Why is it that the girls get all of the attention. They are the ones who have more retail space in many of the large shopping centers. They are the ones who merit so much of the talk on the red carpet when the stars are out for awards. And they are the one who get the colors, the styles, the heels, and the shine when it comes to the footwear fashions that are offered.
The boys, however, have been hidden in the shadows in the past. They have the smaller amount of retail space tucked away in the back of the store of the mall retail spaces. They only get mentioned as an aside about how they look next to their famous dates. With a few summer footwear exceptions, the colors of mens shoes are both basic and predictable.
An interesting thing has been happening, however, in the last half of a decade. Between the years of 2009 and 2014, the mens clothing numbers have started to climb, in thanks to the dress footwear industry. As one very specific example, the men?s designer footwear industry grew its current retail value sales growth 39% in the five years between 2009 and 2014. Accounting for 40% of all global sales, men?s spending on luxury also grew almost twice as fast as women?s in the year 2011, when the mens numbers were 14% and the womens numbers were only 8%.
Mens designer dress footwear styles are now even available in various exotic materials. From luxury ostrich skin boots to alligator skin shoes to mens eel skin shoes, the offerings of exotic mens shoes continue to increase. If you are looking for exotic mens shoes today you are going to find more options than were available in the past.
Fortunately for men, it is not just the shoe options that are increasing. More and more designers are also offering a wider variety of belts, bags, and briefcases.
Have You Seen the Pictures of Those Private School Boys Wearing Skirts?
Male students in the United Kingdoms decided that they were not going to hide in the back and take second seat to the girls when it came to their school uniforms. Although we may have grown accustomed to the stories about girls being called out for wearing leggings and shorts that are too short, the fashion news from the UK this week was a first. In protest of the dress code at their school where they are not allowed to wear shorts, the boys took a rather creative approach. The photos and the videos of the boys showing up wearing the uniform skirt that the girls wear served to get the world’s attention, even if it never has the effect of relaxing the dress code to allow shorts for the males.
Most men who are trying to make a fashion statement do not resort to the school uniform skirts, the romphims, or the sheet lace that items that occasionally go viral on social media. In fact, the most popular fashion items in the last decade may be the increased high end offerings of exotic mens shoes, and cleaner cut and tighter fitting dress shirts.
Consider some of these high end fashion statistics that are pushing the growth of the mens fashion sales numbers:
- Men?s luxury bags and small leather goods grew by 24% and 40%, respectively, between the years 2009 and 2014.
- Men?s dress shoes account for 6% of the entire shoe market share.
- By using accessories like shoe trees and leather polish can increase the lifespan of of fine leather shoes by as much as shoes 10 times the length of normal wear. For the top dress shoes this means that some pairs can accommodate tens of thousands of flexes.
- Even with the exotic mens shoes being made from leathers like stingray, crocodile, or python, this category of mens shoe sales still only accounts for 1% of all globally-traded leathers.
- 23% of the total U.S. population are considered ?millennials,? those falling between the ages of 18 and 34. The men in this group are a key consumer base for personal accessories.
How you look matters, but men should not have to resort to school uniform skirts to get noticed.