LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic Universe

LEXIS(R)-NEXIS(R)

Document 9 of 67.

Copyright 1998 Information Access Company,
a Thomson Corporation Company;
ASAP
Copyright 1998 Capital Cities Media Inc.
Daily News Record

September 21, 1998

SECTION: No. 112, Vol. 28; Pg. 8; ISSN: 1041-1119

IAC-ACC-NO: 21162058

LENGTH: 842 words

HEADLINE: ACTIVE FASHION: THE NEW BEAT IS FROM THE STREET; Industry Overview

BYLINE: Gellers, Stan

BODY:
MOVE OVER ADIDAS, NIKE AND FILA, THE NEW INFLUENCE IS HOT STREETWEAR

NEW YORK -- Jockwear will be getting some tough competition in the mass market next spring with a new round of hip activewear that's taking its cue from red-hot streetwear lines like Fubu, Mecca, Maurice Malone and others.

According to several mass market manufacturers, basic cotton jersey crewnecks and shorts are not being totally sidelined. But the next big play will be on snappy chain-stitch knit tops and bottoms in high-visibility colors that make activewear synonymous with streetwear.

"Forget about the basic 'hook-ups' of reversible tank tops or basic T-shirts and shorts," says Al DiLauro, merchandise manager of Hampton Activewear, which markets the Spalding Athletic brand. "We're now selling sleeveless muscle or 'shooter' shirts in the same textured knits used in better lines. And the matching shorts pick up a look that's exploding in warmup pants -- snap-aways."

This is the latest version of the original Adidas warmup basketball pants with snap fasteners running along the outside of the legs.

But this is not the only part of the fast-changing mass market activewear scene. There's also a cooled-off version of streetactive happening, reports Steve Marra, vice-chairman of S.O.S. Management, which manages the B.U.M. Equipment trademark. He calls it suburban streetwear.

Jock looks, he claims, continue to be the bread-and-butter in the B.U.M. Sport line, but Marra adds that suburban active is "the next sportswear for the suburban customer. The upscale mass merchants, like Target, really made it happen when they opened all those branch stores in the affluent suburbs," he says.

"This is Polo Sport, Adidas and Nike country and, to this customer, everyday activewear is the same as sportswear. The active tops they want are more traditional and collegiate than streetwear, but they're edgier than Gap or Banana Republic. The suburban, active guy wants the subtler colors, too, in pigment-dyed, tinted-screen or distressed looks."

He adds that urban styles, on the other hand, are "another world. They're bright with bold graphics and big logos." And interestingly, while tops go bland in the suburbs, snap-away shorts sell as well here as they do in the inner city.

Both DiLauro at Hampton and Marra at B.U.M. are amazed at the speed at which these new looks are catching on this year.

Continues DiLauro, "The looks hit big time for us at the last MAGIC Show. Until then, most mass retailers considered streetactive and urban looks as strictly fringe. They didn't think these looks would affect their business.

"The show changed their minds when they saw the tremendous impact streetwear was having on all sportswear. Naturally, they wanted to get in on the action in mass."

Working on translating these streetactive looks to the mass level, DiLauro points out that while the base colors haven't changed, there are plenty of hot accent colors in cotton jersey and polyester chain-stitch knits, both activewear fabric staples. He says, "The mass customer wants the same engineered screenprints, oversized silhouettes, mixed fabrics and contrast trims you find in streetwear, but at a third of the price."

He explains that two early winners for spring -- V-necks and baseball shirts -- "came right out of urban." In the shorts category, the 20- to 24-inch outseam lengths dominate. He adds, "The big change is the move to the snap-away model. It's already a homer."

As if all this isn't enough for one season, there are also the shrinking logos.

DiLauro says that while logos couldn't be bolder or bigger in the authentic streetwear lines, they're much smaller in size on the new streetwear looks for the mass market. He notes, "The regular streetwear customer is paying for the name, and it's the same in better-priced active with Nike or Adidas. Everybody wants to show off these names.

"When you're working in the price-sensitive mass market, however, nobody wants a secondary brand screaming in your face. So, in the case of our Spalding Athletics line, the styles, fabrics and colors can look like expensive streetwear labels, but we have to play down our logo for mass consumption."

As it turns out, however, what's lost in size is made up in the number of logos applied to a top. At Hampton, the new streetactive shirts get a total of three logos on one garment. The idea here is to transform a basic jersey crewneck into a fashion contender by putting a small, multicolored, embroidered logo on the chest, another appliqued logo on the sleeve and a third "locker patch" on the lower-left side.

Recalling the state of the active business just a year or two ago when it began to run into troubles, DiLauro reports the influence was basically authentic, with not much more than "dazzle" and mesh knits along with basic jerseys, and, of course, plenty of sports logos.

Not so today. Streetwear is igniting the activewear business at mass, and it's expected to give an exciting spin to sportswear next spring.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

IAC-CREATE-DATE: September 28, 1998

LOAD-DATE: September 29, 1998