2020's stars: joggers, loose jeans, Connell's chain, Air Jordans and Collusion says Asos

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 3, 2020

Asos’s regular annual trends report is particularly interesting this time given that its mainly-20-something customers have been locked down for much of the year. So what were they buying? Comfortable loungewear, looser jeans and celebrity favourites.

On Thursday, it said activewear and comfort clothing were the big trend stories, with joggers the must-have item. But they didn’t have the field to themselves and celebrities still influenced fashion choices from sports stars to those playing the lead roles in key TV shows.

Asos said that with a big focus on health and exercise in 2020, it “saw a corresponding uptick in customer demand for activewear”. It became a “go-to destination for workout clothing”, with 188,000 pairs of its Asos 4505 Icon leggings sold during the spring lockdown. And in the summer, “shorts became increasingly popular, with sales up 200% year-on-year”.

When not working out, consumers sought comfort and its own-brand Collusion was searched more than 7.1 million times. It sold over 1.5 million T-shirts, 760,000 pairs of tracksuits and 100,000 pairs of dad jeans. Importantly, “for the first time in years, relaxed skater jeans overtook sales of skinny styles, up 222% year-on-year”.

It wasn’t only its own-brands and other major name brands that benefited from this as the surge in demand for loungewear was also seen on Asos Marketplace, which hosts more than 1,200 vintage and independent fashion boutiques. Here, sales of joggers rose 156% year-on-year, and tracksuits rose 83% in the quarter from April to July.

Looking at how entertainment influenced fashion purchases, the company said “when basketball legend Michael Jordan’s documentary released over the summer, sales of Air Jordan trainers increased by 60%; in October, hat sales increased by 48% year-on-year as Lily Collins starred in that Paris show; and after 179,000 people followed an Instagram account dedicated to Connell’s chain, Asos saw a 70% increase in purchases of neck chains”.

In menswear, ‘above keyboard’ dressing was a hit, with it selling over 2 million units of hats, chains, earrings, and grooming products. It said an estimated 1% of all Zoom calls made by men globally could have contained at least one of its products.

Face coverings also became one of its biggest sellers as lockdowns were eased. Since May, it has sold over 1.2 million face coverings.

Meanwhile, health and beauty also sold strongly with more than 290,000 skincare masks sold in the spring and summer. Haircare sales also went up 278% year-on-year; skincare was up 94%; and bath and body 332%.

Skincare brand The Ordinary was its most popular Face & Body brand and it sold one of its products every two seconds.