Placket Power

Driving margin in a tight market.
Feb 1, 2009

Heritage Sportswear's Izod Performance Pique (style 13Z0075) is made of 100% polyester that wicks moisture, is anti-bacterial and offers UV protection. Men's sizes S-3XL and womens' sizes XS-2XL are available in basil, cobalt, Danish blue, lava and white.

By Terry Murphy, Senior Editor

As your customers' 2009 budgets tighten up, no doubt some of them will cut back on order volume. A restaurant client, for instance, that regularly bought employees five new shirts each year might be thinking about cutting back to two new ones this year.

A gloomy forecast? Perhaps. But plackets represent a shot at boosting your per-item margin, which can brighten your future quite a bit even if order volume drops. When it comes to outfitting corporate employees, retail employees, delivery drivers or bank tellers, plackets present a great opportunity to extract more margin from fewer units.

If you have a bank customer who has been ordering basic piqué knit plackets with a simple left-chest logo and they come to you this year with an order for four dozen rather than the usual six dozen — take the opportunity to show the buyer how three dozen high-quality plackets made from performance fabric and embellished tastefully at the left chest and on one sleeve will work for them. Show them how the shirts launder better and look crisper after 20 or 50 washings. The order's unit volume might be just half of last year's, but higher-margin styles and designs might help you draw as much profit out of the smaller order.

Q: What is the one/best piece of advice you have for a decorator about selling plackets in the current economy?

A: Outer Banks — Matthew Waterman, Sr. Marketing Manager, Hanes Imagewear/ Outer Banks — The best advice is to present your customer with options and sell quality. The Outer Banks product line features a good-better-best selling strategy. The Essentials, Ultimate and Egyptian Diamond Knit collections offer exceptional value at various price points. Every Outer Banks shirt is created with a quality promise, so you and your customer can have confidence.

A: River's End Trading Co. — Lori Anderson, Marketing Manager — Sport shirts are available in a wonderful variety of price points and brands so you can find a sport shirt for anyone! They also are versatile and will be worn for several applications so your client's brand gets a lot of visibility.

A: Heritage Sportswear Inc. — James DeHoff, National Sales Manager — Survey your customer and know the end-use. Matching the right shirt — fabric, fit, color and budget to the customer's goal leads to success.

Q: What are the best-selling colors?

A: River's End Trading Co. — We still sell the traditional colors the best — black, navy and red in both men's and women's.

A: Outer Banks — white, black and navy are tops. However, "resort brights" have been great sellers in recent seasons.

A: Charles River Apparel — men's: navy, black. Women's: black, pink, white

Q: What are this season's hot colors?

A: Outer Banks — Orange Spice, Green Glen and Cabernet — three rich, earth-tone hues.

A: River's End Trading Co. — men's and women's: bright blue (i.e. Carolina Blue).

A: Charles River Apparel — men's: gray, brown. Women's: plum, pink

A: Heritage Sportswear — men's: grays and chocolate. Women's: jewel tones including turquoise, currant and rose.

Q: What are this season's trends in fabric weights, weaves, yarns, treatments, performance characteristics?

A: Charles River Apparel — Gina Gaudet, Director of Design — Bonded polyester fabrics (i.e.: polyknit bonded to fleece)

A: Outer Banks — Ultimate Cool-Dri double-sided piqué fabric — 100% polyester inside to wick moisture and 100% cotton outside for a refined appearance. Also, Essential Blended Piqué — a lightweight 60/40 blend of cotton and polyester. It is lightweight (5.5 oz) and easy care, so it looks great coming right of the dryer.

A: River's End Trading Co. — We still see a lot of requests for lightweight performance fabrics for sport shirts. Moisture-wicking and soil-release are two top characteristics that customers ask for and buy.

A: Heritage Sportswear — Polyester has improved in hand and comfort allowing the performance features of polyester — wicking and anti-microbial properties — to be coupled with the softness of natural fibers. Textures and fine-gauge cottons also are popular.

Q: What's exciting in trims, silhouettes, hems, buttons, pockets, etc.?

A: Charles River Apparel — fused welded pocket details are in right now. Other exciting design details: branding on the snaps, zipper pulls, patches, etc., and smooth face zippers.

A: Heritage Sportswear — men's: European-cut plackets — not as big as an activewear or golf cut, and with shorter sleeves. Women's: increased tapering, with pearl-snap closures, mini-hook and eyes, or mini-button closures. Contrast neck tape and any details that adds to the femininity of the shirt add to the popularity.

A: River's End Trading Co. — While our industry has come a long way with exciting retail brands and new styles, designs and silhouettes, the majority of our customers still look for simplicity. Subtle tipping on the collar to add some color contrast gives sport shirts a stylish look. For women, a buttonless placket provides a more feminine look. We also sell subtle stripes and patterns well.

Q: How is the economy impacting your pricing?

A: Heritage Sportswear — It's simple. If we pay more for an item, we have to increase our price to our customer, so we were very careful in our 2009 product selection to choose items to fit a broad range of promotional budgets. We worked hard at offering a choice for 2009 to our customers.

A: Outer Banks — Even in a tough economic environment, [we] maintain exceptional value that customers expect.

Q: Organics was a huge trend last year. What will happen to organics/green/sustainable given the economic meltdown?

A: Outer Banks — Sustainability and green are not going to go away but people are beginning to understand that it is more than just organics. Organic is just a piece of the overall solution. Suppliers need to continue to do more to conserve resources and to minimize their "footprint" on the environment. Hanesbrands has made the commitment to minimize its consumption of natural resources and reduce impact on the environment by making improvements in manufacturing facility design and implementing green technologies.

A: River's End Trading Co. — I think there will continue to be a need for organic apparel and accessories, and the demand will continue to slowly grow as the world continues to find more ways to be earth-friendly. But like many specialty products, organic apparel fits a certain market niche and there is an added cost for it, so it's not going to appeal to everyone.

A: Heritage Sportswear — We added more eco-friendly items to our line to give our customers a choice. If having an earth-friendly piece is important to the program they are working on, we wanted them to have choices. If a program is more budget-driven, they may find that the eco piece doesn't work in the budget. Overall, providing options was our goal and we've done that.

A: Charles River Apparel — Sales will slow down. Organic products are generally priced higher than other products, which does not bode well when people are trying to spend less money, not more.

Q: What's a good business plan for selling plackets this year?

A: Outer Banks — In a tight economy like this, decorators need to be aggressive to keep the business that they have and try to generate new business. Calling on existing customers is a great way to expand current business.


For more information or to contact Terry Murphy, email him at tmurphy@impressionsmag.com.

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