Lee X platform provides innovation at scale
These aren’t your dad’s jeans. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be.
“These are not the jeans that my dad grew up wearing, but I got him a pair and they are his new favorites,” says Jimmy Shafer, senior vice president of Lee, referring to the new Lee X Move jean. “It feels like denim. It looks like denim. It wears like denim. But it has additional innovative properties built in — cooling technology, moisture management, stretch-and-recovery, and flex. All those performance benefits give these jeans the wow factor.”
Now Lee is scaling-up the wow factor with the launch of Lee X, its new premium performance platform for men’s denim and non-denim pants and shirts. The idea behind Lee X is to institutionalize the brand’s long-time commitment to innovation by creating a sustainable platform to showcase the newest and next in menswear. Using the latest fabric technologies and design innovations, Lee X promises to bring next-gen comfort and style to trendy sophisticates of all ages — including Jimmy’s dad.
“We’re providing a premium wearing experience without charging a premium price point,” Shafer said, adding that most of Lee X product lines will sell in the $50-$60 range.
Lee X proves there is versatility in comfort. The non-denim pants are designed for the office but made for hitting the links after work. The jeans, meanwhile, have the rugged look and feel of authentic denim, but are made with a stretch and comfort to rival your favorite weekend sweatpants.
Put simply, these are clothes you have to try-on to believe.
“The way we engineer fabrics is constantly evolving and changing,” Shafer said. “The Lee X platform will put us on the leading edge of innovation.”
Lee X also represents the logical evolution of the brand’s storied history of innovation — one that started a century ago with the introduction of the first zipper in a pair of jeans. More recently, Lee’s innovation journey has included brand-fan favorites such as Extreme Motion, MVP, Flex Motion and Ultra Lux — a decade of innovation which together represent the lion’s share of Lee’s revenue stream today’s market. Lee X, in effect, is the platform to uplevel the brand’s innovation game and do so at scale.
“Lee has endeavored to make innovation a key part of our reason to exist in the world,” Shafer says. “We've had this innovation engine working in the background for many years, but until now we haven’t had a vehicle to bring innovation to market in this consistent flow. Now we have the chance to push innovation every season and push the brand into new white space. And that's exciting because we have an organization that loves to innovate.”
Kontoor’s innovation team echoes that sentiment.
“The Lee X platform represents a significant leap forward for our Lee brand, embodying our commitment to innovation and consumer-centric design,” says Dhruv Agarwal, vice president of sustainability, innovation and development. “For Kontoor’s innovation team, the Lee X line is a new channel to scale and commercialize our creative outputs. It allows us to bring our most exciting ideas to life, inspiring and exciting our consumers.”
In short, Shafer concludes, “Lee X is what's next.”
For more on Lee X, click here.