Yahoo Finance Move over normcore: Why Tip Top Tailors is betting on spiffy suits to help it weather economic downturn
In his six years as chief executive of Grafton Apparel Ltd., Lance Itkoff hit upon an interesting trend: workplace attire isn’t what it used to be.
The days of wearing a suit to work are gone, and people are buying suits for the latest style, with barely a thought to whether they are office appropriate. It’s that shift, along with a special-events industry still benefiting from pent-up pandemic demand, that has Itkoff confident the retailer — owner of specialty menswear brands Tip Top Tailors, Big and Tall and others — can weather an economic downturn already putting pressure on businesses and consumers.
With casual garb the new normal in workplaces, the Toronto-based retailer moved during the pandemic to rejig its suit lines, offering more patterns, colours and styles to catch the eye of shoppers wanting personality-matching outfits for a special occasion.
“I’m not afraid by what the prognosticators are saying. The wedding calendar is so crowded, the strategic decisions we made … (have) been paying off,” Itkoff said. “We’re going to continue to gain market share and put a hurt on the competition in the coming year.”
The economy has been sputtering as the Bank of Canada tries to get control of inflation levels at 40-year highs by implementing the most aggressive series of interest rate hikes in the central bank’s history. Those interest rates are working to cool demand and economic growth has slowed. Now, businesses are beginning to feel the impacts, with some forecasting lower revenues and laying off workers to cope with higher borrowing costs.
But that doesn’t mean consumers are pulling back spending on weddings, proms and parties. Those shows must go on, Itkoff said. Shoppers may have less money to spend on discretionary purchases, but there’s still an expectation, and even personal desire, to show up to events dressed to the nines — especially after lockdowns prevented them for so long. Customers are coming to Tip Top for the affordable prices and wide array of styles on everything from pocket squares to suit jackets, he said.
A Tip Top Tailors suit from the retailer’s proprietary Grafton line costs $279 before tax. Moores Clothing, owned by Mississauga-based Moores the Suit People Corp. and Grafton’s main competitor, also has suits at the same price point that come in a range of styles and colours.
Itkoff expects demand for the company’s suits to continue. Special events that were put on hold or delayed due to COVID-19 have now been rescheduled and locked in for the year ahead, he said.
Last year, sales more than doubled compared to 2021, though Itkoff declined to provide exact numbers since the retailer is privately owned.
Though special events clothing is on the company’s radar, it’s not counting out workplace attire just yet. Itkoff said the company still expects to capture sales as people head into the office.
“It’s our job to look into the future and say, ‘Where’s the demand curve going to go and how do we play into that,'” he said.
“We believe that the demand curve was going to escalate sharply for event dressing. We believe that the demand curve for go-to-work suiting was going to continue to become smaller. But we also said that when people come out of the pandemic, they’re not going to be wearing sweatpants and hoodies to go to work. They’re going to be wearing a smart pair of pants and a nice shirt.”
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