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Is this pretty much the first time since 1985?Dropping the ball, fumbling, blowing the lead...
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Is this pretty much the first time since 1985?Dropping the ball, fumbling, blowing the lead...
Likely. I was super interested in their stated intent years ago to push more into self owned retail and cut back to limited key accounts. They too may have been called by the siren song that the DTC world was singing at the time. But if they can't "just do it" and make the pivot, who can?Is this pretty much the first time since 1985?
Well, I went all-in on the TNFxUNDERCOVER SOUKUU collab, purchasing everything in the brown/blue colorway except the Nuptse jacket. To me, it's the perfect combination of favorite colors, weird gorpcore, TNF technical fabrics and construction, and Japanese design. Plus, it's all 50-60% off at the moment. This is gonna be me at the grocery store sometime soon.Man, The North Face x Undercover gear looks sooooo good. If I had unlimited money, I would buy everything in this color way.
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Yea, it always just felt like slim cuts on otherwise low-end polyester that you could find for a 5th the price from Nike's own mainline. Cottweiler was a brand who I felt did the runner's fashion niche well, including their Reebok collaborations. It is a shame they seem to have disappeared a few years ago.Construction and materials wise I was a bit disappointed in the apparel I saw but it was fairly priced and looked good.
I don’t understand why Nike, and other companies like The North Face, change the materials instead of just v the design for their fashion collabs. It’s frustrating., There’s no reason the fashion collabs can’t also be perfectly functional as well. But invariably, that’s why I so often pass on them.I have some Gyakusou stuff, I think the leggings are really great still but the GIRA jacket that I have started to smell funky after 1 or 2 runs where as stuff like Tracksmith keeps great through an entire sweaty summer.
Simplest is to follow the money, better margin with simple construction and cheaper materials.There’s no reason the fashion collabs can’t also be perfectly functional as well.
I don't think that the follow the money works here - the collabs are typically whole integer multipliers more than the actual performance clothing. I think that it's a opportunity lost though. There is nothing gained from using less tough, less performance oriented fabrics. In fact, for a brand like The North Face, which built its reputation on durability, sometimes at the expense of weight, it seems even rather counter productive.Simplest is to follow the money, better margin with simple construction and cheaper materials.
That said, I feel like there may be some weird senses of purity or authenticity for the athletic / functional apparel. And there is the idea that performance has to look a certain way and someone who concerned about style won't really care about function ... or really use the stuff.
There's also lots of ideas and bias about what a "real runner" or "real skier" etc would value, wear, or need - as well as who they are and what they look like.
I used to live near a Nike outlet that was a dumping ground for their global retail network. Full size runs of Gyakusou, JFS, and other collabs were always there at 50-70% off, rotting on the racks. An assortment of ProCombat, RUN and other mainline brands were kept at their RRP as the store got considerable traffic.I don't think that the follow the money works here - the collabs are typically whole integer multipliers more than the actual performance clothing. I think that it's a opportunity lost though. There is nothing gained from using less tough, less performance oriented fabrics. In fact, for a brand like The North Face, which built its reputation on durability, sometimes at the expense of weight, it seems even rather counter productive.
You make a good point about the performance gear. I tried buying cheaper workout clothes from Target that would lose shape or fall apart so I never bought again.I used to live near a Nike outlet that was a dumping ground for their global retail network. Full size runs of Gyakusou, JFS, and other collabs were always there at 50-70% off, rotting on the racks. An assortment of ProCombat, RUN and other mainline brands were kept at their RRP as the store got considerable traffic.
I think the reason for this is that the market is completely different for the performance and the fashion collab lines. The customers who buy the fashion collabs above all else want novelty in design, which is a very time sensitive demand, but they are willing to pay for something that is subjectively "just right" in aesthetics to stand out; and are a very small minority in total consumers compared to the mainstream. Meanwhile the performance gear market often buys clothing as a necessity rather than as a frivolous distraction, they don't want to stand out but rather to fit in, and if the shorts they buy fall apart in 15 wears, they will simply swear off Nike and buy from a competitor. The mainstream performance gear market has far more consumers but each consumer buys much less clothing than the fashion-conscious one and is also more price-sensitive.
Thus, the performance gear must be more robust and last longer, perform "better" and be at a more competitive price; but the benefit is that can sit for sale for a long time in those basic mainstream designs and has considerably more consumers it can appeal to.
The fashion collabs are only desirable for a few months at the very most until something cooler comes out, have to be marked up significantly in order to recoup the costs of distributing these niche lines to enough retailers for awareness and this probably explains why the vast majority of the pieces are going to be very cheaply made and thus "worse performing" or non-robust. They not only don't have to be performance-tier quality because the consumer will have dozens of other fashionable pieces to cycle and rotate through, but they cannot afford to make them at a high per unit price for stock that will quickly become unsellable to the niche fashion market they are targeting, even at discount, and which the performance market wouldn't touch in the first place because of the eye-catching designs.
I suppose that I’ve been wearing the same plain black Under Armour compression shirts for at least 16 years, just replacing them as they wear out. That said, I know fabric prices, and they are really a small fraction of even the lower prices of the performance clothing. And in lines line Carhartt WIP, which are in house and have perennial pieces, the fabrics are not as durable as those on the regular line. It’s frustrating. I have a feeling that it’s not just a cost issue. And some companies, like Stussy, seem to be able to do collabs with no quality decreases. And every single sneaker collab seems to be made the same as the mainlines, and often with better materials, including novel designs like the Rick Owen’s Converse.I used to live near a Nike outlet that was a dumping ground for their global retail network. Full size runs of Gyakusou, JFS, and other collabs were always there at 50-70% off, rotting on the racks. An assortment of ProCombat, RUN and other mainline brands were kept at their RRP as the store got considerable traffic.
I think the reason for this is that the market is completely different for the performance and the fashion collab lines. The customers who buy the fashion collabs above all else want novelty in design, which is a very time sensitive demand, but they are willing to pay for something that is subjectively "just right" in aesthetics to stand out; and are a very small minority in total consumers compared to the mainstream. Meanwhile the performance gear market often buys clothing as a necessity rather than as a frivolous distraction, they don't want to stand out but rather to fit in, and if the shorts they buy fall apart in 15 wears, they will simply swear off Nike and buy from a competitor. The mainstream performance gear market has far more consumers but each consumer buys much less clothing than the fashion-conscious one and is also more price-sensitive.
Thus, the performance gear must be more robust and last longer, perform "better" and be at a more competitive price; but the benefit is that can sit for sale for a long time in those basic mainstream designs and has considerably more consumers it can appeal to.
The fashion collabs are only desirable for a few months at the very most until something cooler comes out, have to be marked up significantly in order to recoup the costs of distributing these niche lines to enough retailers for awareness and this probably explains why the vast majority of the pieces are going to be very cheaply made and thus "worse performing" or non-robust. They not only don't have to be performance-tier quality because the consumer will have dozens of other fashionable pieces to cycle and rotate through, but they cannot afford to make them at a high per unit price for stock that will quickly become unsellable to the niche fashion market they are targeting, even at discount, and which the performance market wouldn't touch in the first place because of the eye-catching designs.