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Nike to make a push into Fashion

Nikes joins rivals Adidas and Puma with big move into fashion via collaboration with Mathew Williams, the Alyx founder.

Nike is partnering with Matthew Williams, the founder of luxury streetwear brand Alyx, in a conscious move to make its performance category more fashionable. Matthew's work takes cues from the current youth culture and is recognised for his more practical approach to fashion, will launch his 18-piece fashion collaboration with Nike in mid July, which includes outerwear, monochrome leggings and a wide range of accessories such as logo-ed socks, face masks and towels.

Matthew's partnership with Nike, which has men’s, women’s and unisex collections, will be within Nike’s Training category, making this one of its first major collaborations with a fashion designer within the division. He founded Alyx in 2015 and has been working on the collaboration with Nike for the past year and a half.

He has a young fan base, and his brand's roots in merging street culture with practical garment construction, fits well with Nike’s Training division. But the collection also symbolises a wider strategic shift in the sport firm’s ambition to join its performance and lifestyle divisions, as it responds to the buying behaviours of young consumers, who often see less of a distinction between the two categories.

Nike still remains the world’s leading sportswear player in terms of revenue, but its performance-driven approach to apparel and footwear has lost some degree of “cool” in the eyes of young consumers, who often favour aesthetic and lifestyle features over performance and still make up a majority of the company’s clientele. Nike’s designer collaborations, including those with Kim Jones, Olivier Rousteing and Riccardo Tisci, also made a smaller cultural impact than those launched by Adidas.

( Photos Credit: Nick Knight )

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Macy's closing 125 stores


Representative from Macy's said last week that there are plans in place to close 125 of its stores over the next couple of years and cut minimum 2,000 corporate jobs as a cost-savings effort.

The company said it would close stores in lower-tier malls, and explore new avenues, as it looks to tackle plummeting mall traffic.

The chain, which has been struggling to boost store traffic as consumers opt for online shopping in the United States, has closed more than 100 stores since 2015 and cut thousands of jobs.

"We will focus our resources on the healthy parts of our business, directly address the unhealthy parts of the business and explore new revenue streams," Chief Executive Jeff Gennette said.

The to-be-closed 125 stores currently account for about $1.4 billion in annual sales, the company said.

It also said it expects annual gross cost savings of $1.5 billion by 2022, with $600 million expected in 2020.

It forecast full-year net sales to be between $23.6 billion and $23.9 billion, below analysts' average estimate of $24.36 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.


First Major U.S. Department Store to Sell Hijabs

Macy's is launching a women's line of clothing aimed at Muslim shoppers.

The chain announced it has teamed up with a boutique called Verona Collection and will sell the collection of "modest" dresses, tops, cardigans and hijabs online. The collection will launch on Macy's website on Feb. 15.

The brand was developed by Lisa Vogl, a graduate of Macy's minority- and women-owned business development program, which aims to offer more fashion diversity.

Though Macy's is the first major U.S. department store to sell hijabs, it joins brands like Nike, for example, who aim products at Muslims. Nike launched a high-performance hijab last year made for athletes. 

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