The denim market scenario in the US saw a down trend with the Men’s jeans imports taking a knock in the first quarter of 2016. Going down 4.4 per cent in absolute quantities, the men’s denim apparel carried forward the trend of the last few years of slump in demand. The first quarter of the year is normally the slowest of the four quarters. Though not too much can be predicted for the whole year but the starting of the year does not inspire.

However, women’s denim does inspire a bit as it does not go negative and keeps its head over water with a marginal 0.4 per cent growth. The second quarter would be critical as it would define the movement of the denim demand and the resultant imports from around the world – which constitutes more than 95 per cent of total denim consumed in US.

The denim apparel imports into US peaked in 2013 at about 522 million pcs but slowly declined and fell to 475 million pcs in 2015. It remains to be seen how this year will perform. The initial data is not encouraging.