"Low Birthrate but High Sales"... Growing Children's Clothing Market

Children's Clothing Market Grows 16.8% Year-on-Year
Double the Growth Rate of Overall Fashion Market
Attributed to 'Gold Kids' and 'Ten Pocket'
Sales Rise with School Normalization and Reopening
Global Brands Also Launching Kids Lines One After Another

[Asia Economy Reporters Song Seung-yoon and Jeon Jin-young] Despite the ongoing low birthrate trend, the domestic children's clothing market is steadily expanding. This is due to an increase in consumption centered on high-priced children's clothing products, such as luxury kids' brands, as more parents are willing to invest generously in their children.

According to the Korea Federation of Textile Industries on the 8th, the size of the domestic fashion market last year was 43.3508 trillion KRW, growing 7.5% compared to the previous year. During the same period, the children's clothing market increased by 16.8% year-on-year to 1.0648 trillion KRW, more than twice the overall fashion market growth rate. The children's clothing market decreased by about 14.4% from 1.0659 trillion KRW in 2019 to 912 billion KRW in 2020, when COVID-19 spread in earnest, but recovered to the previous level within a year. With the lifting of social distancing and the full resumption of economic activities (reopening), the industry expects the children's clothing market to grow even larger this year.

The growth of the children's clothing market, contrary to the low birthrate trend, is analyzed by the industry as being due to the ongoing "Gold Kids" trend. The term "ten pocket" has even emerged, referring to the phenomenon where parents, grandparents, relatives, and acquaintances all spend money on one child. Especially after the resumption of economic activities, with schools returning to normal and various outdoor activities increasing, children's clothing sales have surged recently.

The children's clothing market is consistently strong with kids' products from adult clothing brands. In particular, luxury brands' kids' products remain extremely popular despite their high prices. This trend has also steadily increased department store children's clothing sales. Last month, Lotte Department Store's infant and children's product sales grew 25% year-on-year, with luxury infant and children's products increasing by 40%. Other department stores showed similar growth. During the same period, Shinsegae Department Store's overall children's clothing sales rose 26.4%, and imported children's clothing increased by 39.9%. Hyundai Department Store also saw a 24% increase in total children's clothing sales in May, with premium children's clothing growing by 39.1%.

The number of premium children's brands handled by department stores is also on the rise. For example, Lotte Department Store opened the luxury kids' select shop "Quii Quii" at its Dongtan branch last year. This shop introduced Balenciaga Kids, Chlo? Kids, and, for the first time in Korea, popular brands among MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) parents such as Off-White Kids and Margiela Kids. Shinsegae also houses Baby Dior, Ralph Lauren Children, Burberry Kids, and Kenzo Kids. Hyundai Department Store strengthened its luxury children's segment by renovating the basement level 2 of its Apgujeong main store in 2020, adding brands like Fendi Kids, Jibangsi Kids, and Moncler Enfant.

Online platforms importing overseas luxury brands are also expanding their kids' categories. Musinsa launched its own children's clothing brand "Musinsa Kids" in February, and Catch Fashion launched living and kids' categories last August to expand kids' products. Hanstyle is also gradually increasing its kids' product lineup. Domestic native brands are in a similar situation. Western Networks, which owns kids' brands such as Blue Dog and Allobot, saw sales increase by 22.8% last year to 215.9 billion KRW from 175.8 billion KRW the previous year. Pastel World, which includes Daks Little and Hazzys Kids, also saw average sales growth of about 20% year-on-year across most brands last year.

An industry insider said, "With the increase in revenge consumption, the spread of the Gold Kids trend, and diversification of online sales channels, the children's clothing market is expected to continue growing," adding, "Especially, MZ generation parents have a clear preference for similar looks or family looks, leading global brands to increasingly launch kids' lines one after another."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.