Macy’s is looking to address gaps with its menswear customers by launching a new private label aimed at contemporary males shoppers.
On Thursday, the retailer unveiled “Mode of One,” a menswear line spanning styles from relaxed suiting to casual streetwear offerings, such as graphic T-shirts and baseball jerseys, and ranging in price from $25 to $160. Macy’s designed it based on research it conducted among its 25 to 40-year-old customers and is aiming it towards an evolving menswear shopper who’s also tightening their wallet.
“He’s really someone who’s a modern contemporary guy who wants to embrace a bolder and more expressive style,” said Macy’s SVP of private brand strategy, Emily Erusha-Hilleque. “So we doubled down on statement-making designs and really anchored the brand into those principles and values that are centred around individuality.”
Mode of One aligns with Macy’s efforts to reinvigorate its men’s business. On the company’s earnings call in August, Macy’s chief executive Tony Spring said it was “addressing the weaknesses in men’s apparel” and that contemporary styles were “a bright spot” for its men’s business.
It also fits into the retailer’s strategy to scale private labels to 25 percent of sales by 2025, up from 15 percent in 2023. The company has been phasing out older private labels to usher in new ones, dropping women’s ready-to-wear brands such as Charter Club and Karen Scott while introducing lines like sleepwear label State of Day and relaunching kids brand Epic Threads. Currently there are 26 private labels in Macy’s portfolio, with Mode of One arriving shortly after the launch of Macy’s newest women’s line, On 34th, which debuted in July 2023.
“It was less about saying goodbye to some brands and more about saying hello to what’s new, fresh and relevant,” said Sam Archibald, Macy’s general business manager of apparel.
Erusha-Hilleque added that those brands “needed to be put in a modern context as it relates to connection to culture and what customers care about now.”
Mode of One doesn’t just offer trendy products but also refreshed menswear marketing that follows the playbook of buzzy brands like Aimé Leon Dore. The looks were styled by Ouigi Theodore, founder of menswear label The Brooklyn Circus. Ambassadors tapped for its social-first campaign include Knicks basketball players Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, the viral Atlanta-based barber VicBlends and James Beard Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi.
Archibald says Macy’s is also addressing younger male shoppers by reintroducing Nike into its product assortment as the sneaker giant leans back towards wholesale after a radical direct-to-consumer shift and expanding its business with brands like Fanatics, Hugo Boss and Karl Lagerfeld.
But will Macy’s push into contemporary menswear translate on the sales floor? Jeff Sward, co-founder of the consultancy Merchandising Metrics, says Mode of One’s diverse and large product assortment could blur out the brand’s larger story, which he believes drives private labels today more than replicating trendy products.
“There’s no real compelling story being told like there is with On 34th,” said Sward. “Today’s market demands that retailers do private label, but they have to execute it like a real live brand. Macy’s can do it and has done it before, but they need to up their game a little bit with the men’s efforts for sure.”
The restructuring of Macy’s private-label business comes at a critical moment when the company is shuttering 150 stores by 2026 as a part of its “A Bold New Chapter” turnaround plan. Despite a tough macro-economic environment, Erusha-Hilleque doesn’t think the private label business has really changed since her time at Target, a private-label trailblazer where she worked as the design director of ready-to-wear from 2017 to 2022.
“My philosophy around building successful private brands is the same. You have to build brands that are customer centric and human-centred,” said Erusha-Hilleque. “If they can see themselves in the brand that you’re creating, you will continue to win.”
