Trinket Talk The business of trinkets and the work that goes on behind the scenes.

Continuously Extending Offerings Key to Jacket Success

It is a fairly simple principle that the clothing industry has operated under for the past few decades.  Consumers are fickle and like to see styles change frequently.  They also like to see new colors within existing styles.  Eventually even with the introduction of new colors and contrasts buyers will get bored and as trends change products will become less desirable.  In the company jacket business there is an even more rapid cycle where the desire to bring something new to the next trade event reigns supreme.

There was a brief lag over the last year or two in terms of product development likely triggered by the poor economy.  This season though there have been many new releases.  The Port Authority Ladies All-Season II Jacket replaces a previously very popular jacket from the same manufacturer.  The earlier model had been on the market for almost eight years and although new colors were introduced a few years ago the design had grown stale and tired.  Technology has also advanced to the point that permanent weatherproofing could be brought into this corner of the market without the higher price tag.   Not long ago corporate outwear makers were not concerned about carrying electronic devices but with the rapid expansion of these handhelds they are now incorporating zippered closures for them on the inside.  This is important as the zipper serves to both secure the item and also to keep it weather tight.  Across the board now there are features usually found online on much more expensive jackets including adjust-ability from top to bottom.  Port Authority from the start has brought several color options to the market although we would have liked to see pink included especially for the ever important Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Port Authority Clothing is fully owned by the largest clothing company in the promotional products industry.  Until the middle part of the last decade the industry was dominated by regional warehouses supplying distributors with their blank clothing.  Distributors would have those items delivered to their local decorator and would in turn send them outbound to their customers.  This proved entirely inefficient and made rapid order turnaround almost impossible.  In addition growth was severely limited as west coast manufacturers would need four or five days to ship east, and in turn if the distributor had to ship west again another few days would be lost.  As gas prices and shipping costs rose it also became ridiculously expensive to ship over such long distances.  The first major clothing warehouse to figure out it made sense to have regionally located distribution points was Sanmar.  Based in Seattle Washington they quickly realized they could reduce their own costs, expand their markets, and dramatically reduce transit times for their apparel as well.  The move perfectly coincided with the growth of sales through new mediums like the web and quickly resulted in the development and growth of embroidery houses that sprung up near the regional warehouses.  As other suppliers followed suit a large network of competitors that were mostly working towards the same common goal developed.  Because major retail brands elected to sell through only one major warehouse there was little competition between suppliers on those brands.  However competition on commodity apparel items like shirts was and has been brutal ever since.  The growth of national decorating houses has also made things difficult for local mom and pop embroiders.  We will detail this more this week.