US Apparel & Footwear Retailing—Themes, Concepts and Innovators: AI, Value, GLP-1 and More To Drive Apparel Transformation

The US apparel and footwear market is resetting in 2025, with adaptability becoming a key competitive advantage over scale. As demand fragments across digital-native players, off-price retailers and warehouse clubs, traditional specialty retailers and department stores face increasing pressure to differentiate themselves. The retailers poised to lead the market are those making bold moves now—namely, embracing agile design, faster production cycles and AI (artificial intelligence)-powered personalization and localization.

Ahead of our 2025 Market Navigator on apparel and footwear retailing in the US, we explore the key trends and themes in the space, our blue-sky thinking and the retail innovators we are watching.

Introduction

Blue-Sky Thinking

• Shifting Retail Landscape: Off-Pricers, Online-Only Retailers and Warehouse Clubs To Control the Market
• Real-Time, On-Demand Clothing Manufacturing Will Become Mainstream
• Hyper-Personalized Fashion Shopping Experiences
• Blurring Boundaries Between Work, Casual and Activewear

Themes We Are Watching

• Retailers Split Between Lean and Agile Inventories Strategies
• The Rise of Secondhand Chic and Brand-Owned Resale Channels
• More Onshoring and Nearshoring Practices in the Face of Tariffs
• M&A Activity Surges in US Fashion Retail Amid Landmark Deal
• Social and Live Commerce
• Physical Retail To Become Smaller, Integrated with Tech and Highly Experiential
• Emerging Adaptive Apparel Market
• Impact of GLP-1 Drugs To Demand Apparel Retail Reinvention
• DTC Sales Expansion
• Cross-Brand Collaboration
• International Apparel Retailers Expand Store Presence Across the US
• Retail Media, Data Monetization and Retail-as-a-Service as Alternative Revenue Streams
• GenAI and Agentic AI: Reshaping Fashion Retail

Retail Innovators

• 3DLOOK
• Blue Yonder
• Rithum
• YOOBIC

What We Think

• Coresight View on US Apparel and Footwear
• Implications from This Report
• Implications for Brands and Retailers
• Implications for Technology Vendors

Notes and Methodology

Appendix

• Appendix: About the Coresight Research EnCORE Framework

17-page PDF report

1. Selected US Apparel Retailers’ 4Q24 Inventory Values (YoY % Change) and Supply Chain Commentary
2. The Coresight Research Fast Luxury Model
3. US: Value* of M&A Transactions in the US Apparel, Footwear and Accessories Sector (Left Axis; USD Bil.) and Total Count (Right Axis)
4. Selected Notable M&A Transactions in the US Apparel, Footwear and Accessories Sector in 2024 and YTD 2025*

Appendix

1. EnCORE Framework