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.

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( Photos Credit: Nick Knight )

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New brands like GmbH in Berlin to Grace Wales Bonner and Charles Jeffrey in London, Fengchen Wang and Xander Zhou in China, and Avoc and Y/Project in Paris are fresh, diverse and without any boundaries.

Gucci is introducing a series of global, pop-up stores, designed to create even more reasons for customers to shop across the year. This is especially in regions where luxury brand may not already have a physical outpost. Target destinations over the next year include Chengdu, Sao Paulo, Taipei, Bangkok, Moscow, Mexico City, Dubai and many more across Europe, Latin America, the US, Middle East and Asia Pacific regions.

The Pop-Ups are called “Gucci Pin” and will each be open an average of five weeks. In some cases, shops will open and close over the course of a year in the same city or location, dependent on different occasions. Digital content will play a major role in keeping the customers hooked.

The first shop opened on November 5 in Hong Kong, and will be followed by Fukuoka, Seongnam, Paris and Denver in the first wave of openings throughout the month.

Gucci Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri said that the Gucci Pin stores will allow the brand to reach different consumer segments than it can with its brick and mortar stores. “We are therefore looking at Gucci Pin as a new map for new territories, combining an immersive digital activation to further enhance the physical experience,” he said.

The idea is simple, pop-up shops will feed the growing demand for constant newness, especially among younger consumers buying entry-level price point items plus with Limited edition runs creating a sense of urgency.

This strategy is especially important because Gucci’s sales growth have slowed down this year. The brand saw revenue increase 11 percent on a comparable basis in the third quarter of 2019, compared to 35 percent in the same period the prior year. But Gucci is still on track to reach its goal of €10 billion in annual revenue in the coming years.

The first wave is all about gifts for the holiday season. The second, opening in early 2020, will celebrate the Chinese New Year, later in the year, there will be a “psychedelic” theme, with products designed to reflect the concepts.

Asia is Gucci’s largest and fastest-growing region, so it’s no surprise that many of the first stores to open are in the region.

Looking forward to whats in store for Dubai and the rest of the Middle East.

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The recent shift to online shopping isn’t working in the interest of retail brand Zara, as its exposes its issues with the fit, product quality and online service, according to Credit Suisse analyst Simon Irwin.

Comments about Zara products “are poor and declining” on consumer-review websites Trustpilot and Sitejabber, the analyst wrote in a note previewing owner Inditex SA’s first-half results on Sept. 12.

“We believe the ‘treasure trove’ nature of a Zara shop is still a better experience off-line,” Irwin wrote. While online is driving like-for-like sales growth, that can have a negative impact on gross margin, he also said.

The broker estimates that the Web will represent about 10 percent of Inditex’s sales this year, up from 2.4 percent in 2013. It also expects 2018 to be the sixth consecutive year of Ebit margin decline.

Inditex shares had their worst week in seven years last week, falling 8.7 percent after Morgan Stanley published a scathing report saying the retailer has gone from great to good.

Credit Suisse lowered its price target to 24 euros from 25 euros and maintained its underperform recommendation.

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