Global athleisure and golf apparel brand J.Lindeberg recently launched its global flagship store in The Dubai Mall, and announced additional plans to expand across the UAE.
The new store is located on the ground level of The Dubai Mall, and includes a full range of J.Lindeberg’s sport and fashion collections, including golf, racket, ski, outdoor, active, and athleisure collections.
With a Scandinavian heritage, the store takes a typically sophisticated and clean aesthetic, drawing on the natural world. The stark and minimalist design features geometric, curving, and straight lines throughout the store, combined with colourful surfaces and graphical elements that enthuse the 270 sqm retail outlet with a sense of futurism and luxury.
“J.Lindeberg’s goal is to inspire the UAE’s energetic urbanites to aim higher and live life to the fullest. Every part of the brand’s new flagship store lives and breathes the brand’s sophisticated sporting energy and brings to life the Scandinavian progressiveness that we stand for,” CEO of J.Lindeberg, Hans-Christian Meyer said.
“Dubai is renowned for its booming retail and fashion offering, and we wanted to offer shoppers from around the world access to the full J.Lindeberg retail experience. As one of the world’s most desirable function and fashion brands, it only seemed natural for us to launch the brand’s flagship store in one of the most famous shopping destinations in the world.”
The store is the first stand-alone opening for J.Lindeberg in the Middle East. The brand has being going through a resurgence in the region since its distribution was taken over by eGolf in January 2020. Despite the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic dampening down sales globally, the brand’s sales actually increased 205 percent in the UAE. During that time, J.Lindeberg also launched its women’s apparel in the market.
“After seeing an incredible surge in sales since the global pandemic, especially in the women’s golf apparel range, J.Lindeberg has quickly become the number one selling golf brand in United Arab Emirates due to its mix of fashion-forward, luxury and high-quality products which the UAE market are looking for,” Dean Cheesley, CEO of eGolf, the official distributor for J.Lindeberg in the Middle East said.
J.Lindeberg’s decision to launch its flagship store in Dubai “proves the regained strength of the city’s retail market” amid a general return to “pre-pandemic success,” the company said in a statement.
Dean Cheesley added: “After achieving such brilliant success in such a short space of time, we’re excited to see how the brand’s new store will accelerate J.Lindeberg’s popularity to even greater heights in the region.”
J.Lindeberg, founded in Stockholm in 1996 aims to combine Scandinavian progressiveness with creativity to create innovative and sustainable fashion and sportswear. CEO Middle East caught up with the CEO of J.Lindeberg, Hans-Christian Meyer, to discuss the launch of the global golf and athleisure brand’s flagship store in The Dubai Mall:
Why did you choose Dubai for J.Lindeberg’s global flagship store?
Well Dubai is not only the hub of the Middle East, it’s also the hub for many travellers to Asia and Americans coming into Europe. We’re seeing that not only is The Dubai Mall the biggest mall in the world, but we’re also seeing that the pre-pandemic footfall numbers are returning.
There were 90 million visitors in Dubai Mall pre-pandemic and I believe the management of Dubai Mall is expecting 65 million visitors this year. And 98 percent of all tourists that are coming to Dubai are visiting The Dubai Mall, so it’s not just a flagship for the Middle East region it’s a global flagship, hence we are investing and opening one in Dubai.
How does the Middle Eastern fashion market differ from its global peers?
Well, it’s slightly warmer here than it is in Scandinavia where we have our headquarters, but other than that I don’t think it differs that much other than that it’s a very international audience, with a lot of expats, so we are covering a lot of nationalities and tourists that are coming to Dubai.
What is your outlook for the fashion industry in the region, any trends in particular?
We are seeing with the waves of the pandemic, that people are now starting to return to normal. We have flexible working hours allowing people to spend their time differently, and we’ve seen that develop quite substantially over the last two and half years.
People are getting more and more active because they’re not spending an hour commuting to work and an hour commuting back. Instead, they are spending those two hours on being mindful on their mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing, whether that’s playing golf, playing tennis, walking the dog, going for a run, being with their family and enjoying what they’re doing.
With this change in mindset, we are seeing the J.Lindeberg brand is spot on, in terms of how the consumers are becoming more active, and us coming from the sports world of being fashionable within sport and taking the comfort and stretch fabrics from sport into fashion, has created a sweet spot of what the customers are currently seeking. As a result, we are doubling our business in 2022 versus where we were in 2021.
How has J.Lindeberg aligned itself with the global need for more sustainable fashion?
We are very much into sustainable production; we have a saying – every product we’re trying to achieve the most sustainable way of working. 75 percent of all our uses on cotton is organic, same goes with polyester, 75 percent of everything we use in polyester is recycled polyester. Everything we use needs to be either traceable, organic, recycled or recyclable, for example the handle on our shopping bags is made from recycled material. It’s at the very top of our agenda in everything that we are doing.
How has the fashion market evolved following the pandemic, have customer expectations shifted?
Customer expectations have shifted because of the shift to online vs brick-and-mortar. With online there’s a demand of buy now get the product now, same day deliveries, the whole omnichannel shopping experience, and that has accelerated tremendously over the last two years. But we are now seeing retail bouncing back as the pandemic is over and people are returning to brick-and-mortar stores, but the comfort and speed at which the customers expect the merchandise at the right time to the right place has definitely shifted, and that’s here to stay.
GCC luxury market on the rise
The launch of the flagship store comes amid a general growth in the GCC’s luxury market. According to a report compiled by the Chalhoub Group, the region’s luxury market has now outpaced pre-pandemic levels by 23 percent to reach $9.7 billion in 2021, and is set to climb further to $11 billion by 2023.
Deep diving into Saudi Arabia, the largest country in the GCC, the kingdom has shown remarkable growth in personal luxury, reaching $2.2 billion and growing at 19 percent, driven by repatriation spend, female empowerment, boiling retail landscape, events and activities, and e-commerce boom.
The report identified a few key drivers of growth, with brands constantly looking to transform and evolve to cater to the region’s young, informed, and hybrid consumers. Among these drivers, the report identified repatriation spend, with 60 percent of spending now occurring in-country, brand investments in marketing and localised events, and a more than doubling in the e-commerce market as important.
On the rise to a sector valuation of $11 billion by 2023, the report envisions an increase in local spending by GCC nationals and the development of new categories as key.