NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart spent three years revamping its adult clothing line to make it both stylish and relevant to middle-class Americans. Now the nation’s largest retailer is using the back-to-school shopping season to try again to regain its fashion respectability.
The company plans to relaunch its 30-year-old brand for teens and young adults on Tuesday with a new 130-piece fall collection aimed at Gen Z. The revamp of the No Boundaries label is part of a strategy to get customers to think of Walmart as a place to buy cool clothes in addition to groceries.
The new collection includes on-trend styles like loose-fitting jeans, cropped tees, faux-leather corsets and bomber jackets. Most items are priced at $15 or less. Some pieces are made from recycled fabrics to appeal to a generation that values sustainability. The size range has been expanded from XXS to 5X to be more inclusive.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company is marketing the revamped version of No Boundaries on TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and the online gaming site Roblox. It plans to test new prototypes in stores in major college towns.
The target audience notices it.
“It’s basic, but cute,” said Za’Kryra Davis, 16, as she looked at camouflage pants and denim jumpsuits at a Walmart store in Secaucus, New Jersey, where the new No Boundaries was launching last week.
Davis, who shops at chains like Rue21 and Forever 21 and gets her inspiration from trends that pop up on social media, said she’s been more open to buying clothes at Walmart in recent months because she says they look more modern.
Walmart previously relied on multiple suppliers with separate design teams to create the No Boundaries line, which focused primarily on everyday staples like T-shirts and denim. The company hired a dedicated design team to create the relaunch collection, a sign of the brand’s importance to Walmart’s broader fashion strategy.
However, winning over customers born between 1997 and 2012 will be tough, given Walmart’s stiff competition. The digital-native generation is known for being price-conscious and willing to compare, frequenting everything from thrift stores and the ultra-fast fashion online retailer Shein to discounters like Target and mall-based stores like American Eagle Outfitters.
Olivia Meyer, 22, who lives in Riverview, Florida, gets her inspiration from trends online and does most of her fashion shopping online, usually on Amazon, to ensure fast delivery. She approved of the cargo pants and strappy tops she saw while browsing the No Boundaries fall collection on Walmart’s website.
“I’m not loyal to any one store,” Meyer said. But she added, “I think Walmart has a chance to target Gen Z and get our money.”
With Gen Z spending the least on fashion of any demographic cohort except the so-called Silent Generation, retailers are keen to woo younger consumers as they represent the future, said Neil Saunders, managing director at research firm GlobalData.
“If you don’t capture them today, you run the risk of them leaving for a competitor,” he said. “Traditionally, Walmart has not been able to attract that younger demographic, so they’re trying to change.”
Walmart has said No Boundaries generates $2 billion in annual sales, but Saunders says the numbers have been stagnant for a few years. He says the retailer needs to overcome the perception that its fashion aspirations are limited to floral prints, pull-on pants and other styles more typically worn by older people.
Walmart showed three years ago how seriously it wanted to be taken as a fashion destination by hiring Brandon Maxwell, an American designer who has dressed celebrities including Lady Gaga, as creative director for its “high-end” fashion brands, Free Assembly and Scoop.
In February, the company hosted social media influencers who focus on trendy yet affordable style at a fashion show featuring Maxwell’s designer collection, sold at high-end stores Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
“It’s always the women in my life who define what I do, and that’s no different at Walmart,” said Maxwell, who mingled with Walmart guests at a post-show luncheon.
To bolster its legitimacy as a one-stop shop for fashionistas, Walmart added mannequins and colorful displays of its clothing. Under Denise Incandela, executive vice president of apparel and private brands, the company featured more than 1,000 brands and partnered with celebrities like Sofia Vergara.
At a recent industry conference in New York, Incandela said Walmart’s scale (which operates more than 4,600 stores in the U.S.) can help improve quality and prices. But the biggest growth opportunity in apparel is the Gen Z customer base that “cares about style,” she said.
“We’ve created a more modern, higher-quality brand with silhouettes that are more suited to Gen Z customers,” Incandela said. “We’re improving the shopping experience, but we need to change that perception.”
At the Walmart in Secaucus, Elizabeth Fernandez, 58, and her daughter, Destiny Fernandez, 38, said they found the women’s clothing more appealing than they used to. They were also drawn to the new No Boundaries line. Their cart was overflowing with pants, shorts, tops and skirts from around the store.
Citing the cropped puffer jackets and different denim washes on the shelves, Fernandez said Walmart was right in how it recycled and refreshed past trends.
“These are things that come up,” she said. “So I’ll take a look at it.”
