Soon you may be practicing your asanas and drinking those pumpkin spice lattes not in your Lululemon Wunder Under Pants but instead wearing Amazon leggings. The super sleuths over at Recode noticed a new Amazon job posting this week for a bunch of brand managers to “build authentic activewear private label brands that have compelling and unique DNA and deliver amazing consumer valued innovation.” Amazon remains mum on exactly what this means for the company.
Amazon is already set to sell more clothes than Macy’s this year, so it only makes sense they would eventually want to create their own labels and cut out the middle man to reap the benefits of larger profits. The company currently designs its own brands of suits, dresses and shoes in addition to many other non-fashion products.
The current U.S. activewear market is estimated to bring in $44 billion in sales — everyone wants a piece of that. With over 2,000 activewear brands already in the market, however, marketing and status is key. Will Brittany in SoMa be caught dead wearing Amazon leggings to SoulCycle? Only time will tell. Or maybe it will simply be about price — with their own brand, Amazon can offer lower prices than most of the brands they sell.
The real questions is what does this mean for all the other brands that sell activewear through Amazon — no doubt their search results will come far below Amazon own product. And what about outdoor brands — will Amazon be coming for them next? Amazon ski onesies, anyone.
And this is still one of my favorite videos of all time.