Lycra will set up an online aggregator next April to showcase products of all the apparel brands that use Lycra fibers, with links to the various partner brands’ e-tail sites. The aggregator will include only Lycra-based products whose brands will have given their consent.
Lycra currently has a site accessible by the general public, Lycra.com, as well as a B2B site. The idea is to start off by combining them, so that its business can be understood more clearly from the outside. The aggregator will offer two advantages for Lycra. On one hand, it will highlight, for the general public and young consumers in particular, the huge variety of products and brands using Lycra fibres, while at the same time strengthening Lycra’s brand image. On the other, through the aggregator, Lycra will be able to handle first-hand the communication of its brand name to end-consumers, something which Lycra-using brands don’t always manage well.
This eagerness to put the Lycra brand centre-stage coincides with a change of ownership for the Lycra Corporation. The A&AT (Apparel & Advanced Textiles) division of Invista, which owns Lycra, has been involved in an acquisition bid by giant Chinese textile group Shandong Ruyi for nearly a year.
