If the Kardashians wear it! Cycling shorts have made a comeback and how! Online fashion retailer Boohoo Group has reported record sales and profits ever since demand for the shorts shot up. Boss Carol Kane said she could not believe cycling shorts became this summer's “biggest fashion trend”. “I wore them in 1992,” she said. Boohoo reported a 50 per cent jump in sales to £395.3m and a 22% rise in pre-tax profits to £24.7m, for the six months to 31 August. Speaking with investors, Kane said, “This summer we saw the return of the 90s cycling short. I was hoping this was a trend that would never re-emerge.”
The shorts, that have become synonymous to the famous Kardashian-Jenner clan, are sold from just £5 across fast-fashion platforms. Not only business, the company's online reach has significantly grown too, with its social media growing each day. It now has 6.3 million followers on Instagram, a 200 per cent rise in the last 12 months, 1.4 million followers on Facebook, up by 40 per cent, and 200,000 followers on Twitter. Kane said Zendaya and model Ashley Graham's massive Insta followings have weighed in on the retailer's decision to launch collections with the two. Kane said, “It was a really good fit for us,” adding that market campaigns and social media activity had helped Boohoo's performance in the first half.
In fact, sales for their PrettyLittleThing rose 132 per cent to £168.6 million, while NastyGal grew by 111 per cent in £17.7 million. Boohoo raised its forecast for revenue growth this year, expecting sales growth of between 38 per cent and 43 per cent, up from its previous range of 35 per cent to 40 per cent. Also, just last week, it was announced that the group had poached Primark's chief operating officer John Lyttle to be its new chief executive. Existing joint chief executives Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane will take on new roles from March 2019. Kamani will become group executive chairman of the company, while Kane will become group co-founder and executive director.
