After a year of using the same aisles to work on Zoom connections – and essentially going nowhere during the pandemic – signs are emerging that consumers are starting to rebuild their old-fashioned cabinets with new clothes for their post-vaccination life this year. year (I hope).
“More recently, however, we are seeing signs of customer interest in exiting the clothing market starting to emerge,” Urban Outfitters co-founder and CEO Richard Hayne told analysts on a results conference call Tuesday night. “We believe that as vaccines become more widely distributed, new cases of COVID continue to fall and government restrictions begin to ease, women will feel more comfortable venturing out and the demand for clothing will accelerate. The exact timing is difficult to predict, but we believe it will coincide with spring weather. “
Hayne is not alone in seeing the green shoots of demand before spring.
“Our product is resonating and our message is resonating,” Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz told Yahoo Finance Live in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “We are satisfied,” said Horowitz at the beginning of the first quarter. “We want to increase sales by 30% to 40% compared to last year.”
Kontoor Brands CEO Scott Baxter says that demand for his company’s Wrangler and Lee jeans is starting to increase worldwide.
“There is a small pent-up demand and this is global. At the moment, we are already seeing this change in China,” Baxter told Yahoo Finance Live on Wednesday.
The first signs of sales are probably music to the ears of clothing retailers after the pandemic destroyed their businesses in 2020.
Sales at clothing and accessories stores rose from $ 22.5 billion in January 2020 to a minimum of $ 3 billion in April as the pandemic spread and blockages followed, according to data from the Census Bureau. With $ 20 billion in January this year, sales at clothing and accessories stores have increased for two consecutive months. This is still timid compared to the nearly $ 23 billion spent in clothing and accessories stores in May 2018, which represents the upper limit of the past 32 months, according to data from the Census Bureau.
“Everyone thinks no one has bought anything for a year and now they are dying to go out and shop,” a longtime retail analyst told Yahoo Finance.
Clothing stocks have also started to see a strengthening of the recovery.
Abercrombie & Fitch shares rose 17% last month, Levi’s rose 22%, PVH Corp. rose 23%, Urban Outfitters rose 30% and Kontoor Brands leads with an increase of 32%.
“People want to do more than ever, leave home and travel.” said Baxter.
It sure looks that way.
Brian Sozzi is a general editor and anchor on Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi is at LinkedIn.
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