Analysing the Menswear Opportunity

Podcast - This month’s Fashion podcast series by Euromonitor International sheds light on the menswear market, which is currently undergoing a shift. The changing views on the concept of gender and social media have fuelled trends including streetwear and sportswear, which have led brands and retailers both luxury and high-street to raise their game in the menswear market. Currently expanding at a faster rate than womenswear in some key markets such as the UK, understanding the motivations of menswear consumers is key to capitalising on this emerging opportunity.

On a global scale, the menswear market is estimated at 438 billion US dollars and it’s set to grow at a CAGR of 2 percent until 2024. Although it’s not as big as the womenswear market, mentalities are changing and men are becoming more interested in style, partly because of social media. This is a trend that is seen in one of the key markets – the US, where menswear grew 2 percent in 2019, whereas womenswear only grew by 1.8 percent. Similarly, in China, although the menswear market hasn’t exceeded the womenswear market yet, it’s still growing at a fast rate and increased by 4 percent in 2019 alone. This is due to the increase of disposable income levels and the growth of the middle-upper class population. Additionally, younger Chinese generations have developed a growing appetite for Western fashions, particularly luxury items.

Most of the global growth in the menswear market has been seen in the luxury sector. Larger markets including France, Japan, the US and China have seen a high growth in men’s designer apparel with China’s designer menswear market growing 8 percent in 2019.

Considering the growth in the menswear market, companies wanting to expand in this domain should be aware of three main factors for succeeding. These three factors include product design, where there should be an emphasis on bringing style to functionality. But also, exclusivity and community, this is seen at Adidas where the brand’s appeal for menswear consumers is fuelled by its ability to successfully employ the ‘drop’ model or creating ‘hype’ collaborations. The last factor is convenience and technology regarding brand experience. More consumers expect to be able to buy a brand on and offline and a brand like Adidas has understood this well and has developed an effective omnichannel presence, which intermeshes with the Adidas app and instore experiences.

Therefore, while there is a mixed picture on the accelerated growth of menswear globally, as the streetwear trend evolves and mindsets about fashion change to embrace inclusivity and experimentalism, there is an opportunity to attract a growing number of menswear consumers. For brands and retailers have the potential to capture these consumers by understanding their motivations and priorities, creating complementary products and brand experiences that meet the menswear consumer’s demand for functionality, technology, convenience and community.

Written and created for FashionUnited by Euromonitor. Euromonitor International is the world's leading independent provider of strategic market research.