Yahoo Lifestyle Hanes Sets Sights on Active Category for Growth
With a secure hold on men’s and women’s essentials, Hanes Brands has begun its expansion into a new category. Called Hanes Moves, the brand’s new activewear collection focuses on comfort and performance with offerings in the children’s, women’s and men’s categories. The collection’s rollout began slowly in 2024 with more continuing to drop next year.
Dawn Hedgepeth, chief marketing officer of Hanes Brands, told WWD that with Hanes already living in so many categories Hanes Moves will similarly play across not only apparel but also socks and innerwear. True to the brand’s history, the early to launch of the collection was underwear.
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Jane Newman, chief design officer at Hanes Brands, said the broad collection will pull in the strengths of the brand with comfort being a key focus. “Elevating the comfort proposition in the space was our biggest pain point to solve,” she said. “We’re a very comfort-driven brand and comfort as you move is even more important so that you can wear it all day long, feeling comfortable at any touch point no matter what you’re doing. That flows through our core categories, like our socks and our underwear and we’ve infused different technologies to really lean into different pain points.”
Specific technology was used to solve problems across all categories. While technology was utilized for the men’s underwear in the Hanes Moves collection to solve for chafing and cooling, women’s underwear needed a solution for being invisible under clothes while being stretchy and breathable. Key pieces in the women’s line to be released in the new year also incorporate the period technology to keep women comfortable for all day and during activity.
Moreover, Newman said that in designing apparel for the collection functional needs took over. It became important to consider where leggings could hold keys or a phone while still looking good and remaining stylish.
Ultimately, Newman and Hedgepeth agreed that Hanes Moves would be a huge solution in terms of comfort for their active consumers.
“Our Hanes consumers really count on us for comfort,” Hedgepeth said. “And when we spot an area like movement and active where there are problems that consumers face and some needs that we can bring comfort to, it’s an obvious place for us to go and that’s true across many categories because not many brands cover as many categories as we do. And what’s so important is the amazing technology at the Hanes proposition, which is really a fantastic value.”
While apparel is hardly a new endeavor for Hanes given its incredibly popular T-shirts, tank tops and sweats, Hanes Moves does represent a new silhouette for the brand — aiming to become the new basics the consumer can’t live without.
“This was a really natural extension from those core basics,” Newman said. “We went from core basics to more fashion basics to comfy wear lounge at home. And now this is sort of bridging that gap as well into more out and about. As we’re designing into it, we really paid a lot of attention to those details, as well as the technical features because our customer [might] not necessarily want to transition through their day, and they want to feel comfortable and stylish all day long.”
Notably, the Hanes Moves collection’s branding is subtle with only a small stamp on the inside of the pieces. This decision was based on initial customer feedback that they would feel more comfortable wearing the leggings all day long without feeling active if the logo wasn’t obvious. The hidden logo, they said, makes the item more transitional.
“I think movement is just so relevant in your underwear, just like your leggings, just like your bra top,” Newman said. “Nowadays, people are using innerwear as outerwear. They’re kind of interchangeable to some extent, so the line has really blurred. But that’s also an opportunity for comfort to be everywhere while you’re moving.”
With a solid following (90 percent of American households have Hanes in them), Hedgepeth said that the “sky is the limit” for the brand.
“We have such love and trust in the brand and I’m excited to see this brand go further because I think our consumers are looking for hands as always, to bring great new product innovation at a great value,” Hedgepeth said. “Hanes Moves brings such a great intersection of our apparel business and our innerwear business. We’re finding that the athleticwear space brings a really nice reason for us to unify our products into a common range or common collection. I’m excited to see that come to life. I think that consumers will love it.”
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