Market Overview

The women’s underwear retail market in 2017 scaled down to 619,000 million yen, 99.2% of the size of the previous year to record the sixth consecutive year of decline.  While there were no remarkably well-sold products, wireless/non-wire bras pursuing comfort have driven the market and seamless underwear has attracted attention.  The makers have also focused on those relaxing and loosen products.

The men’s underwear retail market in 2017 shrank to 256,500 million yen, 99.0% of the size of the year before, recording the fifth consecutive year of decrease.  When looking at the sales by sales channel, “other channels” including those without real stores have grown from the previous year, but the sales at casual-wear specialty stores declined slightly, and the sales at department stores and mass merchandisers went below the previous-year results.

 

Noteworthy Topics

The sports underwear market for yoga and jogging has been expanding. Each underwear maker has come up with the new products and new brands using their own technologies such as seamless clothing technology, easy-to-move structures, and special materials with the functions of heat-reserving, moisture absorbing, and heat generation. They promote those products by holding the events for letting customers to experience and by taking a differentiation strategy of narrowing down the products only as sportswear.


 

Research Outline