There was a time when outdoor gear companies were leading the fashion industry in South Korea, but that is no longer the case. The fast-shrinking market has now reached a point where individual companies are closing their doors. One of them being the apparel affiliate of the LG Group, LF. The French outdoor brand is currently in the process of gradually shutting down its stores in the country until they will all be gone by early 2020.
LF is not the only company suffering in the current dire situation in the South Korean outdoor gear market. Miller Edelweiss Holdings Co., which is the Korean branch of Millet’s was also on the lookout for companies that might be interested in taking over the business. According to statistics provided by the Samsung Fashion Institute, the outdoor wear market in South Korea was a booming industry as recent as 2016 still worth 7.1 trillion won.
In merely a year it has shrunk to $4.5 trillion generated in 2017. Since then it has been continuously under pressure and on the decline. When these figures get dissected into what happened with individual retail brands, the picture is as grim. K2 Korea suffered a drop in sales between 2016 and 2018 from 352.1 billion won to 308.8 billion. The story is the same at Black Yak. Their annual sales figures dropped from 426.7 billion won to 387 billion during the same period.
The Declining Factors
Currently, many reasons are being assumed to cause this drastic decline. The country as a whole is in an economic downturn, and it means that shoppers have less buying power for their money. Another reason is also due to the constant increase in rivalry companies which place the market under additional pressure.
A third reason is linked to the rather significant increase in the country’s preference in casual wear, and this caused the demise of other fashion industries. The fashion industry focussing on outdoor fashion is also often placed under pressure by golf-wear brands that venture into these markets. These golf-wear companies have started to take over the manufacturing of items that were previously considered to be the signature items of the outdoor fashion industry.
A fourth contributing factor a change in perceptions that occur within the South Korean culture. Many of the shoppers of a younger generation deem outdoor gear as garments aiming at a more mature and aged market segment and their interest. Their buying power is allocated to the casual wear industry.
According to a source closely linked with the outdoor fashion industry, the effect of this decline is detrimental to the industry. It results in slower progress on technological advances. This will make it even harder for the industry to break through the current perceptions held about it and much harder to recover from their dire situation.
