Survey shows teens are snapping up denim, athletic wear, and beauty

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Oct 18, 2016

Leading bank and asset management firm Piper Jaffray Companies conducted its semi-annual Taking Stock with Teens research survey. The take-away is that while teens were not spending as much as fall of 2015, they were buying more denim, athletic apparel, and beauty products.

The survey researched the spending trends and brand preferences of 10,000 teens of an average age of 16 years old. The survey was conducted by surveying a geographically diverse subset of high schools across 46 different U.S. states. 

Neely Tamming, Piper Jaffray’s senior research analyst, commented on the survey: “While total spending among the teen demographic appears to be down slightly versus last year, we are encouraged that the upper-income teenagers in our survey are indicating more optimism and positive spending trends. This increase in spending among upper-income teens seems to be largely broad-based across fashion and beauty.”

Denim brands accounted for 19% of the aggregated mindshare, a top trend among upper-income females. Also among upper-income teens, fashion athletic apparel reached a high of 35% share.

Athletic-styled footwear brands took the top shares, with Nike ranking first at 51%, Vans in second at 9%, and Converse and Adidas at third and fourth, at 7% and 6% respectively. Nike was the top clothing brand by far, at 29% share, comparable to American Eagle’s second place spot at 9% share.

The beauty category reached the highest value in the 17 years of the survey, accounting for 11% share of teenagers' spend. As previous surveys have shown, specialty stores, such as MAC, who was the top beauty brand of the year, are proving more profitable than legacy channels of beauty.