Amazon has recently filed a series of trademark applications in the areas of clothing, footwear, and headwear. This seems to indicate that Amazon may be expanding their operations into the fashion industry to compete more directly with companies such as Walmart and Target who have already been investing in their own clothing lines. The new trademark applications that Amazon applied for are Night Swim, Truity, Due East Apparel, Zanie Kids, Outerwear Index Co., Common District, and League of Outstanding Kids.
This push into the physical clothing space is not Amazon’s first. Just last year, Amazon announced its intent to enter the active wear space, competing with companies such as Lululemon, Nike, and Under Armour. It is no surprise that after Amazon made the announcement and started hiring experienced clothing industry talent that the stock prices for the above-mentioned competitors immediately dropped.
Just like Costco and its highly successful in-house brand “Kirkland,”, Amazon may be moving in on just reselling other companies’ goods, but its own.
Predicting where the marketplace is going is always difficult, but this is one unexpected way where intellectual property can help your business. By tracking where major players are going through their intellectual property, it can help you make more sound business decisions about what the marketplace may be like in coming years.
