Despite the high costs of cotton which have effected many fashion retailers in the past year, Swedish fast-fashion retailer H&M reported banner 1st quarter sales up 13% and for the month of March—even better. But the big news is their recent announcement for launching another retail chain in 2013. Here’s the latest from Karl-Johan Persson, […]
Skateboarding has splintered into a variety of subcultures over the past 10 years and among the most interesting is the development of longboard skateboarding. The resistance to longboard skateboarding among core shops and skaters as a credible genre flies in the face of the fact that it’s popular. In this story, we take a look […]
On March 23, 2012, SkullCandy released their latest financials with some interesting results that also say a great deal about the designer headphone industry, where music’s headed in terms of listening devices, and the challenges the industry as a whole has in the coming year. First, SkullCandy increased net sales from $9.1 million in 2006 […]
The beleaguered PacSun continues to forecast losses into 2012, indicating a hard hit for the action sports-based retail chain which is hoping to recreate a more fashionable presence in the new year. As we’ve noted based on our Youth Culture Studies data, various action sports-based brands and extending lifestyle apparel and footwear brands have fallen […]
Today, March 8, 2012, VF Corp announced that Lion Capital would be acquiring majority ownership in John Varvatos Enterprises, with Varvatos retaining an ownership position and title of Chairman and Creative Chief Officer. John Varvatos comes up in youth culture fashion not only for his reputation for creating rock-influenced designs, and his cool collaboration with […]
Story and Photos by Kathleen Gasperini and Tom Wallace The flurry of fashion trade shows in Las Vegas from February 12-15, 2012 bring with them a diverse angle of what’s taking shape in fashion from a wide spectrum of genres particularly in the United States. While we mostly concentrate on youth culture influences, including streetwear, […]
Hours after posting the initial story about the potential Billabong takeover, last night came more news as Billabong and Nixon announced the partial sale, or 48.5% of Nixon, to Trilantic Capital Partners (not to be confused with Texas Pacific Group which put in a bid earlier in the morning for Billabong for $766 million). The […]
While MAGIC fashion trade show and all of the surrounding shows in Vegas from February 12-15, 2012 bring out some of the best in new fashion brands, buyers and trends, one aspect that has quickly caused a ripple effect actually came from Sourcing and the seminar “China, the Dragon in Transition: Sourcing From and Selling […]
Ever since Billabong’s horrid December 2011 financial report of a drop of 44% for an all-time record low on December 19th, the surf brand has been under a microscope among financial advisors as to what’s next for the troubled action sports company. After the December report, Goldman Sachs announced a structure review, with Billabong stating […]
No matter how artificially pumped-up mainstream fashion media says things are going economically speaking, the reality is that sourcing problems, new trends in discounting, and an entirely new generation of youth culture consumers who have spent their teens living in a recession, are changing the game of the industry. Stay tuned for more about this […]