I saw a sale event on GILT for Adidas’ Porsche Design merchandise hit my inbox, so of course I initially took it as an opportunity to bash a perennially unprofitable business. But I pinged my colleague and Retail expert Eric Levine for his 2-cents, and wanted to share his unedited response.
McGough: Bad for ADI – again?
Levine: I don’t think so. The market fluffed-off LULU a month or so ago when they had a similar event. This site is probably the best example of a tasteful clearance channel the industry has seen. The reason why it works so well is 1) it’s a limited time event and 2) they merchandise it like the product is being sold at full price. I actually think the brands like it. From a volume standpoint, it’s not big enough for people to get worried. This is not like topsiders showing up at Costco by the pallet-load.
