Kohl's is in a comfortable holding pattern with respect to the brands
they carry and the way they are laying out their departments.
We
didn't find any new brands but there have been slight shifts in who
has what real estate on the floor. In young men's, Dickies is the
leading presence with well over 4 display cases allocated to their
pants, jackets and layered shirts. We love how Kohl's continues to
offer two-fer deals in mens with shirt/tee combos by almost all of
their brands. In juniors we found a few racks dedicated to back to
school uniform apparel. Rather than offer run of the mill 'uniform'
looks, they consciously chose hip pants and scooters by coveted
brands such as MUDD and turned them into school appropriate items by
lengthening them, in some cases.
There were also plenty of polo tops
in fashionable tunic lengths and layers for more BTS options.
Uniforms and school dress code appropriate fashions are the most
overlooked opportunity in our opinion because it is the one time of
the year when parents 'must' outfit their kids and if brands and
retailers come together with the schools in their area and offer up
school 'colors' and slightly toned down versions of their fall looks,
it would be a huge WIN-WIN! As we can see from Kohl's, they are
consciously pursuing the BTS uniform/Dress code business! In the kids
areas we saw more uniform looks, but here the looks were more
traditional BTS. The full fall line-up was not yet in but we did see
a ton of back packs and accessories for all kids from preschoolers on
up.
The infant and toddler area was also looking very summery with
Carter's leading the way in terms of real estate. Finally, we noted
that the Transformation-Nation initiative has seeped from the Kohl's
website onto the retail floor by way of freestanding fixtures that
call out to shoppers to make a difference by purchasing 'charitable'
items; a great tie back to the website!
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