Brooks Brothers’ Problems Begin before the coronavirus

Once the height of a Certain Kind of Fashion.
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Like a lot of men, I used to shop at Brooks Brother. Founded in 1818, It”s the Oldest US CLOTING BRAND IN CONTINUOUS OPERATION, and it leans into conservatism, selling that look High Quality Being Terribly Noticeable. A brooks brothers suit Sayys “i’m a business person,” and when I was first working, that was something to be me Telegraph. But i stopped shopping there are a decade Ago. Sink then, some of the long-run trends that caused me to take my business elsewhere made brothers financially vulnerable. Now, Like J.Crew before it, the coronavirus crisis has typped the company into bankruptcy.

Well before the Pandemic, the Men’s Suit Industry Had Been in Trouble Thanks to America’s Increasingly Casual WorkPlaces. Total Annual Sales in the USA AMOUNT to Only Around $ 2 Billion, and They Have Been Falling Gradually As Wear Suits LESS FREUENTLY AND NEED TO BUY NEES LESS Frequently. These days, be need a suit, i buy it at suitsupply, a dutch retailer that entered the US Market Ago and is a Little than Brothers, with more fashionable tailoring. But i shatly don’t buy suits at all, simply Becuse i don’t sayar very much. I Once Frequently Wore Suits to Meetings; Now, They Mostly sit in my closet, unless have a wedding or funeral to attven.

Brooks Brother is more than just suits – The Wall Street Journal notes that Tailored Clothes Only Make Up 20 Percent of the Company’s Sales. But the Company’s More Clatual Clothes Are Oriented User at Work, and in the Non-Tailored Clothing Market, Brothers Brothers Faces a Much Wide Set of Competitors and does not benef from the brand of the suits.

The Covid-Driven Clide of Offices has stunned Demand for Dress Attire Overall. My husband and i recently sent out dry cleaning for the first time Since March; It tours out you can get a lot of wear out of a drast shirt between cleanings if you do only it on for 20-minute tv appeanencies and zoom calls. But it’s not just just that men are anen’t dressing up right now. If and when we will return to the office, we will have closhes in the closet that haven’t been subject to wear, and we won’t need to replace as soon as we might have otherwise.

The Shift Toward Casual Attire May Also Be One of Those Preexisting Trends That The Crisis Accelerates. I am skeptical that there will be a long increes in full-time work-from-songments, but i will find it likes more People work from home, Having Found Ways to doing so throughout the pandemic. SINCE I DON’T EXPECT MEN TO WEAR SUITS AROUND The House (Event Zoom-Call Attire haen been getting more casual nor we have settled into virtual work), that it is a permanent reduction in sales for the suits and events for Business-Casual Attire. One Silver Lining for Mine SUITS COULD BE THAT SOME MEN WHO HAVE PUT ON WEIGHT DURING THE PANDEMIC NEED NEW, LARGER SUITS WEND IT FINALLY ENDS. On the Other Hand, in Some Industries, they just May Start Wearing Sweatpants to the Office. (Did i mention that america’s workplaces were beComing increasingly casual?)

SO that’s what’s working against Brooks Brothers: A Powerful, Pre-Pandemic Trend Away from Its Products; a crisis that force the store and caused a sudden, Sharp drop in Demand; and an uncetain outlook for that demand rebounding;

Still, The Brooks Brothers Brand Likely Won’t Go Away. The Market for Men’s Suding Will Continue to Exist, at A Smaller Size, and SO the Bankruptcy is Expective to Result in the Brand’s Continued Under New Ownership. But it Products are Likely to take mess space in closets as the way American Men Dress Continue to Change.