Target Gets in the Pickleball Game
The retailer partnered with tennis brand Prince on a limited-edition line, with items starting at $9.99.
Capitalizing on the fastest-growing sport in the country, Target is getting ready to serve up a limited-time pickleball collection in partnership with tennis and lifestyle brand Prince.
In its first limited-time sports collaboration, Target will introduce close to 80 apparel, accessories and sporting goods items starting at $9.99, with most items under $50. The offering ranges from pleated skirts, dresses and retro-inspired track suits to pickleballs, duffels and pickleball paddles with colorful artwork that matches the apparel.
Apparel sizes range from XS to XXL for women's and small to XXL for men's.
The collection will be available in most Target stores and on target.com beginning Saturday while supplies last.
"Our exclusive collections are part of the joy of shopping at Target, offering consumers new, on-trend products at a great value that they can't find anywhere else," said Jill Sando, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer of apparel and accessories, home and hardlines at Target. "Partnering with Prince is the perfect way to help pickleball enthusiasts everywhere enjoy the sport that is sweeping the nation, with quality pickleball apparel and sporting goods at prices only Target can offer."
This is the first time Target has carried any products by Prince, which is owned by Authentic Brands Group.
Target worked closely with the Prince design team to create the Prince for
Target collection, drawing on both brands' expertise in apparel, sporting goods and industry-leading design. The collection leans into the fashion-forward athleisure movement.
Asked what prompted their decision to work with Prince, Sando said, "Given their authority in the racquet sports category, we really appreciated their partnership, how they like to work and we thought they would be a partner with which we'd have fun creating something special for our guests with."
Discussing their assortment and partnership strategy, Sando told WWD that when when they look at their assortment strategy, it's grounded in what they describe as "the magic mix."
That consists of their own brands, which contributes more than $30 billion in sales, complemented by national brands (ie., Levi's) and exclusive partnerships, such as one they did with Houston White, a collection of apparel done with a local Minneapolis entrepreneur and limitededition partnerships. "They really serve as moments of amplification and moments of celebrations. These are key product priorities and key guest trends," she said. She said each one is developed around an idea with the right partner.
She explained that several years ago Target wanted to lean into the dress category and decided to launch the Designer Dress Collection. They brought in three designers, including LoveShackFancy. "It was so successful we repeated that for another year to really lean into our dress business," she said. The next year the trend was in personalization and they launched a program with Stoney Clover Lane. This year, they had a major 25th year milestone with limited-time partnerships and wanted to do something iconic. They approached Diane von Furstenberg, who was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the wrap dress. "Our guests have loved it, and we've had incredible traffic to our site. We saw lines in several of our stores," she said.
"We have a unique strategy for every partnership. Our objective is to introduce our guests to new, emerging as well as established designers that have not been accessible to them in the past," Sando said.
Addressing the current pickleball collection, Sando said the business priorities right now are style and wellness. "We're seeing the guests' definition of wellness expand. They want to live fuller, happier lives, and they're thinking about what they put in their bodies and on their bodies, the activities and how they spend their time," she said. She said they're adding a lot of new items across their categories of business tapping into that trend.
She said they wanted to lean into pickleball since it's the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. and they wanted to create this moment. "Prince, given their authority in racquet sports, was the perfect partner.…It's the perfect interaction between style and wellness, and we're so excited to introduce it to our guests next week," she said.
According to the 2024 Sports & Fitness Industry Association Topline Participation report, for the third year in a row, pickleball was the fastest-growing sport in America, having grown 51.8 percent from 2022 to 2023, and 223.5 percent in three years. [The report tracks rates of Americans aged six and older across 124 different sports, fitness and outdoor activities.]
Pickleball was invented in 1965 by three fathers from Bainbridge Island, Washington, to entertain their kids. They combined the rules from tennis, badminton and table tennis to create a new game. A recent report from the Association of Pickleball Professionals showed that more than 36 million people played the sport across the U.S. in 2022. The sport provides a low impact workout that is suitable for multigenerations regardless or their age or fitness level.
Asked if she surveys her customers before launching this type of collection, Sando said they have an ongoing guest listening strategy that informs their decisions.
Target has done elements of sporting goods in the past. "It's a segment of the business that has been very successful," she said. She said they once wrapped a bike in a Liberty of London print "and it was the most iconic and loved items that we've ever done." She said racquets are the lead in this collaboration, and the collection "has a real nostalgic vibe which is hot with our guests right now." She also noted the racquets are very affordable and high quality. The racquets retail for $39.99, and a three-pack of pickleballs retails for $11.99.
While pickleball is always part of their ongoing assortment, the Prince for Target collaboration is a limited-time partnership. "Creating these moments of amplification and celebration that their guests love is one of the things they love most about Target," Sando said.
Sando estimated that the collaboration will remain in the store for four to six weeks. "We always encourage our guests to come early so they can shop the full collection," Sando said. The collaboration will be promoted via a shop at the front of the store. "It really celebrates this partnership and creates that shop-in-shop feeling and then we'll be promoting it on our social media channels," she said.
Asked how the DVF collection sold at Target last month, Sando said, "Our guests loved it. It had a very strong guest response. There's still a little bit left in select stores. The response that we got both to the site launch and in store program was fantastic. There were lines at several of our stores."
Could they have produced more products, since some customers complained that a lot of it sold out so fast?
"We never want to disappoint our guests and we want to create moments. It's creating the right balance and planning the business to support the desired program's length. As I said with all these programs, it's weeks and not months," she said.
As for her expectation for this limitedtime pickleball partnership, she said,
"We don't disclose any sales data tied to these programs. We expect a strong guest response given the relevancy of this partnership, given the love of pickleball right now. We think we're going to see a similar guest response on this one."
Meantime, Target appears to be working its way through somewhat of a rough patch in revenues, with fourth-quarter comparable sales down 4.4 percent, but the retailer is looking to make up for that with profits and long-term vision, as reported. Earnings for the quarter ended Feb. 3 rose 57.8 percent.
“Over the next decade, we expect our total revenue will grow by an average rate of roughly 4 percent per year. If we attain that goal, our business will add more than $50 billion of revenue on top of the $107 billion we delivered in 2023. That growth will enable our business to further benefit from scale efficiencies as we continue to extend our reach in the U.S. market," Brian Cornell, chairman and chief executive of Target, said last month.
As for other Prince collaborations, earlier this month Malbon Golf said it was expanding beyond its golf apparel with a new collaboration with Prince. The two companies have partnered on a limitededition capsule of apparel and tennis gear inspired by the Andre Agassi era in the
‘80s and ‘90s, as reported.