Amazon Might Break Into Activewear

Online retail giant Amazon continues on its path to being a purveyor of everything. In this latest expansion, Amazon looks to be preparing to launch its own line of workout clothes, adding to its current apparel offering of shoes, dresses, suits and its latest offering, a dress shirt line called Button Down.

Job listings posted in December, first noted by Recode, advertised that the company was in the process of looking for brand managers “to build authentic activewear private label brands that have compelling and unique DNA and deliver amazing consumer-valued innovation.”

Breaking out into activewear could stir up greater competition with big name brands like Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Fabletics and Lululemon. But it’s far from just a clothing phenomenon. Amazon offers its Prime members access to some 1,800 private-label products — anything from batteries to speakers to baby wipes — under names Amazon Basics and Amazon Elements.

Amazon also recently announced its own private-label line of food and beverages called Wickedly Prime currently available on Amazon, AmazonFresh and PrimePantry (again, for Prime members only). Amazon has been rolling out private-label food and beverage products under the radar for Prime customers since June of this year, including its Happy Belly brand coffee and its private-label baby food called Mama Bear.

No word yet on whether Wickedly Prime brand items will be up for sale once Amazon Go — the online retailer’s big push into the brick-and-mortar grocery business — opens to the public in the coming months, starting with the flagship Seattle location in January 2017.

It is likely Amazon will continue to build out its private-label offerings as a way to fill in gaps in offerings from suppliers (turned competitors) and rake in the revenue from the additional sales. Legacy retailers are sweating thinking about what Amazon had done to book sales, though it’s unlikely Amazon will supplant everyone. If anything, retailers in Amazon’s private-label path should just expect a bit of extra competition.