Denim retailers look to innovate

“Try on a pair of jeans today and get 25 per cent off your entire purchase,” a poster at the Gap store read.

The sign was not a misprint. Gap customers do not actually need to buy jeans to get the discount. The mere act of slipping a pair on is enough to get a nice markdown on any store purchase.

“We just want customers to feel them,” a member of staff at the Queens Road Central store named Anna said, pointing to the American retailer’s new stretch and recovery denim and hybrid legging-jeans.

It is hard to imagine retailers going to such lengths to convince customers to buy denim a decade ago. In the fickle world of fashion, jeans have become a staple of any wardrobe. Synonymous with the rise of the Levi Strauss jeans popularity has barely wavered from functioning as the epitome of youthful rebellion in the 1950s, to the 1990s Calvin Klein ads followed by designer denim from the likes of True Religion and Citizens of Humanity.

But a surge in the popularity of activewear as streetwear has started to wear away the world’s love affair with the blue jean and denim-focused retailers are now scrambling to innovate their products.