Apparel companies have been growing steadily all over the world. Apparel brands have increased their business not only by globally opening their stores but also through e-commerce portals. These lifestyle and clothing brands are among the biggest in the world and are popular across the globe. The top apparel brands in the world include brands like Christian Dior, Nike, H&M, Zara etc. Here is the list of the top 10 apparel brands in the world 2017 as per Revenue.
Quick Glance at Top Apparel Brands in World 2017
1st place: Christian Dior
2nd place: Nike
3rd place: H&M
4th place: Zara
5th place: Adidas
6th place: Gap
7th place: Louis Vuitton
8th place: Uniqlo
9th place: Ralph Lauren
10th place: Hermès
For more details about rankings and parameters, read on.
Apparel 2017 Ranking with Parameters (Revenue):
10. Hermès
A high fashion luxury goods brand, Hermès is based out of France.
Image: Company Website
Thierry Hermès founded it in the year 1837, and it is headquartered at Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris, France. It is a high-end brand, which specializes in leather, perfumes, lifestyle accessories, jewellery, ready to wear, watches and home furnishings. The company has an old-fashioned business model where all the goods are completely hand made and are manufactured in workshops. The company focuses on quality manufacturing and hence each item is produced end to end by one single person, which gives it the quality as well as uniqueness. The company has its own designers and it does not license any of its products so as to ensure there is control over the quality and manufacturing.
The stores are spread across the globe satisfying the accessory addiction in the fashion industry. The products of Hermès are a pure example of craftsmanship and Hermès is one of the few brands, which provides desirable, quality products without exploiting the workforce. Scarves are one of the highest selling products of Hermès along with handbags. It is believed that one Hermès scarf is sold somewhere in the world every 25 seconds. The current CEO of the company is Axel Dumas and the company’s revenue is $ 5.4 billion.
Revenue (million $): 5400
9. Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is one of the leading apparel brands in the world serving customers globally.
Image: flickr.com/photos/telemax/
An American apparel company started by the designer Ralph Lauren in the year 1967, Ralph Lauren is a leading luxury brand in today’s apparel and accessories industry across the world offering a variety of products for men, women and children. It has 493 directly operated stores across the world. Apart from apparel and accessories it has also ventured into the fragrances and home segment. Polo Ralph Lauren, the flagship brand of the company was the first complete line of sportswear and tailored clothing. A lot of brands such as Polo Sport, Club Monaco, Lauren Ralph Lauren, etc. offering products in different categories are currently active under the umbrella brand Ralph Lauren. The company started out with the product men’s ties in 1967 and by 1968 a full line of menswear Polo was introduced into the market.
It has been the official outfitter for US Open in the year 2005, Wimbledon in the year 2006 and for US Open Golf Championships in the year 2011. It is also the exclusive parade outfitter for the US Olympic and Paralympic teams. With a brand value of $6.6 million and revenue of $ 7.6 billion, it is one of the leading names in the fashion industry worldwide.
Revenue (million $): 7600
8. Uniqlo
A Japanese designer, manufacturer and retailer, Uniqlo is a brand known worldwide for casual wear.
Image: pixabay
Founded in 1949 in Yamaguchi, Japan this company now employs over 30,000 employees and is currently headquartered at Tokyo. Deriving the name from unique clothing, it is not a luxury-clothing brand but is widely accepted as a casual wear, minimalist clothing brand. The brand sells exclusively through Uniqlo stores across the world and its major stores are in Japan (841), China (457) and other Asian countries along with stores in US and European countries. The company took services of a major consulting company related to merchandising, display, store-design and visual merchandising which helped it become a success across the globe. The cheap manufacturing in China prompted the company to outsource its manufacturing activities to China and these low-cost goods proved to be popular in recession-ridden Japan.
The company currently has a brand value of $ 9.6 million and plans to be the biggest Specialty retailer of private label apparel in the whole world by 2020. Its current CEO is Tadashi Yanai and its current revenue is approximately $ 10 billion.
Revenue (million $): 10000
7. Louis Vuitton
The French lifestyle brand LV or Louis Vuitton is one of the world’s most recognizable and valuable names in the business.
Image: pixabay
Founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton, it sells luxury trunks, hand-made leather goods as well as shoes, watches, sunglasses, books, perfumes and other accessories. The LV initials are exhibit on all the brand’s products that are sold through company owned standalone boutiques, high-end department stores and its own e-commerce website. Valued at USD 24.3 billion, it topped the list of the ten most powerful brands published by the Millward Brown Optimor's 2011 BrandZ study.
It is one of the most counterfeited brands in the worlds, owing to its aspirational status.
LV trunks have been made by hand ever since the company’s inception, taking 60 hours to complete while a suitcase takes almost 15 hours. LV also produces limited edition bags and accessories each fashion season, available only to a select few through reservation. It has collaborated with designers like Takashi Murakami for the Monogramouflage Collection and Marc Jacobs and Yayoi Kusama for the Infinitely Kusama Collection recently.
Revenue (million $): 10000
6. GAP
GAP is an iconic fashion brand and one of the largest apparel brands across the world.
Image: Wikimedia
It was founded in 1969 in San Francisco California and today; it is the largest specialty retailer in the United States and 3rd largest across the world in terms of stores with 3,727 functional stores across 52 countries. It also has the ability to ship to 214 countries. The company targeted its apparels for a younger generation thereby getting its name from the generation gap at the time. Although it started off as a store that sold Levi’s, it soon launched its own brand of Jeans. It currently serves a broad demographic of customers. Its sub brands Banana republic and Old Navy provide a more sophisticated image and fun, fashion and value for young customers and families respectively. It modifies its store design and product proliferation according to the needs of the local market and the costs of the apparels are also significantly different across different markets.
The brand association for GAP is one of the best in the fashion industry that is apparent by its brand value of a whooping $ 15.65 million. Its revenue is estimated at approximately $ 13.8 billion and this leading fashion brand employs 1,37,000 employees across the world.
Revenue (million $): 13800
5. Adidas
Adidas is a global apparel brand focused on sport clothes and sports wear serving customers worldwide.
Image: pixabay
Adidas, one of the top sports apparel and accessories manufacturer in the world, was founded in August 1949 by Adolf Dassler and is headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and second largest in the world. Adidas sells a variety of clothing items such as men’s and women’s t-shirts, hoodies, pants, leggings and jackets. One of the major focuses has been football kits and it has been a real innovator in terms of its products for the game. From clothes to boots to the football itself, it is a major player and supplier in the football equipment industry across the world. Apart from Football, Adidas provides equipment such as boots, kits for all major sports. Even for the non-sports customers it has an exhaustive product catalogue for t-shirts, tracksuits, shoes and other gear. It also designs and sells perfumes, deodorants, aftershave along with watches, bags, sandals, eyewear etc. Reebok is one of the noteworthy subsidiaries of Adidas.
Adidas has been official sponsor for various teams and players across different sports for a long time. Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester United are a few clubs that are sponsored by Adidas and individual players such as Andy Murray, Lionel Messi, Virat Kohli are a few sportspersons sponsored by Adidas. Its brand value is characterized by the brand loyalty and its brand is valued at approximately $ 10 million and current revenue is % 15.3 billion.
Revenue (million $): 15300
4. Zara
Rosalia Mera and Amancio Ortega founded the Spanish clothing brand Zara in 1975.
Image: Wikimedia
The world’s largest apparel retailer Inditex group owns it, and it was initially known for low price lookalikes of higher-end fashion brands. 13 years after its inception, Zara went international, beginning in Portugal expanding rapidly to the US and then to France and to the present almost 2200 stores. Interbrand’s list of best global brands ranked it 30th in 2015 with a value of USD 15.9 billion. Zara now produces fashionable apparel, shoes and accessories for women, men and kids based on the current consumer trends. It is known for its highly responsive supply chain that employs RFIDs easing the shipping of products to stores twice a week, and making it more profitable by closely following capricious consumer preferences. The company aims to attract customers to repeat visits to their stores by carrying over basic fashion designs from year to year and keeping fashion forward designs on shelves for considerably shorter durations. Its most fashionable items are produced in Europe while products with longer shelf life are sourced from low cost producers in Asia.
Zara is also committed to eradicating hazardous chemicals effluents all through its supply chain and products by the year 2020 in line with Greenpeace’s Detox Campaign.
Revenue (million $): 15900
3. H&M
H & M (Hennes & Mauritz AB) is a successful Swedish multinational clothing retail company that along with its associated brands operates over 4,000 stores across 62 countries.
Image: Wikimedia
It is the world’s second largest clothing retailer and the only company ahead of it is Spain based Inditex. Online presence is one of the defining features of this brand. The international brick and mortar growth and e-commerce growth makes the company one of the most rapid growing fashion retailers in the world. Founded in 1947 by Erling Persson and currently headquartered at Stockholm, H&M offers fast-fashion clothing and accessories for men, women, children as well as teenagers. The brand has been promoted with the help of collaborations with various designers and celebrities. The brand has come up with different collections from designers across the world not only in the clothing segment but also in the accessories segment. It is also known for constantly updating its collection so as to provide trend-setting options to its valuable customers.
The brand value for H&M is a whooping $ 19 million and current revenues are $ 21.45 billion. Stefan Persson is the current CEO of the company and the company employed a total of 1,48,000 employees as of Dec 2015.
Revenue (million $): 21500
2. Nike
Nike is one of the most recognizable brand in the world of apparel and sports.
Image: pixabay
Nike, the brand with the highest brand value in the apparel industry, appx $ 32 million, is one of the world’s top manufacturers of sports equipment and is also the largest suppliers of athletic apparels and footwear. It is an American multinational corporation, headquartered at Beaverton, Oregon. The company currently employs more than 62,000 employees and has revenue in excess of $ 30 billion. Nike makes a variety of sports gear such as shoes, jerseys, shorts etc. for a variety of sports such as Soccer, track and field, baseball, cricket, basketball, etc. It is known for its constant innovation in terms of the apparels and footwear providing high performance to the athletes using the gear. Not only in the sports field, but Nike has also established itself as a brand name in the street fashion industry with products such as tracksuits, running shoes, baseball caps, sneakers, leggings, sweatpants etc.
Its marketing campaign involves promoting its products through sponsoring top teams and athletes across various sports. Michael Jordan, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Rory Mcllroy are some of the athletes sponsored by Nike. It is also the official kit sponsor of Indian Cricket team, Barcelona, Chelsea and many more. Also, Nike ranks among the top 3 in the world in terms of being climate friendly according to one survey.
Revenue (million $): 30600
1. Christian Dior
Designer Christian Dior in Paris founded the brand in 1946. Spring summer 1947 saw his first fashion collection within the Huit and Corolle lines.
Image: Wikimedia
Dior was known for using large volumes of textiles despite the post-war fabric sanctions and was also lambasted for designing corsets considered restrictive and regressive. Christian Dior entered the scents business in the late 1940s with the Diorama perfume and the cosmetics market with a lipstick in the mid 1950s. The Dior Homme line for men was released in 1970s gaining prominent male clientele only in the early 2000s. Watches were also added to the Dior jewelry repertoire in the 2000s.
Christian Dior boasts of Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlize Theron and Monica Bellucci amongst its ambassadors and designers like Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano. It has been criticized for promoting anorexia nervosa and unrealistic body image among women by designing unrealistically small clothes.
The brand operates from 210 locations presently and is valued at USD 25 billion.
Revenue (million $): 41600
Rank Methodology:
1. The leading apparel brands in the world are considered
2. Revenue of the brands are taken and weightages of 50% are given to them
3. Based on this a total score is calculated and a final rank is done