Levi's Dockers revamp targets men who want slim look
Levi Strauss & Co., the world's largest jeans maker, is slimming down the look of its Dockers casual pants after losing touch with the changing tastes of American men.
"We've been keeping the same fits in the marketplace for too long," Chief Executive Officer John Anderson said after San Francisco-based Levi reported U.S. demand for Dockers fell in the nine months through Aug. 24. The brand's new mantra: "Regardless of your shape, we can make you look good," he said.
Levi plans to emphasize slimmer-fitting styles of Dockers khakis in 100 U.S. stores this year as part of a revamp of the 22- year-old brand, which accounts for about a fifth of annual revenue. The company wants to win back customers who've switched to casual pants from Columbia Sportswear Co. and other rivals.
"The fit is kind of funky," said Don Gilchrist, a Greensboro, North Carolina, restaurant broker. The 54-year-old stopped wearing Dockers a decade ago and now wears Columbia pants because they're "more comfortable and better quality," he said.
Dockers, the top-selling U.S. casual slacks, introduced two new styles since 2007, slim and straight fit, to go along with its classic and relaxed styles, John Ordona, a brand spokesman, said today in an interview.
Store displays will emphasize those four styles in the next year and focus less on colors, stain resistance and other characteristics. Those switches reflect what Dockers "has identified as a major sea change," Ordona said.
"Men are updating their style and cleaning up the way they wear their pants," he said. "Silhouettes have become slimmer. It's clean and not baggy."
The straight pant has minimal details, no pleats and is made with stitching above the back pockets for a smoother finish, according to the Dockers Web site. The style retails for $60 on the site, whereas Dockers classic sells for $48.
Dockers' target audience is men in their mid-20s to their 50s, Ordona said. Part of the audience is overweight men, Anderson said.
Obesity among U.S. adults has risen in the past quarter century, with a third of men so overweight they risk diabetes, heart and other health problems, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a November 2007 study looking at 2005 and 2006 data. The percentage of men considered obese was 31 percent in 2003 and 2004, Atlanta-based CDC said.
"Even if people are getting just short of peak fitness, we are making sure that those fits look as flattering as they possibly can," Anderson said. "There has been a trend in the marketplace toward more regular-fitting, trimmer garments."
There's demand for slimmer fits, said Bob Blumenthal, the owner of Blumenthal's clothing store in Greensboro. Most of his male customers are overweight and complain that their pants look "too full," he said.
"They look at themselves in the mirror and say, `These look too big. Don't you have something slimmer?"' Blumenthal said today in an interview.
Levi, founded in 1853 by a Bavarian immigrant of the same name, is a privately owned company that reports financial information publicly because its debt is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Levi's 9.75 percent notes due in 2015 fell 38 cents on the dollar to 83.88 cents, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The yield increased to 13.65 percent from 13.55 percent.