What’s with All the Bundles?

A long time hallmark of fast food menus, bundling, ie selling the multiple items together in a curated set, has officially made its way into the fashion space, according to a recent story from Fashionista.

Citing the rollout of Yeezy Season 6 — which, to the chagrin of resellers everywhere, can only be pre-ordered in multi-product, photo-guided outfits — the ascent of Outdoor Voices, and the success of brands like Reformation, The Kit and Wardrobe.NYC, the story says that “more brands than ever want us to dedicate larger portions of our wardrobes to their product, and to make those bulk purchases all at once.”

And while every brand ever has wanted to own outsized real estate in their customers’ closets, they’ve rarely been willing to sacrifice smaller plots of wardrobe land in that pursuit. Now, however, as more brands are making products exclusive to particular bundles (and unavailable otherwise), that appears to be changing.

“By offering a bundle of goods, we limit our inventory risk and we improve our economies of scale,” says Josh Goot, founder of Wardrobe.NYC. “And we are able to pass on these savings to the customer.”

Even with those passed on savings, however, most of these bundles ain’t cheap. One of Goot’s four-piece kits, according to the story, can go for $1,500. And in the aforementioned Yeezy collection, the hallmark bundle (featuring a hoodie, gym shorts and the very, very Osiris-looking Yeezy 500 Desert Rat sneaker) preordered for north of $700 before selling out.

So technically, it’s not really about saving money, but more about saving time and neutralizing the crippling insecurities that people (apparently) face when dressing themselves in the mornings. “[These brands] take away the pain of uncertainty about one’s choices,” professor of Luxury Business Marketing at NYU, Thomas Serdari, told Fashionista, noting that young people “will happily invest in kits/bundles that ensure they appear stylish.”

Oh, young people.

You can read more about it at Fashionista.

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