2020 Earnie Awards Winner – Loungewear: KicKee Pants

Loungewear

KicKee Pants

Est. 2007 

Aerin Nicole, CEO and Founder

First paying job: Camp counselor

Greatest fear: Cockroaches

Pet peeve: Laziness

Hobbies: Adventure! I have been on many road trips recently with my kids to make their online work less sedentary.

Favorite quarantine snack: ALL THE SNACKS!

Best advice you’ve ever received: If you have to think about it, don’t do it.

Last movie you watched: Hocus Pocus at a drive-in movie theater

One fact few people  know about you: I recently got a very special RV. Stay tuned for #kickeebus!

Quite Comfortable The shift in consumers looking for cozy, stay-at-home clothing and accessories has created a boom for us. Sales are up across the board, but our biggest win was our cancellation rate for wholesale orders remaining consistently low. This proves retailers and consumers remain hungry for our product even in tough times. What’s more, wholesale reorders are up 11 percent over last year.

Like Butter Our impossibly soft fabrics, along with the variety of styles we offer for ‘all day lounging,’ are among the reasons we stand out. We often hear customers say it’s hard to get their children in any other fabric, and we are now hearing those same parents rave about the comfort of KicKee! With an ever-expanding offering (including our new viscose from bamboo/organic cotton/Spandex fleece), we are focused on providing more options for the whole family.

Taking Care As soon as COVID-19 hit, we really tried to turn an eye toward our retailers whom we knew would be hit the hardest. We immediately enacted and marketed a give-back on our own DTC site where shoppers could make purchases knowing that 35 percent of the sale would be passed on to the boutique of their choice. When it came time to ship our next collection, we created and marketed a huge launch event, which included a KicKee-sponsored discount and gift-with-purchase to help drive traffic and convert as much inventory to cash as quickly as possible for our retailers. We have also released online selling restrictions for the year to best support our brick-and-mortars.

Better Together Communities want and need local retailers; they add to the soul of every community and often help define local Main Streets as well as the identity of the residents who live there. While we certainly expect online sales to grow post-pandemic, we also see an opportunity for even greater connection between Main Street retailers and their customers.