Impressions - October 2017 - 23

Women's tights and leggings
are top-selling styles in the
performancewear category.
Photo courtesy of Boxercraft.

corporate channel, where performance-level
shirts and polos frequently are requested,
according to suppliers.
While the options seem endless, suppliers agree that performance tees continue
to drive sales. "The T-shirt will continue
to lead the category and there are many
low-cost options today driving higher volume," says Matt Murphy, vice president of
marketing, Russell Athletic. "The consumer
will continue to want more as new features
are added to the T-shirt, allowing higher
prices and more profitable sales."

Understand & Educate
The abundance of options makes the performancewear category increasingly accessible, but also leaves decorators in uncharted
sales territory.
"One challenge is knowing what is truly
performancewear," Davis says. "The market
[for] poly tees is loaded, for example, but
not all perform at the same level. If you
sell something as [performancewear] and
it's not, you'll lose that customer."
Beyond knowing and understanding the
products you sell, it's imperative to pass
that knowledge on to customers because
not every customer will know the many
functional attributes and levels of performancewear available.
"It is important to keep it simple and
use visuals in educating customers,"
Murphy says. "Your website must offer
product detail that is easy to understand
and, where possible, offer videos that can
sell the products for you."
Murphy also suggests highlighting positive product reviews, and using direct-mail
pieces and e-blasts to inform customers of
new and exciting products. "It should be
about showing how your customers can buy
performance apparel over other traditional categories and what they can expect in
terms of added value," he says.
As far as sharing information, Schwarb
suggests using selling points from suppliers'
websites. "Take snippets and add [them] to
your own site, create fliers, heat decorate
your samples with the features right on the
garment," he says. "Do research to find who
is scientifically studying performancewear
and use that data to close the sale."

Selling Performancewear
There are many factors to consider when establishing pricing for
performancewear. Here are a few tips for developing your strategy.
1. Consider the decoration. One thing to take into account when
setting prices is the type of decoration the garment requires.
"This can be an effective selling approach considering all
the sublimation in the market today," says Matt Murphy,
vice president of marketing, Russell Athletic. "The types of
designs produced on polyester performance apparel are remarkable and the attributes of the garments should be highlighted once those designs capture the customer's attention."
According to Mark Schwarb, southeast regional sales manager,
GroupeSTAHL, it could be argued that an explanation of how
the decoration will be accomplished ultimately will land the
sale. "Inform [customers] this is different than a cotton
tee," he says. "Explaining what process you'll use and why
it is necessary for performancewear elevates your customer's
confidence level."
2. Think "better" and "best". It's important to create differentiation among your offerings, according to
Murphy. "Think in terms of a 'better' and 'best' mentality," he says. "Promote and highlight at these levels
while carrying more basic and core pieces when needed."
Most customers are willing to pay a premium price for performancewear, but you still should have options. "This is where
upselling comes to mind as a strategy that can be employed,
or downselling if price is a concern - either way, provide
the customer with the right performance garment to meet their
needs," says Vince Winters, president, Elbowgrease Athletics.
3. Use dollar sense. "I see movement away from pricing by margin
to pricing by dollars," Schwarb says. After you decorate an
item, evaluate its perceived value. "So what if it only costs
a few cents to make it look great?" he says. "That doesn't
mean you need to price it low based on a theorized margin."
Schwarb also warns against discounting labor. "It's in the
decorating shop that your profit gets drained because of time,
labor and equipment," he says. "If you must discount, do it
on the easy-to-handle side: the garment."

OCT./NOV. 2017

P.23

Impressions - October 2017

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