A revealing look into cotton statistics. Spreadshirt Trend Report No. 29 / December 2010
Berlin/Leipzig, 2 December 2010: Instead of concentrating their attention on London and Paris, people in the world of fashion should turn their focus north. “Oslo has been the T-Shirt capital for years, and it is here to stay,” an examiner of Spreadshirt’s sales statistics declared.
After crowning Oslo in 2008, Spreadshirt has now honoured Europe’s T-Shirt capital for a second time. A decisive factor here is the ratio of sold T-Shirts in contrast to the total inhabitants in the capitals of European supplier countries. Only T-Shirt sales were considered here whereas sales of products such as tops, jackets and accessories were not taken into account.
While Oslo completely outperformed opposition from other European capitals, soaring T-Shirt sales in Berlin and Vienna outpaced former vice-European champion Helsinki. There is great ambition in Berlin, however, to spur on T-Shirt sales even more so that they can cap it all off with the T-Shirt crown next time around.
On closer inspection, the statistics held a few more interesting facts in store. The true kingdom of T-Shirts can be found even further up north; in Trondheim. When comparing T-Shirt sales in all major European cities, there is clear evidence that people in this northern European city have more T-Shirts tucked away in their closets than any other place in Europe. This is why Norway’s third biggest city is the European T-Shirt city to watch. Shortly behind we find Munich in second position, followed by a few more German places where people show a deeper love for T-Shirts.
What is interesting here is the comparison between Norway or Germany and countries which might be considered ‘t-shirt-apt’ the whole year round. Whereas Portugal, Spain or Italy are far from contesting the T-Shirt crown, it is the Scandinavian country of Norway that displays a peculiar penchant for T-Shirts, and not – as one might expect – for thick hooded jackets. Even when comparing them with second placed Germans, it becomes apparent that your average Norwegian owns twice as many T-Shirts as Hans or Ingrid from Germany. Still, why Mediterranean people resist the T-Shirt lure is a mystery that remains to be uncovered. Maybe they just buy bikinis instead, but that will be a matter for a future trend report.
Ragnhild Vea is Spreadshirt’s Marketing and Sales director for northern Europe, and a Norwegian herself. She offers the following explanation for Norway’s T-Shirt pownage: “What many people don’t realise is that Norwegians are very fashion-conscious people. We like to dress in a way that shows who we are, where we are from and what we can do. This is both true for a patriotic identifiction with our local area or our sports team. T-Shirts are a great way to impress people with slogans displaying emotional attachment to our home, or just to deliver a message to people from abroad, eg ‘Vikings do it better!’”
Every month Spredshirt issues a Trend Report to inform about new trends from the universe of individualised clothing.
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