TNGT Park Bo-Gum Coat Sells Out
More than 6,000 TNGT overfit coats worn by exclusive model Park Bo-Gum sold
Store managers compete to secure inventory; some wait over a month after reserving their coats
The `overfit coat` launched as a strategic product for the Fall/Winter season by TNGT, the urban lifestyle brand by LF (Representative: Gyu Shik Oh, www.lfcorp.com), has been received explosively by young male customers in their twenties and thirties. The coats have been selling out as they are made, and have become a scarcity.
TNGT`s `overfit coat` was singled out pre-season by Actor Park Bo-Gum, a rising celebrity fashionista, as the product he would personally like to wear. The relaxed fit that stirs up women’s` protective instincts and the sophisticated colors of the coat are similar to the actor`s image, and the product has become known among popular fashion community websites as the `Park Bo-gum Coat`.
Sales of TNGT`s `overfit coat` began at the end of September. Even before the actual sale season began in early October, the initial production volume of 1,000 coats completely sold out. There have been 3 re-orders (additional production) to date, and as of mid-December, more than 6,000 coats have been sold.
Production has been in excess of 10,000 coats throughout the fall/winter season, and more than 60% of this volume has been sold as of mid-December. This rate of sales is truly astounding considering the fact that winter outerwear products launched by male fashion brands sell around 1,000 units throughout the season with aggregate sales of around 60%.
As TNGT caters chiefly to men in their twenties and thirties who are more accustomed to online than offline shopping, the response in online shopping malls is especially explosive. Some colors such as khaki brown were so popular that customers began to place orders to reserve their coats in the upcoming production batch, sometimes waiting for up to a month to receive the product.
The khaki brown version of the product, donned by exclusive model Park Bo-Gum in a pictorial for last season, is still a scarcity, and its popularity among young male customers in their twenties and thirties has meant that store managers have been reluctant to pool inventory with other stores.
The overfit coat taking the market by storm was the effect of the economic downturn as well as the winter weather. The prolonged economic downturn has meant less money to spend for young male consumers in their twenties and thirties, and these consumers have increasingly tended to seek all-round outerwear products that go well with casual, formal, and semi-formal wear. Serious fluctuations in temperatures due to freak weather patterns has made layering the norm, where consumers layer shirts, knitted sweaters and vests, etc. and wear or take off layers according to the weather.
Team Leader Byung-Joon Kim of LF TNGT explained that "The overfit coat, which has been trending in women`s fashion since 2 to 3 years ago, is expanding into male fashion as of this year`s winter season." He added that "overfit outerwear products are establishing themselves as a staple of male fashion, and not just a transient seasonal trend; overfit outerwear products, whose share of total production volume was in the single digits last year, now account for some 30% of total volume."
The luxurious TNGT overfit coat, made with a smooth blended wool material, was launched in 5 colors: beige, black, khaki, navy, and wine. The price is 399,800 Won.