Pacsun launched its first fully dedicated gender-neutral brand, Colour Range, on Wednesday.
The debut arrives just one year after the youth retailer began selling its first gender-neutral items and months after it bowed its own such styles. Today, the category contributes to more than one-quarter of its offering. Colour Range will help push that growth even further, Pacsun said.
“Gender-neutral plays a significant role in our ongoing offering, and we continue to see this as a growing part of our community and audience,” the brand added.
The “collection of eco and sustainable clothing” includes adults’ and kids’ items and features a range of cotton-based relaxed staples, including T-shirts, oversized hoodies, fleece jackets, sweatpants, sweat shorts and tank tops in solid colors and tie-dye prints. According to Pacsun, every piece is made from organic cotton and fabrics leverage partially recycled and organic yarn.
Colour Range will release new collections once a quarter, with plans to expand into more categories and fabrications in future drops.
Pacsun commemorated Colour Range’s launch with a livestream shopping experience at its Downtown Los Angeles store featuring a pair of mico-influencers, followed by a larger, all-ages event featuring a performance by musician and Will Smith progeny, Willow.
“With Gen Z, our primary consumer, seeking more fluid fashion options, we wanted to give them more options through Colour Range, proving our continued dedication to producing products that are devoted to a more sustainable future,” Pacsun CEO Alfred Chang said in a statement.
Earlier this year, predictive analytics and retail data platform Trendalytics dubbed gender-neutral fashion a “top market mover,” with 20 percent of new SKUS in the category out of stock. A report from the advertising agency Bigeye found further evidence of a breakdown in gender boundaries, particularly among younger consumers.
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According to Bigeye’s research, less than half of female Gen Zers, 45 percent, said they primarily wore clothes designed for women—69 percent of all female respondents said the same—and 28 percent said they wore clothes designed for women or men depending on how they felt. Among men, 71 percent of those from Gen Z said they primarily wore clothes designed for their gender, compared to 84 percent overall.
Pacsun initially launched its Gender-Neutral Shop last September as a place for consumers to shop such items. In the spring, it not only introduced its first original gender-neutral styles, but also unveiled a summer campaign that placed the category at its center.
Also this spring, it partnered with the The Fashion Scholarship Fund to host a Gender-Neutral Design Competition. It May, it named two young winners, Allegra Abrams and Oli Perez. In addition to receiving a creative services fee of $10,000, both winners have the opportunity to work closely with the retailer’s design and product development teams to have their collections developed, manufactured, marketed and sold at PacSun.
Most recently, in late June, it introduced Pacsun Kids, an entirely new category aimed at kids 4-14 years old and “designed entirely without gender.”