Target is expanding its collaboration with Levi’s by bringing the brand’s lower-cost diffusion denim line Red Tab to an additional 300 stores this spring, bringing the total number of stores where the line can be found to 800. The expansion also will go beyond denim, with more than 60 new styles debuting, including tops, dresses, fleece, tees, and trucker jackets for both men and women. While Target and Levi’s have been partners for more than a decade, the companies’ collaboration ramped up in 2019 with the debut of the Red Tab line. Since then, Target reports that it has sold millions of pairs of Levi’s jeans and that Levi’s is one of the most searched brands on Target.com when it comes to denim.
Jill Sando, EVP and Chief Merchandising Officer at Target, said, “Strategic partnerships like Levi’s continue to drive preference for Target, and guests turn to Target for the very best national brands alongside more than 45 incredible owned brands. Since offering our guests Levi’s Red Tab label for the first time more than two years ago, paired with our unmatched owned brand offerings, we have established Target as a go-to place for denim.”
More brands are selling their wares directly to their customers and, at the same time, have become much more selective about their wholesale operations. Levi’s, in particular, has steadily pulled away from wholesale, so that by 2019 it had declined to 30% of the business, down from about half of the business eight years before. Meanwhile, by the end of the fiscal year 2020, DTC approached nearly 40% of Levi’s business, from 20% in 2011, according to a filing with the SEC. But recent research shows that wholesale remains an important channel for sales volume and scale. According to Sanjeev Mohanty, managing director of U.S. and Canada at Levi Strauss & Co, the key is finding the right balance.
