As brand director of the global licensing group at Informa Markets, Steven Ekstract believes both luxury and licensing “work as a result of emotional connections made by the consumer.”
WWD: The luxury market is a trillion-dollar industry, but despite such revenue, luxury retailers are facing new challenges in today’s evolving digital marketplace. Can you speak to these challenges? For example, Champion, a brand you can find at Walmart, has done limited-edition collaborations with Supreme, Kith and Vetements. I would say a $300 Champion hoodie is indeed a luxury. Supreme is a great example of a brand/retailer that does this all the time. Supreme has become synonymous with luxury despite the fact that most of its products are casual streetwear. But, the idea of a limited run and being hard to find makes the brand super valuable to their customers.
WWD: Collectively Millennials and Generation Z will represent more than 40 percent of the overall luxury goods market by 2025, compared with around 30 percent in 2016, according to research from Deloitte. How will retailers continue to attract this growing demographic?