February 2009

Cheat Sheet

 

Fleece

By Shane Dale

Q: Are there different types of fleece material? Are some organic or made of recycled materials? What are the benefits of fleece? What kinds of garments/accessories are made from fleece? How can you decorate fleece? What types of businesses or industries buy a lot of fleecewear?

Lee Strom, senior marketing manager for SanMar (asi/84863), says there’s a simple explanation for the explosion in fleece’s popularity. “It’s the way fleece continues to be reinvented,” he says, adding that the 100% cotton fleece hoodie from past years has been expanded to include newer, more efficient types of fleece.

Polar fleece, a synthetic imitation of the authentic fleece made from sheep’s wool, continues to be improved upon since its creation nearly 30 years ago and is the most commonly used type of fleece today.

“One fleece item that we brought out is Activo,” Strom says. “It’s a lighter-weight fleece that’s been extremely popular. We’ve probably doubled, if not quadrupled, our offering on this in recent years. It’s great for layering, and that’s what a lot of people are looking for. Also, the yarns are twice as dense as standard fleece. Activo is very soft and it’s not bulky. Women want something that looks more fitted and offers a prettier silhouette.”

Jeff Lederer, executive vice president of Prime Line (asi/79529), says fleece can be combined with other fabrics to provide clients with additional features, such as anti-pilling fleece wearables. “There are also certain materials that you can combine fleece with, such as nylon,” he says. “We have a fleece nylon picnic blanket that’s water-resistant.”

Popular Fleece Items
Hoodies continue to be the most popular fleece item among retailers, especially during the winter months. But these days, trendy fleece goes well beyond hoodies. “We’ve got blankets, scarves, gloves, and then all the traditional sweatshirts and offerings, and the soft shells and the other outerwear-esque categories,” Strom says.

Nicole Smith, director of sales and marketing for TSC Apparel (asi/90518), a division of Profill Holdings, separates her company’s fleece offerings into two categories: jackets and outerwear, and sweatshirts. “We have a full line of fleece from Anvil Knitwear (asi/36350), and we also carry the polar tech from Sierra Pacific Apparel (asi/87224) and Colorado Trading & Clothing Co. (asi/45792),” she says. “We do a higher price point of a micro-fiber fleece through Colorado Trading.”

Lederer says Prime Line offers backpacks, picnic blankets, throw pillows, stadium blankets and scarves, all of the fleece variety. “We also have combo sets where it’s actually a blanket inside of a bag, and we have a fleece blanket that goes inside of a string bag,” he says.

Decoration Options
A number of companies use the most popular decoration techniques – including screen printing, embroidery and appliqué – for fleece wearables and accessories.

For several years, Prime Line has been using its patented image bonding imprinting technique for its fleece product line. The image bonding process produces an imprint onto the surface layer of the material, and allows for an infinite number of colors that can be applied to just about any material, including fleece.

“We came up with the imprint process, and we said, ‘What else can we do that’s different?’” Lederer says. “It was just an ‘a-ha’ moment. No one else does it. You get a perfect crisp, clear product every time. You get a really spectacular-looking imprint.”

Smith says her company’s fleece products from Tultex are great for decorating in inconvenient-to-decorate areas. “I think with the trend of retail with hoodies and fleece product in general, a lot of what we’re seeing from a decoration standpoint is decorating over the zipper itself,” she says. “The benefit to the Tultex fleece is that it’s got a placket that’s covered slightly, so it’s easy for us to decorate over.”

“It’s a garment that we’re able to discharge, and that can be important to certain customers, as discharge printing is becoming more important to retail markets, and we’re doing it more and more for ASI customers,” Smith says. “Not all fabrics are dischargable, and the Tultex product is.”

Best-selling industries
Fleece’s heavy feel gives it a high perceived value, which makes many products – though not necessarily hoodies, which are typically not considered high-end items – especially popular for corporate events. “You can use fleece for corporate events tied into businesses working outside,” Smith says. “You tend to see hoodie styles more with the younger demographic, and going toward the college market. I don’t see hoodies as much in corporate markets; usually the corporate clientele is going toward the polar-tech fleece, the more high-end stuff.”

Likewise, Lederer says Prime Line’s fleece line is popular with universities and for corporate events, but also for picnics (especially blankets), outdoor company events, as an in-room amenity gift for travel programs, and for nonprofit organizations for volunteers who work outdoors in cold climates, “because you have a lot of volunteers outside and you want them to keep warm,” he says.

From a promotional perspective, the best part about fleece, according to Lederer, is it’s not something that’s going to be tossed aside. “You’re going to use this. If it’s something else, you’re going to put it away,” he says. “That’s the beauty of it.”

Facts About Fleece 1. Plenty of graphic options: “Hoodies are so big at retail and you can do so much with the graphics that it really improves fleece’s overall perceived value,” says Nicole Smith, director of sales and marketing for TSC Apparel (asi/90518). 2. The green factor: “We launched a recycled polyester soft-shell style last fall. It’s made of 63% recycled polyester, 32% recycled rayon and 5% spandex for stretchability,” says Lee Strom, senior marketing manager for SanMar (asi/84863). “It takes on that whole soft-shell trend, which has been huge. It’s a look that’s just been really strong in the consumer world. Out of the gate, it appears to be doing quite well, plus it makes a green statement.” 3. Better margins: “We personally like selling fleece because it lends itself to a higher average purchase,” Smith says. “You can buy fewer pieces, but you’re going to make more money on it. At this time of year, the T-shirt business is so price competitive – not that fleece isn’t, but the margins are traditionally better, so there are distributors who can make more money on it.” 4. Strong in a weak economy: Strom says soft-shells and general hooded fleece sales remain very strong despite the economic downturn. “From a price-point hierarchy, they’re more handsome and they offer an opportunity to buy something new without breaking the bank,” he says. 5. High perceived value: “Fleece has a high perceived value and it evokes warmth, and you associate that to the brand,” says Jeff Lederer, executive vice president of Prime Line (asi/79529). “When something’s really thin, it’s perceived as cheap. When it’s thicker, it feels good. I think you just associate that to something that’s more high-end.”

Fleece Definitions 1. Polar fleece (also known as micro-fleece or synthetic fleece): a fabric made from synthetic fibers, created in 1979 as an imitation to authentic wool; typically weighs less than authentic fleece. 2. Hoodie: a popular upper-body fleece garment with an attached hood and optional full-zip or quarter-zip feature. 3. Pilling: abrasion from normal wear and cleaning in fleece material that causes its fibers to unravel and the loose ends to accumulate on the fabric surface. 4. Anti-pilling fleece: a type of fleece that prevents fibers from unraveling. 5. Image bonding: a patented process in which a design imprint is reproduced onto a material’s surface layer; an infinite number of colors can be applied to any fleece material.

Shane Dale is an AZ-based contributing writer.