Young Men's 2023 Trend Outlook: Comfort Food But Make It Clothing

2023 Trends

This year will be a lot like 2022, only with retailers taking an even narrower approach, fewer brands and more of the things that work. Excess inventory is likely to create problems throughout the first half of the year and then if we’re lucky and don’t dip into a recession, we can experience a halfway normal back to school. Not normal normal, mind you, but 80% there.

Looking at the 15-25-year-old middle-class, city/suburban U.S. athletic-ish customer, I don’t see a lot changing style wise in 2023. This especially applies to young men, who, like the slow and steady tortoise, are much less inclined to embrace newness. As well, we’ve just gone through some heavy duty trauma courtesy of COVID, so in my opinion people (especially guys) are looking for the style equivalent of meat and potatoes aka comfort food rather than stepping out on ledges.

Yes, there’s been a shift over the past …