December 2005 Cover Story Features

Cover Story

Urban Fashion’s Outlet Role
Urban apparel is a big catch-all with a low-priced step-sister named fast fashion. Its brands and products range from edgy to retro to anti-tasteful. VRN spotlights two chains on the cutting edge, as well as a proudly suburban retailer new to the outlet scene.

Fast Fashion
They call it fast fashion and it’s having a new influ-ence on outlet retailing. Up-to-the minute styles create rapidly changing stock at lower prices and nearly disposable apparel.

Kenneth Cole
This brand with a social conscience targets shoppers between 25 and 55 who are fashion-conscious, with strong allegiance to Kenneth Cole. The chain fits into outlet neighborhoods near Georgio Armani, Tahari, BCBG and Coach.

Alfred Dunner
For 50 years Alfred Dunner has catered to suburban women with updated styles and extraordinary pricepoints. The company opened its first outlet store in May at Tanger’s Riverhead, N.Y. center.

Reebok
Reebok has been a staple of exercise-savvy moms for more than 25 years, but it recently set its sights on capturing the youth market. Now Reebok is redesigning a portion of its outlet stores to appeal to teenagers through a fusion of sports, music and technology.

Features

Gulfport Center Re-opens
Bowed but not broken, Prime Outlets-Gulfport (Miss.) was on track to re-open in late November, nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The 307,000-sf center was the storm’s worst-hit outlet project.

Ownership Updates
Ah, it’s that time again. To keep track of all the outlet-center sales, acquisitions and ownership changes, VRN has produced another chart to pull all the latest info together.

Dog Gone!
Prime Retail goes pet-friendly - in recent months, most of the developer’s 29 outlet centers have sprouted doggie amenities, ranging from water bowls to dog walks.