Addict Clothing (What Went Wrong?)
Addict Clothing, lil history for you below and some thoughts on the brand
We have carried Addict clothing sine we opened in 06, was our main brand at the time, the product was fresh, good pricing, great graphics and the forward ranges looked really strong.
Now you look at Addict and it seems a bit stuck in a timewarp, seems to be trying to hard to copy Carhartt, and not doing a good job at it, Addict see themselves as big as MHI or Stussy.
They had the potential a few years ago to be there but they have stuck their prices up to quickly and by to much, no regard for who their customer is just now, just to focussed on who they want their customer to be in a few years.
For start Addict used to do a great denim retailing at £50, now the similar jean is £75, and the prices go all the way to £125, for an addict jean, you must be having a laugh. Base jackets that were £75 are now £100, basic T’s were £20 now £25 and the list goes on.
SheOne produces great pieces of work and his own t/shirt label was great,addict have grabbed him and bastardising his work, Sheone on thongs for Christ-sake, i have a SheOne print and always been an admirer of his stuff, but Addict have become to reliant on using his allover print on every conceivable garment.
SheOne referred to by Refill Magazine as “a leading cultural Artist”, a world renowned artist who has been painting and making graphics for twenty years, exhibiting in Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore, Berlin and Milan. Al this means that it was an east choice for Addict Clothing when they approached SheOne to design camo form them. “My initial intention to create a metropolitan defence pattern, a camouflage that positively positioned the wearer in the culture heavy landscape. The fabric should function as a protective layer while simultaneously emitting its silent graphic signal and feeding right back into the current social climate.” SheOne what more can we say camo summed up in two sentences.
They have shown a lack of imagination and vision, without a Jago, Sheone Sterling camouflage the range does not stand up, looks dull, boring & tired.
From a retailer point of view i hate it when brands let retailers build it up and then start doing product only available on their website, direct to customer, customer service does not exist, except for James, hes the dude at Addict, man about town, hes got his own blog and used to regularly phone us and chase re-orders, but this season, 1 Call.
For next season, what do we have, more SheOne camo and an overpriced range, the one startling thing in the range is the luggage, absolutely fantastic, some of the best bags i have seen in ages, for sure i am going to grab myself a few. For next summer, Addict are going back to basics, which is good news, less of the ego driven technical fabrics at £250 a pop and back to basics, that’s a lesson Addict need to take, back to the start, and keep it simple.