Jeans sales go down, money stays in pocket
Jeans apparel companies may be in trouble for socially isolating consumers
Whitney Cummings once described underwire bras as the same feeling a woman gets while leaning over a fence. The discomfort I felt while wearing a real bra after rocking sports bras five out of seven days a week for more than a month made me fully understand where she was coming from. And for the braless bunch who have found other everyday clothing as oddly constricting at home, you know what I mean. Jeans are tying with bras these days as Most Constricting Apparel for work-from-home (or unemployed) workers who have been wearing shorts and yoga pants since March.
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As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a percentage from purchases with my referral links. I know some consumers are choosing to boycott Amazon for its DEI removal. However, after thinking about this thoroughly, I want to continue promoting cool products from small businesses, women-owned businesses and (specifically) Black-owned businesses who still feature their items on Amazon. As of the first date of Black History Month 2025, each new post will ALWAYS include a MINIMUM of one product sold by a Black-owned business. (I have visited the seller’s official site to verify that Amazon Black-owned logo.) I am (slowly) doing this with older, popular posts too. If you still choose to boycott, I 100% respect that decision.
In 2015, Complex already opined about whether athleisure would make jeans go out of style. If you’re fresh off the street and have no need to change once you get to a spin class or yoga class, you’re wearing athleisure clothing. According to Alala, the rundown of athleisure includes yoga pants, sneakers, jogging pants, tank tops (i.e. wifebeaters), leggings, tights, shorts and sweatpants.
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A total of 1.4 million people filed unemployment claims for the first time last week due to COVID-19 — and that’s adding on to the 54.1 million in the past five months who have sought unemployment aid this year. A lucky group of people have found a way to work from home doing their full-time jobs or made their side gigs into full-time work. And, unless they’re on Zoom and Uber Conference video calls all day long, sitting around in button-down shirts, blouses, suits and jeans just are not happening on a regular basis.
Apparel was already on shaky ground. Why? A sizable amount of people are too nervous to try on new clothing. There’s enough stress trying to stay 6 feet away from each other, avoid the anti-mask consumers throwing a temper tantrum, disinfecting hands nonstop and figuring out how to stretch out a paycheck long enough to check off an entire grocery list. Trying on a pair of high-priced jeans is just not top priority. In fact, apparel purchases have gone down altogether in the past few months.