After a year of the same joggers working on Zoom calls – and in fact going nowhere during the pandemic – there are signs that consumers are going to start rebuilding their very outdated cupboards with new clothes this year (hopefully).
“More recently, however, we’re seeing signs of customer interest in starting to emerge out-of-type clothing,” Richard Hayne, co-founder and CEO of Urban Outfitters, said during a call to earnings Tuesday night. “We believe that as vaccines become more widespread, new COVID cases continue to decline and government restrictions begin to relax, women will feel more comfortable taking risks and demand for clothing will accelerate. The exact timing is difficult to predict, but we believe that it will coincide with spring again. ‘
Hayne is not the only one to see the green shoots of demand before spring.
“Our product resonates and our message resonates,” Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz said in an exclusive interview with Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday. “We’m glad,” Horowitz said at the start of the first quarter. “We want to increase sales by 30% to 40% compared to last year.”
Scott Baxter, CEO of Office Brands, says demand for his company’s Wrangler and Lee jeans is starting to increase around the world.
“There’s a bit of pent-up demand and it’s worldwide. At the moment, we’re already seeing the shift in China,” Baxter told Yahoo Finance Live on Wednesday.
The early signs of sales are likely to be music in the ears of clothing retailers after the pandemic shattered their businesses in 2020.
Clothing and clothing stores rose from $ 22.5 billion in January 2020 to a low of $ 3 billion in April as the pandemic spread and closures followed, according to data from the Census Bureau. By January this year, sales of clothing and accessories stores increased by $ 20 billion in January this year. It is quite ashamed of the nearly $ 23 billion spent on clothing and accessories stores in May 2018, representing the highest watermark of the past 32 months, according to data from the Census Bureau.
“Everyone believes that no one has bought anything for a year and now they will want to get out and shop,” a longtime shopkeeper told Yahoo Finance.
Clothing stocks have also begun to sniff out a strong recovery.
Abercrombie & Fitch’s shares have risen 17% over the past month, Levi’s has risen 22%, PVH Corp has risen 23%, Urban Outfitters has risen 30% and Office Brands is leading the point with a 32% rise.
“People want to do more than ever before, go outside and travel.” says Baxter.
It definitely looks like that.
Brian Sozzi is a general editor and anchor by Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and so on LinkedIn.
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