Pay attention.
I’m going to tell you about a $17 billion opportunity.
In a recent newsletter published by XRC Ventures, menopause is an underrated area of investment in the women’s health space.
According to XRC, this is a $17 billion category that is growing at a 5.4% CAGR.
The obvious women’s-health plays chase all things related fertility and managing issues with period pain.
However, not all women will pursue a fertility journey. But, every woman will navigate menopause, often over several years. That long horizon creates room and opportunity for products that genuinely help.
I got curious when reading XRC’s newsletter and other, related material.
No doubt there is a wildly good opportunity for products related to hormone therapy, beauty, CPG, wearables and supplements.
What’s missing: apparel designed specifically for this stage of life.
And standalone brands in this space are rare….and then I found one while doing my homework: Fifty-One Apparel.
The UK based brand makes daywear, lounge, and sleep pieces from innovative, cooling fabric that was developed with assistance from NASA.
A close cousin of Fifty-One is the release of temperature regulating intimates by Thirdlove. The collection of intimates is called TempSync.
If we open up the aperture a bit more, we find that there are specific menopause offerings in sleepwear, lingerie and base layers over on the UK/EU high street in doors like Marks & Spencer, Primark, Lindex and Matalan.
Last I checked though, the menopause lifestyle doesn’t come out only at night. This is a 24 hour arrangement.
What about athleisure? Work apparel? Soft accessories? Hoisery? Dresses?
Yes, the main focal point is temperature regulation, but there is also a need to consider fluctuating size and body shape, skin sensitivity and dryness.
The space is wide open for product innovation, especially in North America, where a focused DTC brand could lead, and multi-brand retailers (Target, Walmart, Macy’s) could activate their own private-label programs.
If I were launching a menopause-focused apparel line inside a brand or retailer, I would do the following:
1 – Start with the specific problem statements that need to be addressed and define the clear benefits that I want to deliver with this product line.
2 – Then, materials. I want the ability to design into materials (something we talk about in our upcoming book, The Material Life). I’ll partner with vendors to develop the proper fabric or seek out something that already exists which hits the mark – Femography by MAS Holdings is an option.
3 – Pick my category focus knowing that I can deploy similar silhouettes and fit blocks across categories. Personally, I’ll start with workwear: unlined blazer, skirt, trousers, blouses and so on.
4 – Keep my assortment tight. 15 SKUs max. Test and learn.
5 – Assort in top doors and get customer feedback. Evaluate full-price sales, sell-through and margin KPI’s.
6 – Connect merchandising, marketing and the front line. Product education is key. Also important to avoid “meno-washing.” Slapping on some branding on poorly constructed garments that are made of cooling fabric or are moisture-wicking is a losing game.
I could go into more depth about my approach, but the above gives you an idea of how I would swing at the pinata.
The same applies to a pure DTC brand.
As I write this, perhaps an existing performance brand is in stealth-mode creating a menopause focused line.
Maybe beauty, CPG and wellness are forever the hot areas of focus.
Or, there’s a blockbuster idea here hiding in plain sight.
