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What is the assessment of trends in the KIDS PLUS SIZE CLOTHING market?
Hello! Thanks for your question about trends in the kids plus-size clothing market. The most useful resources for answer this question came from industry reports and media resources. The short answer is that childhood weight issues in the US are not likely to go away any time soon, and there is increasing demand for more focused retailing for plus-sized children's clothing.
Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
FINDINGS
Generally speaking there was relatively limited information available on this topic; however, I reviewed the previous response you received and conducted extensive additional research to provide some supplemental information that may be of interest to you.
MARKET RESEARCH
At the end of 2015 a report by market research firm Mintel found that 15% of parents with children aged 12 and below struggled to find clothing that fit their child if they were overweight. This trend was subsequently reinforced by the company's February 2017 report, which indicated that parents were still frustrated by the lack of sizes for children's clothes (although unfortunately the exact statistics were not available without purchasing the report).
Other findings from the 2015 Mintel report indicated that:
Mintel also reported that the problem with finding plus-size clothing for children was more prevalent in urban areas. Overall (plus- and normal-sized), the children's clothing market is divided into 47% for girls, 32% for boys, and 20% for infants and toddlers.
According to the 2015 Women's Special Sizes Study released by market research company The NPD Group in early 2016, 34% of women aged 13-17 purchased plus-sized clothes in 2015, compared to just 16% in 2010. NPD found similar results as those expressed in the Mintel report, with consumers expressing a desire for more and better options in the plus-size clothing category. That said, unfortunately there were no statistics for males 13-17 or young females or males.
PURCHASING TRENDS
Young consumers of plus-size clothing are increasingly indicating a desire to feel like they are keeping up with existing trends among non-plus-clothing. This means that clothing that is designed in line with current styles but is targeted towards plus-size customers is seeing strong growth.
GENDER/ETHNICITY BREAKDOWN
In terms of combined childhood obesity and overweight rates, the balance was roughly the same for boys (32%) and girls (31.6%), as of 2011/12 (the most recent data available). Although this data is somewhat old, there is no reason to expect there to be any major deviations from this gender breakdown. In terms of the breakdown by ethnicity, for boys 34.4% of obese or overweight children are black, 40.7% are Latino, and 27.8% are white. For girls this breaks down as 31.6% as black, 37% as Latino, and 29.2% as white. Again, similar to the gender breakdown, I don't see any reason for there to be any major shifts in the distribution of overweight children in terms of ethnicity in the intervening years since this data was released.
This mirrored the findings of 2014 obesity statistics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survery (the most recent available), that found that 9% of children aged 2-5 were obese, 18% between 6 and 11, and 21% 12-19. Black children were 34% more likely to be obese than white children, and Latino children were 48% more likely, while Asian American children were 43% less likely.
Measuring the trends since 1988, obesity for those aged 2-5 rose until 2004 before starting to decline; obesity for 6- to 11-year olds rose until 2008 before levelling off; while obesity for 12- to 19-year-olds continued to rise from 1988 to 2014.
CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROJECTIONS
In terms of projections for childhood overweight and obesity, after an extensive search it was very difficult to find any good, up-to-date projections. A 2014 report from the OECD did include some projections, although these were based on 2010 data.
According to the data:
- Overweight status (including obese) for girls aged 3-17 would range between about 40% and 50% by 2020, while overweight status for boys would range between around 32% and 48%.
_ Obese status for girls would range between 19% and 25% by 2020, while obese status for boys would range between 24% and 30%.
That said, the inclusion of 2011/12 data points already showed some deviation from the OECD's projections, with the percentage of girls that were overweight falling below the projected range, and the percentage of boys that were obese falling below the projected range (although overweight boys and obese girls continued as predicted).
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, childhood overweight and obesity issues do not seem to be going away, so it is fair to expect ongoing demand for plus-size clothing for children. Additionally, the parents and teens are getting increasingly frustrated with the lack of options for plus-size children, and retailers are slowly beginning to take note. It appears that the continues to be significant untapped potential in this market, particularly if specific age and ethnic markets are tapped.
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