by Matt Bodimeade, Source: CompaniesAndMarkets

The global denim jeans market has been forecast to hit a market value of US$56 billion by 2018, primarily driven by a rapid rise in the number of customers purchasing denim jeans that offer better fit, superior style, durable quality, and an affordable price tag. Additionally, lifestyle factors, fashion trends, celebrity endorsements, and employment conditions also will contribute to the market growth.

The denim jeans market is one of the most fragmented industries with several thousand companies targeting a myriad of customer segments and niche markets. The high concentration of players, both large and small, has resulted in fierce competition.

Consequently, most of the denim companies, particularly the premium brands, invest heavily in differentiating and marketing efforts. Most brands choose either new materials or traditional fibres to differentiate.

Americans purchase approximately 450 million pairs of denim jeans each year, and jeans are the most extensively produced and used apparel in the US. The denim jean market in the US is cyclical and sensitive to productivity, employment milieu, fashion trends, celebrity endorsements, lifestyles, and other such factors. Retailers and manufacturers are under constant pressure due to short fashion cycles and rapid chances in customer preferences.

Excessive celebrity endorsements in style magazines, mostly for US brands, have eventually desensitized the denim jean customers towards brands in recent years. Nearly 4/5th of Americans, Canadians, and the French actually do not notice the brands endorsed by celebrities; and that a similar proportion of customers from these regions are not interested in noticing what others are wearing on the streets.

During the last few years, many new brands have entered the market, primarily in the premium denim jeans segment. Levi’s (All Brands), Wrangler and Lee are the topmost men denim’s brands and Levi’s (All Brands), American Eagle Outfitters and Old Navy are the topmost women’s denim brands in the US.

While international brands such as Lee Cooper, Diesel, and Levi Strauss are well within the reach of the average consumer’s pocket, black marketing is also prevalent in many developing countries. However, the market for denim wear continues to evolve, not just in terms of the innovations that designers experiment upon the thick sturdy cloth time and again, but also in terms of the fragmented crowd of players dotting the scene.

For more information on the global denim jeans market, see the latest research: Global Denim Jeans Market