outlets do not carry rejects or “seconds” at all, but instead carry merchandise of intermediate quality, designed and made exclusively for this channel.

• Factory outlets are often brand-dedicated.

• Warehouse Clubs, such as Costco, Sam’s, etc.

• Shoe Stores, from Payless to Foot Locker; some may stock kids’ footwear only. Shoe stores are also encompassed under the headings of “specialty stores,” or simply “specialty.”

• Sporting Goods Stores, which may sell ITP-sized running shoes, tee-shirts, pajamas, etc., decorated with Dad’s - or Mom’s - favorite team logos.

• Direct Sales Media, also called simply “Direct,” comprising Internet websites, mobile, phone “apps,” infomercials, television home shopping networks, mail-order catalogs, electronic or print advertising layouts that include order blanks, and etc.

In this report, Packaged Facts estimates retail sales of ITP clothing/footwear, as transacted through all of the channels above, plus through a miscellany of channels, among them souvenir kiosks, Christmas decorations stores, college bookstores, and so forth. However, for the sake of greater accuracy, the tiny sums gleaned through some of these obscure channels are not broken out, but left encompassed within the “All Other” channels designation.

“Going Green” Pushes the Market for Infant, Toddler and Preschool Clothing Past $18 Billion

New York, March 10, 2011 — Marketers across the consumer product spectrum have “gone green” to boost sales in the face of the recent economic downturn. For producers of clothing and footwear made for the youngest consumer, this ranks among several viable competitive tactics, according to Infant, Toddler and Preschool Clothing Market in the U.S., 3rd Edition by market research publisher Packaged Facts.

Infant, toddler and preschool (ITP) clothing/footwear is an evergreen market because the pool of newborns (and parents or grandparents eager to pamper them) is constantly renewed. Even so the market is mature, in that for decades the number of newborns has hovered around 4.0 million annually. Nonetheless, innovative marketing and design spurred retail sales of infant-to-preschool clothing and shoes to $18.4 billion in 2010 -- a figure projected to exceed $23.0 billion in 2015.

“While it seems almost trite at this point to say that ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ products will fuel growth for a product, in the case of clothing for babies and young children, that is very significantly the case,” observes Don Montuori, Publisher of Packaged Facts. “Indeed, such products are on the verge of becoming mainstream - witness organic or recycled clothing being produced by national brands and sold by mass-merchandisers, including Walmart.”

Clothing and footwear made from fabrics of natural or organic fibers constitute a fast-growing but difficult-to-monitor niche populated by hundreds of small-scale marketers selling limited assortments of products for small-scale people. However, the niche is rapidly growing up to become a market of its own. Major ITP clothing/footwear marketers have already begun to invest more heavily in these products, thereby calling even more attention to them and further expanding consumer options, as evidenced by Faded Glory-branded organic ITP clothing sold through Walmart; Patagonia-branded ITP outerwear incorporating layers of synthetic fabrics made from recycled materials; Crocs clogs made from recycled plastic; and Summer Infant organic cotton swaddling clothes available at Babies “R” Us.

Infant, Toddler and Preschool Clothing Market in the U.S., 3rd Edition, charts the birth, societal, marketing, and licensing trends that drive sales in the mega-market for ITP clothing/footwear. The report analyzes not only the character of the ITP clothing/footwear business itself, but also the competitive personalities of players such as Brown Shoe, Carter’s, Disney, Hanesbrands, The Jones Group, and Sun Capital/Gerber Childrenswear. Experian Simmons demographic data are examined in depth.