Counting OnTheClassics
Pretend play may be influenced by media, but adults still buy princess and police costumes for kids
By Marcia Passos Duffy -- Playthings, 8/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
While many kids would love to be a pop star like Hannah Montana, or a superhero like Batman or Iron Man, what's most often hanging on the racks of many independent toy stores are not media-driven licensed clothing from the season's must-see movies, but rather classic pretend play costumes. Why? Because it's those princess, ballerina, knight and pirate costumes that sell when grandparents or parents walk through the door to buy a special gift for their little ones, according to manufacturers and retailers.
“Our best sellers continue to be tutus and dresses, with the accessories to go along with these, such as shoes, wings, wands and tiaras,” says Betsy Skaroff, design director for the Bristol, Penn.-based children's dress-up clothing and accessories manufacturer A Wish Come True.
While the company has experimented with selling “rock star” looks, sales did not take off for those pretend costumes. “People (who are coming into independent toy stores) buying dress-up clothing are the parents and grandparents, who want a more innocent look for their kids,” Skaroff says. But that doesn't mean that rock star themes are not selling in other venues, such as in “big-box” locations, she adds.
And that desire for innocence has probably been the reason that sales of the company's dress-up clothing have been favoring smaller sizes. The market's gotten younger. “Ten years ago kids were playing classic dress-up as late as age 7 or 8,” Skaroff says. “Now the sizes most requested are for 4- to 6-year-olds.”
Out-performing the market
Overall, the pretend play category—made up primarily of fashion-oriented role-play and accessories, action dress-up and accessories, play tools and food, and a few remaining lines of toy guns and weapons—is showing growth and was reported up 4 percent in 2007 year over year by The NPD Group, the Port Washington, N.Y.-based consumer and retail market research firm. While it's a modest gain, the category is doing well considering the overall drop in toy industry sales during that same time period. As for who's playing, NPD says approximately 60 percent of pretend play dollars go to products for 3- to 8-year-olds.
“Business has been excellent,” says Connie Van Epps, co-owner with former Toys “R” Us executive Ronald Tuchman of Thinka Dinka, the Westfield, N.J.-based specialty retailer; she reports sales of the dress-up category are up 40 percent over last year. The store sells primarily high-end dress-up clothing; most sales are made to grandmothers or mothers who are purchasing the clothing as gifts for the children in their lives.
“What grandmother can resist a granddaughter in a princess outfit?” she says.
Tutus retailing at $22 are the store's best seller in dress-up, followed by an authentic-looking space helmet sold by Lake Barrington, Ill.-based Aeromax, which the store retails for $50. “We can't keep enough of these helmets in stock,” Van Epps says. With boys, authenticity is essential, she adds. “[Aeromax's] fireman's outfit really looks and feels like a real fireman's uniform.” For girls, Van Epps shares that the trend is more glamour than glitz; matching accessories are also hot sellers.
With authenticity and glamour comes a steeper price tag: princess dresses in Van Epps's store sell between $69 and $79; but she has not seen price resistance among customers living in Thinka Dinka's locale, one of the more affluent areas of New Jersey. The 2,600-square-foot store stocks 20 running feet of high-end dresses. “We tested some lower-end dress-up, but it didn't sell,” she says.
For most toy boutiques, pirates and princess dress-up have always been mainstays, and are continuing strong sellers, says Ron Sebert, co-owner of Becky & Me Toys in Glenview, Ill. His stores also do brisk sales with Learning Resources' pretend play sets, such as its animal hospital kit.
Lou Landau, director of sales for Brooklyn, N.Y.-based manufacturer Dress Up America, agrees that for the preschool set, the “everyday hero” dress-up costumes (fireman, policeman, doctors, etc.) are the strongest sellers. “It's the older kids who want to be Batman or the latest craze,” Landau says.
Princess and pirates: passé?
However, not all stores are seeing strong sales in the classics. Michele Gietz, who co-owns Where'd You Get That?! of Williamstown, Mass., with her husband, Ken, welcomes the blossoming “rock star” trend among girls. “Frankly, most customers are princess-ed out,” Gietz says.
Despite good sales of non-licensed “rock star” dress up, overall sales at Gietz's store are down slightly over last year. Gietz attributes the decrease to lower tourist traffic due to gas prices. “I'm not ordering dress-up as frequently,” she says. She also blames saturation in the dress-up market, particularly in the proliferation of specialty toy stores, and the appearance of competing lines in mass merchants.
Gietz's dress-up category is strongest in boys' apparel; anything with a cape or that dons the Star Wars license is a hot seller, she says. Rubie's Costume Co.'s dress-up trunks with three licensed superhero costumes have been good sellers for Gietz. The company's other trunk, filled with Wizard of Oz licensed costumes, also performs well.
Conversely, anything pirate is passé at Where'd You Get That?! Professional dress- up is also trending downwards in Geitz's store. “In our area, kids don't want to dress up like a doctor … after all, their mother or father is a doctor. They want more fantasy-oriented play,” she says.
Malibu, Calif.-based Jakks Pacific is also seeing a trend toward more music-related themes, such as “pop star,” that are expanding the role-play category, says Geoffrey Greenberg, president of Jakks's pretend-play oriented Creative Designs International division. The company's current dress-up line is heavily indebted to Disney's teen musical TV properties.
“These new play patterns are fueled by the popularity of hit shows such as Hannah Montana and movies such as High School Musical and Camp Rock,” says Greenberg, who also noted that the classic themes of princess and superhero/villain still remain strong with younger children.
Other hot products right now for CDI include Disney Fairies dresses and accessories that have been launched to support the upcoming Tinker Bell DVD release. For boys, Greenberg says the company's best selling pretend play item has been its Black & Decker Junior Electronic Workbench.
Classics with a “twist” is going to be the next hot trend in pretend play, predicts Paul Weingard, vice president of product development for Schylling, the heavily retro-themed toy and gift products manufacturer that also distributes the Small Miracles dress-up line. “The classics are strong, but we're seeing light-up tutus become popular, a well as other classics, such as magic wands, created with some electronic element, such as lights or a 'whooshing' sound,” he says. He is also seeing new variations of the princess theme, with non-traditional colors and looks.
Prices on the rise
Most retailers and manufacturers interviewed for this story have seen increased product, raw materials and shipping prices because of higher fuel and petroleum-based plastics costs. Another factor is rising labor costs in China. “We've been hit by both sides,” says Dress Up America's Landau, who has seen product prices from China rise 10 to 20 percent in the past year. Many retailers won't feel the pinch since they purchased their inventory from January through March, but “who knows what will happen by Christmas,” Landau says.
Candice Gooch, owner of All At Once Agog of Limerick, Maine, orders most of her merchandise from Germany, and has seen steep price increases. “It's shipping costs plus the dollar against the Euro,” says Gooch, who is ordering larger quantities than in the past in order to save on shipping costs.
Thinka Dinka's Van Epps notes that price increases in dress-up are nowhere near what they have been for other toys. “There have been increases, but very small,” she says. Where'd You Get That?!'s Geitz agrees: “Prices have gone up but it hasn't been terrible for dress-up … and we aren't getting any price resistance if the dress-up clothes are well made,” she says.
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