During the Covid pandemic shutdown with his company’s business put on hold, UNTUCKit’s founder Chris Riccobono got an unexpected gift. He used his newfound time to incubate a new business concept to disrupt a stagnating product category following the same process he used in the casual men’s shirt market. Biding Time “I was bored,” Riccobono shared. “I always need to be challenged, but with our stores closed, things slowed down. I started to think about another industry to disrupt where I have a problem personally that the ‘big guys’ don’t …
Management
Marc Rosen Is a Retail Radical Award Winner: SPARC Is Not
I would love nothing more than to disagree with Nick Egelanian, president of retail development firm SiteWorks. He was quoted in Retail Dive about JCPenney’s announcement to invest more than $1 billion by fiscal 2025 to improve operations and customer experience. Egelanian said, SPARC on a Wire Unfortunately, I have been an early, outspoken critic of the whole SPARC mess, which I have amplified through a megaphone since 2021. Simon https://www.therobinreport.com/sparc-a-losing-combo/ I only hope Marc Rosen is independent enough to be …
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Will Forever 21 Drag Down Shein?
On October 9, 2019, I wrote Forever 21: Cut Your Losses and Die Happily predicting Forever 21’s demise, and why. Predictably, they slipped into bankruptcy. However, they found a life-support team, a collective called Authentic Brands Group (ABG), Simon Properties and Brookfield Property Partners. The three companies acquired the brand for $81 million in February 2020. The plan was for Forever 21’s international business to be handled by licensing specialist ABG. So, Forever 21 was tossed onto ABG’s pile of other losing brands. A Merry …
How Can Retailers Attract the Digital Generation?
When did a career in retail become so unappealing for young folks? Twenty years ago, a position in frontline retail was one of the best jobs a young person could hope to get. Yet today, a staggering 87 percent of retail leaders are worried about talent shortages. And a 2023 study by Brunswick Group found that a whopping 49 percent of Gen Z say that a career in retail is “not for me.” Some of the factors that led to the shift in perspective from retail careers being in-demand to barely tolerable are readily apparent: incompetent retail …
The Power of Female Retail Leadership
There is power in sharing the great stories about the art of leadership in the retail industry. Let’s take first-time CEOs. Three female leaders of public and private companies share their insights. Once a first-timer myself, I know the feeling of learning on the job while building the house. These successful CEOs are honest, vulnerable, and open in sharing advice with other future Top Guns… and current CEOs who are grooming the next generation of retail leaders. Breakthroughs They say it's lonely at the top, and for all the first-time …
Can Allbirds Recover?
How long do you think it’s going to take Allbirds to crash? It happened to A&F in its Michael Jeffries era. It happened to the Gap after Mickey Drexler’s era. It happened to Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger, both under the famous “pump and dump” team of Silas Chou and Lawrence Stroll. It happened to Juicy Couture under Liz Claiborne. Now it’s happening to VF Corp.’s Supreme, the once hottest brand that young consumers waited in line for hours to purchase. There are generations of many other brands that cycled through the same hot-to-cold …
The Ralph Lauren Renaissance
Few fashion brands have been as enduring over the past five generations as Ralph Lauren. Now even Gen Alpha and Metaverse avatars are wearing RL. But it all hasn’t been perfect in RL paradise. This iconic brand, like so many others in these fickle it’s-in, it’s-out, and it’s-in again times, has had its share of highs and lows along the way. The recent news of Ralph Lauren returning to New York Fashion Week after a four-year absence reflects the brand’s ebb and flow. Dressing Celebrities One of the keys to RL’s six-decade endurance is an …
UK Update: Retailers John Lewis vs Marks & Spencer
Middle England — that often-cited bellwether of the UK’s consumer likes and dislikes — has fallen out of love with John Lewis. And to make things worse, across town, shoppers have rediscovered and reengaged with another previously fallen National Treasure, Marks & Spencer Just in from London: The problem with being a National Treasure is that everyone takes your mishaps very personally. Just ask the embattled Chair of John Lewis Partnership, Dame Sharon White, who must be wondering if she can catch a break right now. Poor results …