Retailers have long depended on sale of high-margin winter coats and boots to boost their annual profits but with the season becoming shorter and warmer, US fund managers, convinced that the industry is becoming a victim of climate change, are leaving departmental stores and apparel stocks. The industry's long supply lines are one reason why apparel companies and department stores struggle to adjust to warmer winters. The industry is also still wedded to the idea that buyers want winter coats which tend to have margins of around 40 percent in early October when summer weather often stays on.

On record, the 2015-2016 winter was the warmest that prompted many US fund managers to abandon apparel stocks altogether. Approximately 48 per cent of US actively managed equity funds have zero exposure to apparel companies up from the 38 per cent of funds that rejected apparel stocks at this time last year, according to a data by Morningstar.

There are signs that this season will continue to be hard on apparel makers. The average temperature in October was nearly 58 degrees. That was the third-warmest October on record and the warmest since 1963, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
The average October temperature has warmed by 0.6 degree per decade over the last 30 years, with only September having a greater increase in average warmth, it is learnt. Fifteen of the 16 warmest years on record have been in the 21st Century.