Tribal - California Apparel News

Digital EDition
20 CALIFORNIA APPAREL NEWS January 14–20, 2011
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Surf Expo Continued from page 1
reported a more than 9 percent increase in
attendance over the same show last year.
Exhibitors said they were pleased with the
retailer turnout, especially on the show’s
second day.
“With Agenda being held the same days,
there was potential for the retailer base to be
split,” said Mike Martin, vice president of
sales and marketing for Ezekiel. Although
the bulk of buyers
on the show
floor proved to
be East Coast
and international
buyers, some
West Coast
retailers made
the trek east, including
Jack’s
Surf Shop and
Sun Diego.
The show—
which attracted
biggies such as
O’Neill, Quiksilver,
Roxy,
Rip Curl, Vans,
Reef and Billabong—greeted buyers with a
segmented apparel offering. The show was
too early for some brands to show their Fall
2011 collections, so retailers were met with
exhibitors showing Immediate, Summer and
Fall apparel.
Nearly all exhibitors showing Fall 2011
lines reported increased prices to reflect the
rising costs of Chinese labor and cotton.
“It’s a perfect storm right now,” said Ezekiel’s
Martin. Some brands noted they were
leaning more heavily on synthetic fabrics
and cotton blends, but virtually all said that
wholesale costs for goods would go up by
10 percent to 20 percent for Fall 2011.
Root bound
Regardless of the season, however, exhibitors
emphasized heritage, accessibility
and a dose of newness in their product offerings.
Quiksilver—which came to Surf Expo with
its DC, Roxy, Quiksilver, Quiksilver Waterman,
QSW and Quiksilver Girls lines—was
strong on a back-to-basics approach to product.
Roxy, which in recent seasons has pulled
back on its more fashion-forward offerings in
favor of beach-oriented staples, debuted a revamped
denim collection.
Deanna Jackson, senior vice president
of sales, said the brand is narrowing its focus
to select core staples such as denim and
fleece. She said the brand is looking to do a
few things well. Denim programs in the past
took too wide of an approach to the market.
“We had to refine our approach … to get
a point of differentiation. Our focus was to
really ‘beachify’ our denim.”
For the Fall 2011 season, Roxy’s denim
features upgraded fabrications and
unique touches, such as retro patchwork
NEWS
and boardshort-style drawstrings for some
styles. The collection—which includes a
tight selection of skinny, boot-cut, flare and
shorts silhouettes—will retail for $44.50 to
$69.50—roughly $10 more than previous
Roxy denim offerings. “We can’t compete
in price. In response to fast fashion, we got
back to the beach. It has been proven time
and again that we need to be true to our
DNA—no matter what is going on in fashion,”
Jackson said.
Beach Bound: Roxy reintroduced denim to retailers at Surf Expo. This time
around, Roxy’s jeans are “beachified” to match the brand’s return to its surf roots.
Gone SWIMMInG: Swim brands were well-represented at Surf Expo.
Here the Swim Systems booth does brisk business.
Rusty, which has found success with its
Wired Series of garments that feature builtin
headphones and MP3 jacks, debuted surf
shirts that include waterproof versions of
the technology. The shirts, which are part
of a 2011 initiative to broaden the scope
of the Wired Series, wholesale for $49.50.
Another focus for the brand is skate. With
the launch of its So Rad capsule of skateinspired
apparel for men and the signing
of its first team rider in approximately five
years, Rusty is making a play for the core
skate business.
Vans came to Surf Expo with a new women’s
“Made in the USA” denim program,
which features a tight capsule of jeans made
in Los Angeles. The four styles of denim,
including an extreme skinny, cropped cigarette
jean and a slouchy take on the skinny
jean, will wholesale for $22 to $28. “We had
denim before, but we struggled with consistency
in wash and fit,” said Sylvia Niles,
Vans’ category director for girls.
The brand’s men’s denim did not receive
a similar reinvention. Instead, the men’s
outerwear offerings for Fall 2011 were expanded
to include elevated fabrications and
more fashion-forward silhouettes.
Split, the Santa Ana, Calif.–based surf
brand, reintroduced itself to the market at
Surf Expo after its acquisition by Life Distribution
in 2010.
The brand showed
a men’s line packed
with basic surf apparel—woven
plaid
shirts, walk shorts,
boardshorts—and
a decidedly more
boutique-friendly
women’s line. The
collection—which
includes vintageinspired
bucket bags,
skinny moto-style
jeggings, oversize
Navajo-print cardigans
and cotton lace
tops—wholesales for
$13 to $44.
Billabong, which
brought its Summer goods to the show,
gave retailers a heads-up on new projects
set to debut for Fall, including a new Bob
Marley collaboration for the women’s collection,
which builds on the success of the
earlier men’s collaboration. Retailers will
get their first peek at Fall offerings from
Billabong and its stable of brands, which
includes Element and Element Eden, at a
special invite-only event in Southern California
later this month. ●