While men's underwear remains a vital basic category for mass merchants, the fashion segment of the business continues to grow.
Multi-packs of white briefs still outsell colored offerings and varied silhouettes by far. However, novelty boxer shorts and colored briefs are making bigger waves in the stores.
Overall, men's underwear has held up well. It is the largest selling category of men's apparel after jeans and knit tops at discount stores. In 1992, sales for the first nine months accounted for $461 million at discount stores, compared to the same period in 1991, at $419 million.
Currently, about 20 percent of the brief mix is colored or patterned, and about 11 percent of the business is generated by boxer shorts sales.
There are a number of reasons to nurture the fashion business. An important one is the opportunity for retailers and producers to stretch their price points. Three-packs of colored and pattern briefs, for instance, start at about $6, while white packs average $4.50. Discount level boxers begin at about $2.
While more upscale mass merchandisers such as Sears may have been quicker to pick up on the fashion underwear wave, traditional discounters are also realizing its importance.
Jamesway, Secaucus, N.J., for instance, is including more boxer shorts in its men's departments.
According to Vince Botti, senior vice president of store operations, Jamesway took its cue from its customers. The 121-store chain recently reopened five stores in its new prototype format, each including a wider selection of boxer shorts. "We do a consumer focus group before we reopen a store to find out what our customers want," he notes. "They are the ones that told us this was something they wanted."
The booming boxer business is also, obviously, reflected by manufacturers.
"Boxers are about 11 percent of the market now, where they might have been 8 percent or 9 percent a few years ago," says Debbie Hills, director of marketing for Fruit of the Loom. "Briefs have remained a consistent 60 percent." The remaining portion of underwear sales are in tops.
The volume increase in the boxers area coincided with style changes. According to Hills, pajama prints that were standard a few years ago have given way to "more sophisticated and contemporary looks with bolder stripes and colors."
In response to boxer business potential, Sears traded up this year. In the past, its boxer shorts business was private label-based with traditional prints and styling. According to Stephen Ross, this year's introduction of the Joe Boxer line of novelty products was a success. "Fashion underwear is an important growth area for us," he notes.
Sears offerings have remained fashionable, but classic, with prints such as small dots and paisley. The injection of fashion has also allowed Sears to update its displays. The colorful boxers are now merchandised with similarly colorful fashion robes, for instance.
While the boxer business has created upward sales blips at many stores, some retailers have taken a more conservative stance. At Franklin, Mass.-based Stuarts, boxers still represent a minuscule portion of its business. "Space is such an issue in this category, we don't do too much in fringe products," says Matt Sudhalter, merchandise manager. The retailer is not ignoring the category, however. According to Sudhalter, the company has brought in novelty boxers with Santa motifs for Christmas.
Other regional chains such as Value City, Columbus, Ohio, carry a range of fashion products, from bikini styles and boxers to the trendier bike short look. More often than not, however, many of the more fashion oriented selections are closeouts and opportunity buys.
Value City buyer Joe McDevitt recently brought in fashion merchandise from Jordache and Spalding. In addition, novelty Joe Boxer sports prints with baseball and basketball motifs have been popular sellers at the store.
While boxers make the bigger fashion news, the volume star is still briefs. Fruit of the Loom has a number of fashion programs in the works that concentrate on this men's wear basic.
The company is now shipping a fashion item to stores that it hopes will induce the customer to trade up. "We are offering a low-rise, no-fly brief in a polybag," notes Hills. This is the type of product generally displayed in boxes with other items such as bikini briefs. By putting it in a polybag, Hills hopes to attract traditional brief customers that are ready for a new fashion lesson.
Full cut briefs in color variety packs continue to be a big draw, according to Hills. "We have a three-pack that has a gray heather brief, a royal blue color and a white brief with a gray and royal stripe," explains Hills.
The fashion news for briefs is not all in color. Bike short styles, begun in department stores by designers like Calvin Klein, have been adopted for discounters. Hanes is running a program with stores such as Bradlees. Sudhalter reports that Stuarts is considering the concept as well.
The tried-and-true full-cut white briefs are not standing still while all this fashion happens around them, however. Though the styling isn't changing in this men's wear basic, packaging is.
According to Hills, there is a growing shift in buying habits from three-packs to six-packs. "I think there is great long-term potential for the larger multi-packs," she notes. "That's what people are buying for their everyday needs."
Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target each offer a mix of both three- and six-packs. But for smaller regional chains that don't have the volume buying power (or the volume) |long-term' may be the key word in this scenario. Value City, for instance, only buys three-packs, except for some closeout deals.
Sudhalter notes that six-packs bring in business during peak periods like holiday and back-to-school. "I don't know if it will really work all year round," he says. "We do well with six-packs when there is some kind of rebate promotion with companies like Hanes or Fruit of the Loom." Stuarts also runs an |Underwear Everywhere' promotion twice a year. The store guarantees customers will find their size or they get a pair for free.
While promotions will continue to drive the basic businesses at discount, especially in men's underwear, changing consumer tastes should be considered. A more fashion-savvy consumer--primarily the aging baby boomer--is often still looking for basics, but with a twist.
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