We casually mentioned this phenomenon when we found that Nike is straight murdering the competition to wrangle teens, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that jeans are not what they used to be. The same survey that found Nike is leading all other brands in footwear and clothing categories also exposed the cold, hard truth about sweatpants: they're here to stay. If you've been listening to the kids, you already knew this.
Denim sales and growth have slowed significantly over the past couple of years, dropping from a peak 20.2% marketshare in 2010 down to a mere 9% in spring 2015. Meanwhile, in the midst of the denim dropoff, so-called "athleisure" looks have gained tons of traction, rising over six years from 1.5% in fall 2009, up to 15% in spring 2015. That's huge growth. Next to Nike in those charts are places like Lululemon. Basically, high school girls are walking around in yoga pants, while teen guys are rocking Nike's Tech Fleece, joggers and Adidas Tiro soccer pants.
Listen, jeans aren't cool anymore, especially amongst the youths. Now, we're all about looking like our personalities, either giving so much of a shit that we want people to think we work out all the time, or not giving a shit at all and lounging our dicks off everywhere we go.
