We get almost as excited for the annual Forbes Global 2000 List as we do for our quarterly IKEA catalog (don’t judge us). Last year, we detailed the apparel companies that took the top spots, including Christian Dior, Nike and Inditex. And this year, we were curious to see if the fashion royalty would be dethroned.
It looks like luxury fashion brand Christian Dior can’t be touched, as the company held on to the top apparel spot and saw sales rise by double digits to $49 billion. It grabbed the No. 150 spot among all the companies.
For the No. 2 apparel spot, Spanish retail giant Inditex, who owns Zara, knocked Nike off the No. 2 spot. Thanks to Zara’s 9 percent increase in sales to $29 billion, it seems like Inditex isn’t going anywhere in the future.
Don’t feel too bad for Nike, though. The athleisure powerhouse still nabbed the No. 3 spot. It is now the largest athletic retailer, with annual sales of $35 billion.
Other U.S. retailers made it to the list, including TJX and Ross Stores with the No. 445 and 734 spots, respectively. L Brands (Victoria’s Secret), Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman) and Michael Kors all dropped by at least 200 spots. H&M took the No. 538 spot with $23.7 billion in sales this year. Macy’s grabbed the No. 729 spot with $24.8 billion.
Forbes pointed out that the great underdog story went to Anta Sports, a Chinese athletic apparel and footwear company.
What can we learn from this year’s list? While athleisure and fast fashion made their impact and proved that both those trends are here to stay, it is luxury brand Christian Dior that took the true prize. While consumers like having their options at all price points, they still will spend big on the brands embody quality and opulence.
