Hosiery market hits a snag

11 May 2006| Source: just-style.com

Hosiery is a unique sector of the clothing market, and one that is headed for decline according to a recent report. Despite attempts to introduce interest through new technology, innovations and famous faces it's unlikely that the market will ever return to its former glory.

According to just-style's ‘Global Market Review Of Hosiery - Forecasts To 2012,' the retail market for hosiery was worth US$9.22bn in 2005, making up 30% of the wider lingerie market. Global market volume in pairs is estimated at 4.2bn.

just-style predicts that by 2012, the hosiery market will be worth $8.87bn at retail, down 4% from 2005 at current prices. In addition, volume in pairs will be down 1% to 4.16bn.

The report defines the market as chiefly consisting of tights (pantyhose), stockings and knee- and ankle-highs, and says that it stands alone from most other types of apparel.

Firstly, the climate in a huge part of the world means that there is no need to wear hosiery, and secondly, the manufacturing process is different to that of sewn garments since it is automated and, in relative terms, capital rather than labour intensive.

In addition to this, hosiery does not mix fashion and function in the same way most clothing groups do. Heavy opaque tights aside, hosiery offers scant functional benefits. And one of the few benefits that do exist - adding a little extra warmth on cold winter days - is of less and less importance as women opt for trousers for both work and recreation.

Handful of brand owners
Another particular feature of the hosiery market is that just a handful of corporations that make and sell the best-known brands in the sector.

These include: Sara Lee

 Hosiery, currently in limbo due to its parent company's shake-up; Golden Lady, Europe's biggest hosiery maker; Falke, a knitting specialist; Kayser Roth, which makes both basic and upmarket hosiery; Kunert, a once-golden name which has recently shut down its production and texturing of hosiery; Charnos

, a middle-market brand which survives by staying small and flexible; and Wolford, a much-hyped ‘leg and bodywear' brand which in reality has a relatively small turnover.

Sliding sales
In North America, hosiery's biggest market, growth in the number of wearers is being offset by a fall in consumption per wearer caused by the ever-increasing popularity of trousers instead of skirts and the increasing durability of hosiery products themselves.

The situation in Western Europe and Japan/Korea will be worse still, just-style predicts.

Reasons for the sector's decline include the changing social attitudes toward bare legs, and global warming, which casts off the need for extra warmth.

Within the market, downward price pressure from supermarkets and mass-market chains and the switch to sourcing in low-cost countries also play a part in falling sales.

On top of all this, fashion and production factors come into play, such as the increase in popularity of longer-lasting opaques and support/control garments, yarn advances that prolong wear life, and increased circular knitting machinery speeds that mean each 100 units produced require fewer machines and fewer workers.

Reversing the decline
Hosiery companies have been trying to come up with strategies to reverse the decline of the market.

For example, the hosiery market, along with the lingerie and cosmetics markets, can gain a lot from celebrity endorsement. Sara Lee is just one company to have seen success by using music stars and actresses to promote its goods in the US, and this is being echoed in Western Europe.

As Sara Lee marketing manager Jayne Sterland says: "Young women aspire to wear the hosiery that the celebrities put their names to."

In addition, just-style predicts major commercial (not just cutting-edge scientific) advances in technology in the near future.

Examples include support tights that adapt to ensure optimum blood circulation, control tops that lift the tummy without narrowing it, ergonomic hosiery that offers support and weather-adapting bonuses, and silver-based microbial finishes that can inhibit growth of microbes.

In the current climate, hosiery companies are also rushing to capitalise on what many fashionistas have hailed ‘the return of the skirt,' which has already seen women stock up on opaques and fishnet tights and, most recently, footless tights/leggings.

Tessa Eles-Brown, key accounts manager for Falke, optimistically says the company hopes for "more skirts, more flowers, more femininity."

But whether a potentially short-lived revival in femininity coupled with famous faces will be enough to maintain the market or return it to its former glory is doubtful.

The truth is that volume opportunities lie in the developed world, with its increasing population, where a lack of cash will unfortunately turn buyers off.

There is a glimmer of hope in new technology and innovations, and perhaps if hosiery continues to turn mass market, the attraction of tights and stockings as fashion garments will increase.

But for now the future of hosiery looks at best unclear and at worst rather dismal, and there seems to be no immediate solution on the horizon.