Youth culture in the United States is one of the most important demographics shaping the landscape of the global future not only because of their vast spending power, but because they lead as a primary source of global inspiration for many other youth markets. In an effort to understand the most vital youth culture markets, we have launched a new series called “The Future Consumers Reports” within its own ecommerce store www.thefutureconsumer.com for easy access to order fresh, vital information.
This first series provides in-depth data analysis, forecasts, and trends from insights gathered from thousands of 13-25-year-olds across the United States regarding T-shirts, Denim, Footwear (including Sneaker Culture), Accessories, and Action Sports Apparel. Each of the Future Consumer Reports reveals what the youth marketplace thinks regarding influences, their preferred top brands, preferred price points, shopping frequency, styles, shopping habits, top retail preferences, online retail, plus a unique look at least favorite brands.
“We knew that for some brands and retailers, especially up-and-coming brands, it was important to provide targeted and actionable consumer insights reports that get at the heart of specific markets from a youth perspective,” explains Tom Wallace, President of Label Networks, about The Future Consumer Reports. “With this new launch of smaller reports, brands, industry leaders, retailers, and marketers can get vital information at affordable rates that will them connect with the marketplace more effectively.”
The Future Consumer Reports provide brands and retailers with easy-to-use data and summaries directly from 10,000 youth from a representative sample across more than 47 different regions across the United States. The results also include breakdowns by gender and age groups for more detailed insights.
Each Report includes key snapshots about top findings, plus forecasts and analysis based on the consumer insights results.
Specifics from the Future Consumer Reports:
The T-shirt Report: T-Shirts often reflect key youth culture trends beyond just style. T-shirts are also a relatively inexpensive way to make a personal statement. For today’s DIY culture, they represent one of the most important categories of fashion. Not only do young people like to create their own T-shirts, but buying new T-shirts, iconic band merch, and graphic T’s as keepsakes, add to their importance as a category within fashion.
T-shirts are often the trend-leading segment into new directions for brands, designs such as graphics and statement pieces, colors, fabrics including eco-friendly solutions, DIY design opportunities, and as non-profit awareness and fundraising tools. Many brands have often gotten their start primarily T-shirt brands and grew from there. These things are among the many reasons why this T-shirts Report is so vital for brands, retailers, and industry players who need to know where trends are headed and why, with insights coming directly from the marketplace of 13-25-year-olds across the United States.
The Footwear Report: Footwear and sneaker culture ignite youth culture fashion styles as a vital component to personal style. The fact that a large percentage of 13-25-year-olds across the United States tend to name footwear brands as their “favorite” brands overall shows how important the lifestyle association that these brands have with this generation. One of the key opportunities for insights within youth culture markets actually comes by knowing what’s going on with footwear.
However the marketplace is extremely competitive when it comes to favorites and changes in top brands, influences, and spending patterns have transformed the industry significantly in the last few years. With access to information about new brands, and brands associating with a variety of other youth culture icons ranging from musicians to soccer players, to fashion industry icons and key bloggers, influences on favorite footwear brands have resulted in a more fluid landscape than ever before. The Footwear Report provides detailed analysis of what 13-25-year-olds think about key brands, shopping pattern influences, retailers, and lifestyle changes that are vital indicators of where things are headed.
The Denim Report: Denim styles are often at the vortex of youth culture trends. Denim also indicates where the market changes are taking place the most as well as opportunities as an indicator of the
Ironically, while it’s the premium denim marketplace that tends to get the majority of press attention, there is a shift to a new culture of denim—one that is more accepting, often with a lower price point, including limited-edition collaborations and collections found in a wider variety of stores, with more brands than ever moving into the marketplace. Knowing what the youth culture market thinks about denim, spending patterns, and preferences provides vital information for tracking shifts in lifestyle changes as a whole.
The Denim Report is important for brands, retailers, and industry players who need to know where trends are headed and why, with insights coming directly from the marketplace of 13-25-year-olds across the United States.
The Action Sports Apparel Report: As a subset of sports overall, when it comes to sports that young people 13-25-years-old want to learn, action sports, or primarily Skateboarding, Surfing, and Snowboarding are among the most popular. Understanding the aspirations of youth culture today, via sports they like or want to learn, vs. what they do provides vital insights in a slice of youth culture lifestyles. Whether they take up the sport or not, by understanding which sports appeal to them most also reflects what they would like to associate with most, including attributes such as fashion, footwear, accessories, and icons surrounding such sports.
Keeping in mind that this is a young demographic—a demographic of people that are in the midst of discovering personal identity–the lifestyle aspirations of sports can have greater meaning than the actual participation numbers of the sports themselves. In this report, we provide detailed analysis, straight from youth culture about what they prefer when it comes to action sports apparel, style, influences, plus shopping patterns, retail preferences, online, and top brands. For industry leaders in action sports, streetwear, and youth culture, the Action Sports Apparel Report is vital for connecting with today’s marketplace via the corresponding lifestyle traits of such activities.
The Accessories Report: Accessories are vital components to creating one’s individual style and have greatly transformed the fashion, technology, and backpack industries over the course of the past few years. Ranging from watches to designer headphones, backpacks to wearable music listening devices and cell phone adornments, accessories have clearly made their way into leading-edge style statements among youth culture. Such wearable technologies and accessories provide a social value and are opening the category and changing spending patterns for a new tech-savvy generation that prefers in many cases, the latest electronics over a new pair of denim jeans.
Accessories are at the forefront of challenging the status quo of “what is fashion” in the sense of youth culture today. The shift in spending patterns also illustrates that while the economy is still challenging, where young people choose to spend their discretionary income has changed dramatically. This is not a trend that’s going to fade. Just as the fast-pace of changing technologies continues to increase, accessories are a vital component of youth culture lifestyles. The Accessories Report provides vital information, key trends, and market opportunities for brands, retailers, and industry players with insights from the youth marketplace itself.
For more information and to access the Future Consumer Reports, please go to www.thefutureconsumer.com.
