The Swimwear Industry Playbook - Post Pandemic Edition

From Vogue Business by Lucy Maguire, May 5, 2021

In a world devoid of travel, swimwear sales have taken a dive of unprecedented depth. The global swimwear market contracted by 22 per cent from 2019-2020, according to Euromonitor.

But while established brands and retailers suffered through the pandemic, disruptor niche brands have emerged, finding new opportunities in supportive, inclusive and sustainable swimwear.

 Brighter news came in the US from DTC brands, such as Everlane and Good American, which both launched swimwear lines in 2020 with encouraging launch sales and steady growth.

 “[Swim] has grown in a way that I could never have anticipated,” says Emma  Grede, co-founder of Good American, best known as an inclusive denim brand, which launched swim in June 2020. “It came through loud and clear that customers wanted swimwear from a truly inclusive brand.” Good American, which Grede founded with Khloé Kardashian, is a private company and does not disclose financials. However, the brand shares that its direct-to-consumer sales grew 80 percent from 2019-2020.

Everlane tells a similar story. “Swim was our biggest women’s launch week in Everlane history. We exceeded expectations by almost 90 percent and many styles are sold out,” says chief product officer Erika Edelson.

A lack of innovation in swimwear has opened the market up to disruption. “When you really delve into the category, swim styles change color, shape and fabrication, but the fundamentals don’t change very much,” says Grede. “It hadn’t evolved.”

Designing swimwear that fits

 American DTC lingerie brand Cuup aims to make bras that fit better, with 40 sizes available (three times the industry standard). On the back of $11 million in funding, the company experienced 400 percent growth from 2019-2020 and is now extending into swimwear this month.

 The move takes its design IP into a new category, says co-founder Abby Morgan. “Customers were sending us pictures of them using Cuup bras as their swimsuits,” she says. “We knew that our customers were begging for it. And we knew that we had the product to design and innovation to actually execute on it.” Cuup took 20 months to develop swimwear and conducted 100 fittings with 25 women to perfect the fit. Swimwear will come in 23 sizes that accommodate 53 bra sizes from 30A to 42F.

Support and fit technology are essential for the category, says Grede. “Swimwear is not an easy space to be in,” she says. “I think it takes a lot of work. And ultimately what we built is a very kind of SKU-heavy range, in order to give customers choice. That’s really what you have to do. We don’t take it for granted that the style or size she needs on the top, she also needs on the bottom.”

Customers seek sustainable fabrics and ethical supply chains

Alongside fit innovation, newly launched swim lines are using recycled fabrics. This is a trend reflected across the category, according to Kayla Marci, retail analyst at Edited. Swimwear isn’t a quick-win category.

“We began developing our swim collection in 2018,” says Everlane’s Edelson. “Our first step was to really research the market, and try to understand the typical pain points — everything from the fabric to transparency to fit issues. We found that a high-quality swimsuit that has a lower environmental impact was something that was hard to find. We knew we could give that to our customers.”

 Everlane’s swim range is 82 percent Econyl, regenerated nylon made from discarded plastic. “We’re also actively looking for renewed versions of the remaining 18 percent that don’t compromise product integrity,” says Edelson. Cuup will also use Econyl.

“Products described containing these materials, or as recyclable and sustainable combined, are far more commonplace,” Marci says. “Retailers are also taking the time to educate their consumers on caring for their swimsuits to avoid microplastic shedding.”

 Fashion has its part to play. “There’s still a part of the market that is very style-driven. We are on the side where it’s less about style and more about how you do things,” says Ack’s founder and CEO Axel Pani. Ack is 100 percent handmade in Italy, with a transparent supply chain. It advises customers on fit to reduce the likelihood of returns and offsets returns using DHL’s green service.

The swimwear rebound

Has a bounceback in sales already begun? Luxury UK-based swimwear brand Alexandra Miro has reported sales growth in January and February of 2021 that was triple the same period last year before the pandemic began. The brand is sold by Mytheresa, Bloomingdale’s and Browns, with a focus on bold designs and longevity. “The beauty of my brand is I’m offering very unique pieces of swimwear that you’re going to cherish for longer than just one season,” says Miro. The typical Alexandra Miro consumer is well-traveled, says Miro, and buys swimsuits for holidays throughout the year.

 At the height of the pandemic, retailers pulled back on their swimwear assortments and applied heavy discounts, says Kayla Marci of Edited. Now, retailers are introducing fresh product drops ahead of what Marci describes as an “optimistic summer reset”. Pre-pandemic levels of sales should be achieved by 2022, according to Euromonitor.

During the pandemic, buzzy luxury swimwear brand Ack came close to closure as sales crashed, says Axel Pani. But Axel and his wife, creative director Rebecca Larsson, came up with an agile response, deciding to go fully DTC and cut retail prices by around 50 percent. They posted an infographic on their website costing out the labor and materials to make the Blasic, their €95 hero one piece and explained exactly how much profit the brand would make (€57.30). Ack then invited its customers to shop for handmade pieces from its website at lower cost, without wholesaler margins (the swimsuit previously retailed at €170).

The transparency worked. Ack is “stronger than ever”, says Pani. “In every crisis, it’s always a chance to rethink what you do. This was our case and we got lucky — things are picking up for us.”

 Bigger brands are collaborating carefully with retailers. Lingerie company Wacoal, which owns legacy swim brands such as Fantasie, Elomi and Freya, saw sales plummet from May, usually its prime time for wholesale. “This year, we’ve been working really hard with our retailers to make sure that they’ve got the stock that they need, but they’re not left with a big exposure,” says sales director Theresa Garside. “We’re really optimistic that it will go back to pre-Covid levels.”

While new swimwear arrivals haven’t yet returned to post-pandemic levels, there has been a noted uptick of 5 percent on 2020, according to Edited. Consumers are now responding well to swimwear as a category, Marci says. Sellout on swimwear styles is up 13 percent since April, compared with the same period in 2020.

Feedback from regions and countries that enjoyed a relatively Covid-free summer can help understand the potential of the category in 2021, Marci notes. In Australia, new swimwear sellouts grew 113 percent throughout its December- February summer season. Alexandra Miro is seeing strong sales in the US and the Middle East, alongside healthy sales in the UK. All that suggests grounds for optimism about the summer to come.