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Sweaters
Industry Discusses Latest Trends and Demands
V-Necks Strong at Cookies
Omar Alfy, the assistant store manager at
Cookies, a uniform apparel store in
Brooklyn, NY, said that V-neck sweaters
have been the most popular recently.
Cookies carries Blueberry, Cookies and
French Toast, T.Q. Knits and U.S. Polo
brand uniforms. Newer styles carried by
the store have zippers and hoods. In girls
sweaters, the store also carries a halflength
bolero sweater. To jazz up the regular
cardigan, U.S. Polo has added front
ribbons as well as scalloped sleeves and
hems. A third choice for girls at Cookie’s
uniform shop is a T.Q. Knits nylon, cotton
and spandex blend, hooded sweatshirt, for
a slightly more snug fit. While newer styles
are being brought in as options, the company
still carries basic button-up
sweaters.
Joe Beyba, a uniform specialist at
Cookie, said that the basic cardigan by
Blueberry is always a big hit with uniform
customers as well. It comes in navy, burgundy,
green, gray, black, cranberry, and
brown. The store carries four styles of
cardigan including the basic button front
style for boys and girls, as well as three
other styles for girls including a high neck
button front sweater, a zipper-front, and a
Fine-knit Sweater by French Toast Official
School Wear, (800) 262-KIDS.
www.frenchtoast.com.
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Reported by Gina Goldblatt
sleeveless vest that some schools allow as a
sweater option.
“Another fashionable option for girls is
a navy French Toast brand zip-up sweater
with pompoms on the zipper pull,” said
Beyba.
The best-selling color at Cookies has
recently been navy blue, with burgundy at
a close second. The bulk of the store’s
sweaters have been selling by August, to
both private and public schools. The cotton
and polyester blend has been the most
popular sweater Cookies stocks, while
they have also been supplying customers
with 100 percent polyester and acrylic
fabrics.
“In order to stay in touch with the new
trends, research is constantly being done
in the main office. We also offer schools an
extra ten percent off of uniform apparel,”
said Beyba.
Alternatives at Lordes
“Trends in school uniform sweaters are
moving away from basic cardigans, and
towards more fashionable alternatives,”
said Elliot Braha, president of Lordes, a
retail apparel store which carries school
uniforms under the French Toast, U.S
Polo Association, and Universal Form
brands. “Youngsters have recently become
more attracted to longer lengths, zip-ups,
and cable knits, and less interested in
more basic items. There is also very little
interest in pullovers. Kids are mostly looking
for zip-ups.”
Selling primarily to local schools, the
most in-demand colors are navy, black,
and gray for boys and mostly navy for
girls. Braha said he has noticed “a slight
interest in burgundy sweaters for girls,”
which he believed to be local trend.
“Boys don’t buy sweaters,” said
Braha. “They are more interested in
sweatshirts and hoodies. The sweaters
that Lordes has been selling the most of
are cable knit zip-ups with pompoms and
hooded zip-ups with some cable knit.
Lordes also offers the required school
uniform fleece crewnecks tops and crew
Bolero Sweater by U.S. Polo Assn. available
at Cookie’s The School Uniform Specialists.
(877) 942-6654. Email:
afalack@cookieskids.com.
bottoms and the less demanded thermal
lined crews by French Toast and Hanes.
Although preferences are tending towards
more complex and fashionable items,
basic cardigans are still purchased to
place patches or emblems on.”
The most comfortable sweaters,
according to Braha, are French Toast.
“All of the sweaters are easy to clean,”
he said. “In the past there has been complaints
about pilling, but French Toast
and other brands have remedied that issue
by producing anti-pill items out of acrylic
fabrics.”
The bulk of sweater sales at Lordes
happen at the beginning of the school year
in September, before it gets cold, according
to Braha. In order to keep school uniform
options innovative and interesting,
Braha said he “shops the market and
looks for interesting fashions and trends.”
“I am also very responsive to my customers.
I listen to them, and let their interests
and questions drive my decisions.”
Lordes is a retail apparel shop located
in Jersey City, N.J.
Kids Place: Tradition Rules
“Uniform sweaters at Kids Place [located
in Elizabeth, N.J.] range from fashionable
French Toast items to traditional
Blueberry cardigans,” said Ria
Hernandez, the company’s uniform
administrator. “Parents of uniform children
are tending towards the more traditional
sweaters, even though they are more
expensive. The sweaters are heavier and
of higher quality.”
There has also
been a recent
increase in the sales
of “transitional
apparel such as
fleeces and windbreakers.”
For girls,
heavier cable
Ria Hernandex sweaters with zippers
and a sleeker look,
such as French Toast’s hooded Pompom
sweater has been, according to
Hernandez, a very popular item.
“Boys tend to purchase more traditional
sweaters, making the classic three button,
two pocket cardigan the most purchased
among male customers,” said
Hernandez. The most in-demand color
has been navy, for both public and private
schools, reports Hernandez.
Kids Place also does embroideries for
schools that have enlisted them as uniform
suppliers.
In order to remain progressive in the
apparel company, Hernandez remarked “I
am constantly in the market, both in
schools and on the streets-searching for
the newest fashion trends. Often what
happens, is that mainstream styles transition
into the uniform market and become
incorporated into school apparel. Staying
up-to-date in this industry is essential.”
Kids Place is a retail apparel store
located in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Jack L. Markus: Sweater Trends
Jack L. Marcus, a retail apparel store and
online seller of school uniforms nationwide,
has recently added a new lighter
fabric, flat-knit French Toast sweater to
its collection of girls uniform apparel.
According to the president of the company,
Debra Watton, “It’s too early to tell
how the sweater is going to do. Currently,
the traditional crew neck sweater is outselling
the new fine knit French Toast
sweater, but girls that have purchased the
fine-knit sweater commented on its comfort
and light-weight fabric.”
At the beginning of the school year,
when according to Watton, the bulk of
sweater sales happen, the store introduced
red and white into the color palette of
girls’ sweaters, but they continue to sell
traditional colors such as navy and hunter.
The demand for embroidered sweaters
and cardigans has increased for the company
as well, leading to the creation of
stock logos such as bumblebees and little
hands in addition to school logos or children’s
names. Staying up on new trends is
a priority with Watton who emphasized
the importance of “listening to kids and
watching what is going on with fashion
trends and styles.”
“It is our job to reconcile these emerging
trends with what is appropriate and
acceptable for school,” said Watton. “We
do this by working with manufactures and
designers as well as communicating with
schools to find the right balance.”
Jack L. Marcus, Inc.’s corporate
office is based in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. For more
information go to
www.marcusuniform.com.
Right, cardigan, shirt and
pants, all from Arrow,
(212) 868-7920. Email:
jgoldstein@fishmantobin.com.
CA Store Talks Sales Trends
According to James Lee, owner of New
Star Shirts in Sylmar, Calif., sweater sales
tend to spike around November or
December.
A more traditional
store, Lee said the
company does well
for itself selling basic
crew neck sweaters.
A new addition to the
sweaters, are hoods.
The company has
Debra Watton continued to sell crew
neck, unisex sweaters
in navy, black, hunter green, charcoal,
heather gray, and white made of acrylic
blend fabrics to both public and private
schools. New Star carries brands such as
French Toast, but also does custom order
embroideries.
New Star Shirts
Corporation is an
apparel retailer that
also sells school
uniforms. SU
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