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Love your newsletter which is my window into the world of trends of all sorts, most of which eventually make their way into the mainstream.
Just wanted to respond to this though: "Frankly, I’m surprised more retailers haven’t gotten into the ‘start of camp’ season for example (a big ‘buy time’ for my parent friends)"
That's likely because your parent frriends are a small sub-group of aflluent people, largely in Manhattan and certain suburbs of the Northeast who send their kids to full-summer sleepaway camp. What's more, there actually are a number of boutique stores (Lester's, which is now out of business was a well-known one) that cater to that sub-group , developing a strong base of knowledge as to what is needed at various camps and even carrying official gear from those camps and helping parents get kids ready for camp. And they've often been doing it for 30+ years.
Thanks for reading! You make a great point. It's ceetainly a subset and there are definitely stores specializing. At the moment I'm seeing is a lot of parents cobbling together several weeks of camps that are all local but varied (baseball, music, art etc). But more than that, it's the energy from their kids I'm picking up on. It's like a second back-to-school, full of excitement and different friends/needs/activities. It could be a bigger occasion than retailers realise. Not nearly as universal as true back-to-school but something worth paying attention to.
The trick is how to pull it off without seeming overly classist. But to your point, I agree that a certain subset of stores that don't claim to cater to a national audience could pull it off--J. Crew, for example, which is all about upper middle class aspiration.
In a vaguely similar vein, thank you for flagging the Nike piece on LinkedIn this week--it had not shown up in my feed and I found it to be a really fascinating and well-researched read.
Love your newsletter which is my window into the world of trends of all sorts, most of which eventually make their way into the mainstream.
Just wanted to respond to this though: "Frankly, I’m surprised more retailers haven’t gotten into the ‘start of camp’ season for example (a big ‘buy time’ for my parent friends)"
That's likely because your parent frriends are a small sub-group of aflluent people, largely in Manhattan and certain suburbs of the Northeast who send their kids to full-summer sleepaway camp. What's more, there actually are a number of boutique stores (Lester's, which is now out of business was a well-known one) that cater to that sub-group , developing a strong base of knowledge as to what is needed at various camps and even carrying official gear from those camps and helping parents get kids ready for camp. And they've often been doing it for 30+ years.
Thanks for reading! You make a great point. It's ceetainly a subset and there are definitely stores specializing. At the moment I'm seeing is a lot of parents cobbling together several weeks of camps that are all local but varied (baseball, music, art etc). But more than that, it's the energy from their kids I'm picking up on. It's like a second back-to-school, full of excitement and different friends/needs/activities. It could be a bigger occasion than retailers realise. Not nearly as universal as true back-to-school but something worth paying attention to.
The trick is how to pull it off without seeming overly classist. But to your point, I agree that a certain subset of stores that don't claim to cater to a national audience could pull it off--J. Crew, for example, which is all about upper middle class aspiration.
In a vaguely similar vein, thank you for flagging the Nike piece on LinkedIn this week--it had not shown up in my feed and I found it to be a really fascinating and well-researched read.
JCrew is a great example.