Real Opportunities in U.S. Fashion

The Real Opportunities Within The U.S. Retail Market

Many people come to New York City with hopes of making it big in finance, technology, media, publishing, and if you are thin and pretty--fashion. However, it should be fashion, fashion, fashion, according to the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) in a study that was jointly conducted by The New York Economic Development Corporation,  

“Fashion is one of the largest industries in the city, producing 887 million dollars in economic activity. New York Fashion Week’s yearly economic impact includes about 547 million dollars in direct visitor spending, that is more than the 2014 Super Bowl, the New York City Marathon, and the two week U.S. Open Tennis tournament.” http://cfda.com/blog/nyfw-the facts.

For the Fashion and Retail Startup Community in New York, there is more good news, “During the February 2015 New York Fashion Week, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen triple the current investment to 15 million dollars from 5 million dollars.” http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/nyc-mayor-unveils fashion.inititative

Does all this funding and additional revenue, mean this community continue to develop more shopping apps, flash sales sites, or that someone enroll in design at Parsons, FIT or LIM?

As an analyst the real opportunities lie within those who have great practical and technical abilities in the following areas:

Event Planners:

Many event planners can command a high six to seven figure salary, to plan and execute fashion shows, but not only for NYFW. Many brick and mortar stores are attracting Millennials to their stores through events, at any given week Lord and Taylor, Macy’s and even high luxury stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman’s have in store events with designers, artists, and DIY experts. http://eventbrite.com

Sound, Lighting, and Digital Editors:

Individuals with a production background in sound, lighting, and digital editors are needed to ensure the in store fashion shows and the NYFW shows are flawless, as well, these individuals play a critical part in ensuring that these fashion productions are live streamed flawlessly through multiple social media channels, such as Periscope, Vine, Meerkat, Youtube, and the designers and retailers traditional websites.

New Need for Mobile Payment Devices and Back End Retail Data:

Instant mobile payment devices are great for after in store viewing parties so customers can pre order the new collections. However, with these devices there should be already pre-loaded data with the customers data to detect if they are wholesalers to avoid cyber security issues. “According to Internet Retailer, Target.com, was stalled for 20 minutes followed by limited access to consumers trying to browse the collection of 250 items befores stores opened. Hours laters many items were sold out. And by Monday morning a women’s shift dress that on Target’s website was listed for $38 (soldout) and sold for $132.50 on an eBay auction that attracted 23 bidders, more than 26,000 Lilly Pulitzer for Target items were listed on the online marketplace.” http://internetretailer.com/2015/04/20/targets-lillypulitzer-issue-it-about-tech-or no.

The need for this anti-theft device would furthermore deter people against reselling without a retail or wholesale license, which is a form of theft.

Technology Engineers-

The movement towards Ruby on Rails engineers has changed to UX/UI designers, who are in great demand because they translate the product managers request from the customers into functional technology designs that are found in the emerging market of wearables. UX/UI Designers have the task of bringing the world of art, science, fashion and functionality to the customer and producing wearables that are safe and functional.

These are the new functional high paying careers that are in high demand in the fashion tech community.

Additionally, many brick and mortar and traditional designers are trying to figure out how to appeal to Millennials and Gen Z.

Some designers have turned to reality TV others have hired Reality TV stars; however these generations were brought on the notion of giving back and saving the community. The retailer that has figured out how to capture this market well is H & M. H&M satisfies the needs of this demographic through recycling clothing, for every bag of clothing a customer gets a discount coupon to be used at the store at any time, H&M invests in technology that repurposes these fabrics, which constitutes in creating sustainable clothing. (H&M policy book) However, more technology needs to be created with regards to repurposing textiles.