• 

  Quiksilver Americas President Craig Stevenson

This week is Junior’s Week on Shop-eat-surf, where we will highlight some of our talks with junior’s brands at ASR.

We sent writer Magda Liszewska to the show to find out more about what is new with the female side of the business.

But first, here are a few highlights from the junior’s press conference held by ASR at the show.

Brand leaders spoke about how they are approaching the challenging junior’s market.

Craig Stevenson, Quiksilver Americas president

Craig talked about the cyclical nature of fashion, and that he believes the girls side is poised for an uptick in 2011.

He attributed some of fast fashion’s current popularity to the recessionary times, but said some store owners are saying girls are coming in and asking for brands again because they are tired of fast fashion quality issues.

Fast fashion doesn’t stand for anything, he said, while at Quiksilver there is a rich heritage and lifestyle story. Quiksilver also has an advantage over some vertical players because it has deep offerings in many categories.

Quiksilver believes so much in the junior’s market, he said, it is launching the new Quiksilver junior’s line for spring.

Craig also pointed out that in the last year, surfing has been showcased a lot in mainstream media, which will likely have a positive impact on sales.

Toby Bost, CEO of the La Jolla Group and O’Neill Clothing

Toby said O’Neill has turned its female division upside down after sales slowed. Traditionally, O’Neill business was 60% men’s and 40% junior’s. Now, it’s 70/30.

O’Neill revamped the human capital in the division, hiring a new senior vice president and a new director of marketing. It also rebranded itself to O’Neill Girls from O’Neill Junior’s.

The company is making a big online push to drive trend statements to 16 to 24 year olds and is investing more in marketing, including print ads in mass media publications such as Teen Vogue. It is also investing in product placement services as well.

(Above: Toby Bost of La Jolla Group and O’Neill.)

On page 2: more from Toby Bost, Mandy Fry and Roger Wyett

 

---

 

Also, expect more collaborations from O’Neill Girls in 2011.

Toby believes at the mall level, retailers are looking for brands to collectively build out trend stories for them rather than making single brand statements.

The company is also focusing on speed to market, and is looking to break out of the 10-month design and production calendar.

O’Neill will move some items out of the prebook cycle and will chase trends, build the product and bring it to the market sight unseen.

Mandy Fry, Billabong Girls Design Director

Mandy said Billabong is focused on bringing the best fashion to its line and being very discriminatory about what it puts in its line.

They are also focused on raising awareness of the brand through events like Design for Humanity, and believe girls want products that have a story and a point of purpose.

Billabong believes girls will shop for brands that share their values.

Mandy also said the brand is more focused on creating forward fashion than fast fashion.

(Right: Mandy Fry of Billabong and Roger Wyett of Hurley.)

Roger Wyett, CEO of Hurley, who was also representing Nike

Roger said at it became apparent at the U.S. Open by watching what girls were wearing at the beach how much business they are not getting.

He cited the success of swim brands such as Vix, Vitamin A and L*Space for understanding what girls want.

While Hurley has a pretty robust business, he said, it wants to be stronger on the beach. (For more on this topic see our video interview with Roger.

Girls appear to be of two minds – they like disposable value but they will also save up for product that is really special. Hurley is focused on the special product angle, just as it did with the Phantom boardshort, which proved, “If the product is there, kids will buy it,” he said.

He also stressed the important role of athletes, citing how someone like Mia Hamm captured the imagination of millions of girls.

Roger said they are far away from having compelling answers to the junior’s challenges, but know the model has to change and there is a good opportunity to approach the market in a smarter way.

(Vanessa Chiu from Insight also spoke but there were some sound problems and I could not hear her clearly.)