2010 in Review: Looking Back on the Denim Market
2010 proved to be a mixed bag for denim brands. New brands debuted from seasoned veterans as other brands were mired in financial limbo. Counterfeiters got nabbed and investors showed plenty of interest in premium denim. Here are the highlights:
Cotton prices began to spike early in the year before eventually surging approximately 75 percent and reaching an all-time high of $1.52 per pound in November. Denim makers are expected to raise their prices or narrow their margins to account for the added costs.
bull; J Brand sold nearly 60 percent of the company for $85 million to Star Avenue Capital, a Los Angeles–based private-equity firm. The infusion of funds will support J Brand’s expansion beyond jeans and into more international markets.
bull; Skinny jeans lost a major stretch-fiber option when Dow Fiber Solutions, a division of Midland, Mich.–based Dow Chemical Co., announced that it would cease operations and stop production of the Dow XLA stretch fiber. XLA, which launched in 2002, had targeted the contemporary and premium-denim markets, forming partnerships with brands such as Citizens of Humanity and Paige Premium Denim.
bull; Rock & Republic had a roller coaster year. In April, the company filed for bankruptcy, the day before a $15 million loan was scheduled to be paid back to Richard Koral, a Los Angeles apparel executive who worked with Rock & Republic to sell its off-priced goods. As collateral, Rock & Republic put up its brand name. In the following months, several investors have shown interest in the brand, but a deal valued at between $33 million and $48 million with New York–based investor Bluestar Alliance, which would have pulled Rock & Republic out of the red, failed in mid-December. In the eleventh hour, VF Corp. inked a $57 million deal, saving the denim maker from being auctioned off in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. (For more, see here.)
bull; Lucky Brand founders Gene Montesano and Barry Perlman exited their brand in 2010, three years after selling it to Liz Claiborne. Liz brought in executives David DeMattei and Patrick Wade to run the brand. Since their departure, Montesano and Perlman have been busy, readying the launch of Civilianaire, their new premium-denim label.
bull; Old hands, new lines. Chip Foster, who, along with his brother, Pepper Foster, shifted the Chip & Pepper brand into a licensing model, launched Pray for Mother Nature, a new women’s premium-denim line. Tim Kaeding, 7 For all Mankind’s former creative director, got back into the denim scene with Mother, a retro women’s jean collection. Vince, a Los Angeles–based contemporary brand owned by Kellwood, debuted denim for men and women. James Jeans debuted a men’s denim collection. Cameron Silver, a seasoned retailer and stylist, debuted his first-ever apparel collection, Decades Denim.
bull; In October, the Los Angeles Police Department struck a mother lode when it raided a counterfeit-apparel factory and found hundreds of fake True Religion blue jeans as well as knockoff T-shirts and polo shirts. Police arrested the factory operator, who was charged with one felony count of trademark infringement, and confiscated just under 1,000 finished items as well as tens of thousands of True Religion labels, buttons and hangtags.
bull; Gap put a fine point on denim in 2010, relocating its denim-design operations (including design, merchandising, production, wash development and technical functions) from New York to Los Angeles and highlighting its 1969 Collection, its premium-denim capsule.
bull; YMI Jeanswear debuted its new $18 million, 108,000-square-foot facility in Los Angeles, which will house its 75,000-square-foot distribution center, showroom, design room and corporate headquarters.
bull; Levi’s pulled back on some things and grew others. Sandblasting, a technique that uses sand to give denim an aged look, was banned by the denim maker because of the health risk it poses to wash house workers. Collaborations and new collections, on the other hand, got the green light. Levi’s collaborated with Opening Ceremony, Billy Reid, Junya Watanabe, Brooks Brothers and Pendleton and launched Denizen, a new line of affordable denim for the Chinese market.
bull; Premium-denim granddaddy 7 For All Mankind turned 10—looking good for its age.—Erin Barajas
