Athletic Wear And Athleisure Still Rule For Teenage Girls: Survey

Tired of seeing everybody out in their athletic wear when they’ve no intention of going anywhere near a gym? Well, it’s a trend that’s not going anywhere – particularly among young women – according to a new survey by US investment firm PiperJaffray.

In its quarterly“Taking Stock With Teens” report, PiperJaffray surveyed 6,500 teenagers with a mean average of 16.5. Teen spending patterns, fashion trends, and brand and media preferences were assessed through visits to a geographically diverse subset of high schools across the United States.

And if there was one overriding point to come out of its Spring report, teenage girls love “athleisure” – that’s gym gear that they can wear in social circumstances too (think the Lululemon phenomenon).

And this passion for all things Lycra is bad news if your business is denim. With black leggings taking a fashion precedence over a new pair of jeans for teenagers. As the graph below shows athletic gear still outsells denim, however, the latter has fought back from a five year decline to 2015.

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The report noted: “Denim brands saw an uptick to 14 per cent aggregated mindshare and showed up as a top trend among upper-income females for the first time since fall 2013. Among women, fashion athletic apparel is still on the rise with a new high of 17 per cent share achieved and Nike gaining share. Within men’s apparel, Nike results were more mixed across income demographics. Adidas was a positive standout in the athletic footwear and clothing category.”

Other interesting takeways from “Taking Stock With Teens” report included:

• Teens (both male and female) spent on average 22 per cent of all their money on eating out. Fast food, cafe and take-aways are 50 per cent higher than sit-down restaurants. However, it wasn’t great news for the food business with the average teen tab ranging from just $US4-$US7.

• And it’s clear teens want anything they buy online fast. Fifty-one per cent of those surveyed said they had Amazon Prime, the delivery service that allows anything bought off Amazon to be delivered in 24 hours for a yearly subscription fee suggesting “that there are 57-61 million Prime households in the US.”

• Teens are spending more time on Netflix and YouTube as opposed to traditional TV. The amount of time they spend on these websites combined equates to 66 per cent versus traditional TV at 26 per cent.

• The most anticipated movies this year among teens are: 1) Finding Dory (sequel to Finding Nemo); 2) Captain America: Civil War takes the second seat; and 3) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

• Sales of video games to teenage boys was at an all time high and represent 13 per cent of teen boys spending. However, teen boys still spend more on clothes (15 per cent of all spending) but their stomachs still win out, with one-fifth of all their cash spend on food.

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