Is it a brand surrounded by football culture? Is it a premium brand? A luxury brand? Whatever your opinions are on Stone Island, there’s no denying it’s an extremely well respected and popular brand in the UK, but why are their prices beginning to increase? It could have something to do with it’s merge with Moncler.
When Stone Island was first established in 1982 Italy, it was a premium yet slightly luxury sportswear brand. I say slightly because the luxury brands we have today (LV, Gucci, Balenciaga) are a different type of luxury, a luxury that Stone Island has never really achieved.
The football culture really helped Stone Island to start making its mark in the UK during the 80s. This is one of the main reasons Stone Island started becoming so popular in the UK and gained itself a reputation for being popular among football culture.
As much as this helped Stone Island become a certified brand within the UK during the 80s, I don’t think this is particularly the route that Stone Island wanted their brand to maintain some longevity in.
In more recent years, Stone Island have been attempting to separate themselves a bit from the football culture, and since Moncler purchased the rest of Stone Island, it seems they’ve decided to properly change direction.
We understand how difficult it can be finding Stone Island garments on sale but we’ve got you sorted. Retailers LUISAVIAROMA, Farfetch, Brother 2 Brother, Aphrodite 1994, Atterley, Flannels, Giulio, and Choice Store – all have a variety of Stone Island pieces on sale.
Follow the link to see the full list of Stone Island retail outlet sales, which can be found here.
Established in 1952, French luxury brand Moncler already owned a stake in Stone Island and they announced in December 2020 that they’re seriously considering purchasing the final 30% of Stone Island.
The final 30% of Stone Island was purchased by Moncler in March 2021. It was bought for $419 million, after Stone Island was valued at $1.4 billion. This deal came months after The North Face and Vans’ owner VF Corp, bought Supreme for around $2.1 billion – the biggest acquisition of a streetwear brand ever.
During the time building up to the Moncler takeover of Stone Island, it’s extremely likely that Stone Island considered that one day Moncler might take over the brand and Stone Island wanted to increase their luxury appeal, similar to that of Moncler.
Moncler is a very profit driven brand which holds sales and profits at the top of their priority list. This may sound silly as you’d imagine almost every brands priority is profits. However, Stone Island’s biggest priorities has also been profit but as well as research, development, technology, dying techniques, and garments.
Stone Island wasn’t even on the stock exchange as it was privately owned, but with the Moncler takeover we can expect this to change and for the prices of Stone Island garments to begin increasing.
During COVID-19, while most companies and brands saw a significant decrease in sales, this wasn’t the case for Moncler. It was reported in July 2021, that Moncler‘s group revenue had climbed 57% to £736 million.
Even when most companies were struggling, Moncler was making profits. Moncler is all about revenue and they’re going to begin finding out ways to increase Stone Island’s profits.
Now to the matter at hand, why have Stone Island‘s prices been increasing?
Since Stone Island’s desire to move further away from the football culture and to increase its luxury appeal to something similar to Moncler – one way they can achieve this is by increasing prices.
At the beginning, Stone Island was expensive but it was never outrageously expensive and they would rarely ever increase their prices for no reason. This was one of the appeals about the brand within the UK.
Now you can buy a new pair of Stone Island cargo shorts for £350 and even coats or jackets for over £1000. An increase in prices is something that often happens when a brand tries to reinvent their demographic and luxury appeal. 5/10 years ago you could buy a new Moncler Maya jacket for around £600/£700, whereas now the Maya Short Down Jacket is worth £1,040.
Check out a selection of Stone Island pieces where the price is decreasing instead of increasing by following the link to the best Stone Island retail outlet sales.
This includes retailers such as Aphrodite 1994, Choice Store, Giulio and many more who offer a wide selection of Stone Island pieces on sale.
According to Moncler, the two brands will remain separate but they will share information on how to best capture the American and Asian markets. In fact, in 2019 Stone Island opened their first retail store in China, Hong Kong. This is a new route for Stone Island as they’ve mostly been focusing their operations in Europe.
Designers and luxury wear in Asia can be considered a lot bigger than it is here in the UK. It’s not uncommon for the people of Asia to spend a lot more money on designer goods over there. There are still people like that in the UK, but the vast majority of us seem to almost turn our noses up when we notice an increase in prices.
Stone Island never seemed to focus much of their business in the US either. It wasn’t until Drake started wearing Stone Island (expressing his love for the UK) that the people of the US began taking a serious interest in this brand.
Stone Island have begun to spread their wings as a proper international luxury brand, especially in Asia and North America.
It’s become a common opinion that we, the young adults and middle aged people of the UK, are no longer the core audience for Stone Island anymore. They’re attempting to spread their demographic to Asia and other developing countries.
You might think it’s an interesting business strategy to stop focusing on your core demographic, who have helped give you the status you currently have. Once you understand how big a brand Stone Island has become and how huge their reach is, you’ll understand why this isn’t a problem for Stone Island.
Some people may show less support for Stone Island because of these increases. They may turn to second hand clothing or start showing more support to similar companies such as C.P. Company.
It may now be more understandable why Stone Island are increasing their prices to improve their luxury appeal, but us people of the UK will never be onboard with seeing prices increase. It’s up to Stone Island and Moncler to justify these increases with some seriously impressive drops and collection to come in the near future.
