Chains dress up men's and boys' wear depts. with color - annual report

Discount Store News, July 21, 1986

Chains Dress Up Men's and Boy's Wear Depts. with Color

Men's and boy's wear promised to remain a colorful area on the discounters' selling floor.

Merchandisers have formulated a fuller fare of color but offered safe, proven styling to keep the sales pace of men's and boys' apparel at an acceptable canter. And, discounters seem determined to emphasize their men's wear assortments as much as possible through in-store placement.

Caldor opened in Secaucus N.J., recently with a men's wear section opposite the main entrace. Bright colors in shorts, woven shirts, young mens' tops and even accepts on traditionally styled polo shirts cast an updated hue over that department.

In September retailers will once again drop in on the Men's Apparel Guild in California (MAGIC) show for a peek at the latest and the greatest for next spring.

If the last two MAGIC shows are any indication, discount merchandisers will take it all in but only take home the very, very saleable.

Last September, buyers who shopped spring '86 at the MAGIC show called the trendy oferings the "icing on the cake" not the meat and potatoes of their mixes.

At the February '86 MAGIC show most of the enthusiasm was sparked by bright colors. Merchants felt they could successfully combine basic looks with the new colors for this year's fall season.

Tops--fleece, long-john styled Henley knit shirts, puffed-ink prints and cotton wovens and jacquard or printed sweaters--provided all the fashion interest for fall.

Suspenders were seen in bright accent colors as the fashion accessory to pull together ribbed shirts, soft unstructured jackets and pants.

Discounters have been viewed as strong sellers of men's wear by vendors looking to post sales gains. Therefore, Munsigwear and Manhattan shirts have began rolling out lines for the mass market.

Munsingwear's line included 16 colors of knit tops in stripes and solids slated for delivery at Bradlees, Gold Circle and Wal-Mart. Most importantly, the label for discounters--Slammer USA--included the Munsingwear tagline to address discounters' desire for brand names.

Manhattan's dress shirt and accessory line also bore its brand name, which was licensed for pants socks and knit tops. Caldor and Bradlees bought that label for this fall.

With the same bright but basic story in boys' wear, buyers geared up for a promotional back-to-school season.

Artic fleece--in tops or lightweight outerwear--was pegged to be a hot seller this fall. Basic bottoms, including jeans and denim jackets, either unlined or with colored linings rounded out mixes.

In boys' wear, added color was the overwhelming strategy to boost sales this fall. Ames planned to offer seven colors in polo shirts compared with four last fall.

In men's wear, all the basic categories, including men's activewear and fashion underwear are expected to track sales gains with the help of broader color assortments.

Miami Vice popularized colored undershirts worn underneath soft, longer jackets. This has influenced the entire underwear business at chains, which stock colored briefs along with the undershirts.

Activewear was a category that benefitted from the insurgence of color, as well as the overall vitality of fleece and the strength of athletic influences in men's wear.

Many discounters sell functional activewear in the sporting goods department and then keep a second men's activewear department in the soft lines side of the store.

ADSN poll conducted earlier this year showed that unlike many of the men's wear categories, men often buy their own sweat shirts, warm-ups, shorts and sneakers.

In the men's activewear category catalogers also competed for the business.

Best Products was projecting 20% to 25% gains in its sporting goods apparel business this year. The catalogers' business is very basic with gray and blue sweats and silver warm-ups with black accents dominating the mix.

Off-pricers have had some difficulties of their own. The story at U.S. Shoe is typical. The men's off-price division found its assortment too high in taste and price level and too heavily skewed to tailored clothing. This year the chain intensified its mix to strengthen its appeal to the younger, fashion conscious shopper."