Swedish Retailer H&M Reiterates its Focus on Fitness with its 2015 Active Sports Collection

Source || GQ UK

Sports has been a big theme this year and is most likely to continue as the general populace, not just the fashion conscious, seek out a healthy lifestyle. In a previous post, I explored fashion's obsession with sports and how sports was the new cool, Swedish retail giants H&M are reemphasizing this.Their second offering expands from the well received debut last year. 

Despite competition from the likes of Gap, Adidas, Uniqlo & Nike there's still the heavyweight advantage H&M has being the largest apparel manufacturer in the world only second to Zara who are not interested in fitness sector. It has the benefit of budget friendly prices that would suit a lot of discerning customers who are keen on a healthy lifestyle but not willing to spend so much on apparel for yoga, jogging, zumba or going to the gym.

The 2015 collection includes a range of garments engineered to keep you cool or warm as needed and fit a variety of fitness activities. Whatever your interest,there's loads to choose from. Collection launches in January 2015. 

Fast Fashion Proves it's an Effective Strategy as H&M , Zara make Top 5 Most Valuable Fashion Brands of 2014 List

David Beckham x H&M Bodywear Spring 2014

H&M following an impressive year where they've focused on an aggressive expansion plan especially in the US and China come only second to Louis Vuitton of the fashion brands on Interbrands best global brands of 2014 list. Another high street giant Zara are behind H&M and Nike in the 4th place further proving that fast fashion is an effective strategy that sets design-driven brands on a highway to business growth. 

H&M expanded its offering in the last couple of years to include H&M Conscious Collection, H&M Studio (which shows in Paris every year)and H&M Sport where they collaborated with tennis player Tomas Berdych on an active-wear line. It's designer collaborations which is in it's 10th year and has featured work from Karl Lagerfeld to most recently Alexander Wang fulfills the brands promise of quality clothes at affordable prices.

Zara Man May 2014 Lookbook

Zara's parent company Inditex recently posted it's lowest profit for the year since 2001 but this brand put the 'fast' in fast fashion through it's vertically integrated supply chain which is only second to H&M in terms of size globally. 

However it has made significant investment in infrastructure and updating its stores this year which might be a pointer as to the low revenue levels since stores had to be closed for renovation loosing millions daily in sales. This investment would definitely pay off as the brand sees it's physical stores as the hallmark of its selling strategy, avoiding large scale advertising or celebrity collaborations.

Zara.com

Both H&M and Zara have focused a lot on e-commerce recently and these have started to pay off and continue to ensure sustainable demand and brand loyalty which are some of the key factors interbrand used in its evaluation. See the full list here.