Workday to Be the H&M Group’s ‘Youth Destination’ for Trendy Fashion – Sourcing Journal

H&M Group is betting on Weekday, the Swedish streetwear-inspired brand, to become fashion’s “new youth destination”.

The company announced last week that it was merging Scandi’s cool women’s brand, Monki, into its Workdays unit. As part of these changes, Monki’s headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden will be closed, affecting 150 employees. The company says workers “will be supported to apply for roles in new organisations, or to pursue careers elsewhere within or outside the wider H&M Group.”

Headquarters will be based at Weekday’s current location in Stockholm and organizational changes will take effect over the coming months.

The company says the move will improve customer synergies, reduce administrative and operational costs, and free up resources to develop stronger offerings.

Workday and Monki will continue to operate as their own “brand experience” online and in their physical retail stores. As of February, there are 74 Monki stores and 53 Weekday stores worldwide.

Plus, Cheap Monday will be back next year with a wide variety of jeans.

Known for its skinny denim and skull logo, the brand was shut down by the H&M Group in 2019 when sales slumped. At the time of its closure, Cheap Monday was distributed to around 2,000 stores and sourced from factories in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam. It also has a flagship store on London’s Carnaby Street.

All three brands will come under the Weekday umbrella.

“We see huge potential with this new youth destination, with the Weekday, Monki and Cheap Monday brands,” said Anna Attemark, H&M Group’s portfolio head of brands. “Over time we will also explore how to develop it further by involving more partners. While looking forward to getting the new organization up and running, we remain humbled by the changes required for some of our employees.”

Jeans are a big part of Weekday’s product offerings. The brand uses only organic or recycled cotton for its jeans and the wash is measured using Jeanologia’s EIM tool. It has switched to recycled polyester zipper tape and thread. About half of the Spring/Summer 2023 denim collection was designed for circularity following the Ellen MacArthur Jeans Redesign criteria.

The genderless workday Astro Loose Baggy Jeans were recently named the eighth hottest product in Q1 2023 by The Lyst Index.