The Brand Finance UK released the “Top 50 Most Valuable Apparel 2024” list. Louis Vuitton has claimed the top spot with its brand value up 22.6% to $32.2 billion, becoming the most valuable apparel brand worldwide. Nike has ranked second with its brand value of $29.873 billion. Chanel has ranked third with its brand value up 34.5% to $26.068 billion. Besides Louis Vuitton, Nike, Chanel, the spare top 8 valuable apparel brands by order are Hermes, Zara, Gucci, Dior, and Adidas. Follow us, Aung Crown – a professional Chinese custom clothing manufacturer, will go into details of these top 8 valuable apparel brands on the list.

Data image sourced from Brand Finance

1. Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton was founded in Paris in 1854 and it has adhered to the brand founder’s vision and ambition. Louis Vuitton has created its legacy in its long history and the continuing creations keep its grand-advanced spot in the fashion industry. Up to now, Louis Vuitton has still shown its brand spirit of adventure by its unique history bequest, innovation theory, stern standard, bold creations and designs. Louis Vuitton leather products, garments, accessories, shoes, watches, and jewelry, each of them can be regarded as a legacy, impressing the times with a deep mark.

2. Nike

Nike is a well-known sports goods manufacturer and its headquarters are located in Portland, Oregon, USA, mainly producing sports goods, from sportswear and shoes to sports devices. Nike is a famous sports brand and its original meaning is the Greek victory goddess. Its logo is Swoosh – simple and motivational. The Swoosh looks like lightning, which can make people think about the speed and burst after wearing Nike sports goods. Besides strengthening the high-tech function of shoes, Nike has paid more attention to fashionable appearances and frequently launched Co-branded limited editions with different countries or fashionistas.

“Sports” is Nike’s language.

Nike has encouraged every athlete in the world, and also felt that it’s a great honor to create premium products for them. “Sports” is Nike’s language and Nike has invented lots of money and people to develop new products. Air Cushion Technology, first created by Nike, has brought a revolution in the sports industry. Applied this technique in making sports shoes can better protect athletes’ bodies, particularly for ankles and knees, preventing spraining from strenuous exercises and reducing the impact and friction on knees. Therefore, sports shoes adopted Air Cushion Technology have been very popular since their release.

After inventing Air Cushion Technology, Nike developed Shox – a new anti-vibration technology in 2001. Sports shoes adopted Shox – the new anti-vibration technology, have become popular, too, and sales have been rising. Besides sports shoes, Nike has also innovated sportswear. For example, Nike has also applied the FIT technique to make high-performance textiles, which can effectively help athletes to train or attend games no matter what kind of environment. Nike also produces other sports goods like watches, glasses, etc., and all those are adopting high technologies.

Just Do It

Dan Wieden, the founder of Wieden+Kennedy – an advertising company, created a new advertising slogan – “Just Do It” for Nike in 1998

The Meaning of Icon – Swoosh

The name – Nike means lucky among Western people, and is very easy to remember and speak. The icon – Swoosh( the small hook) symbolizes the wing feather of the Greek Victory Goddess and represents speed, movements, and tenderness. Moreover, the trademark – swoosh (the small hook) is simple and powerful. The bottom of Nike shoes has squared convex grains to enhance the stability, and there are two small hooks on both sides of the shoes, meaning the wing of the Greek Victory Goddess.

3. Chanel

Gabrielle Chanel opened her first hat boutique at 21 rue Cambon, Paris, named by Chanel Modes, making hats. Her designs and hats were favored by French actresses and earned her reputation by the way. The elegant and simple dressing style of Gabrielle Chanel evoked a sensation and quickly became popular in Paris.

Gabrielle opened her first apparel boutique store in Deauville in 1913 and started a line of jersey sportswear. This line was significant in fashion and made women redefine their relationships with their bodies. In the 1940s, Chanel transformed various women’s garments into simple and cozy styles.

Besides apparel, Chanel also launched the perfume – Chanel N°5 and the spokesperson is Nicole Kidman.  The bottle of Chanel N°5 is a glass bottle with an Art Deco flavor. Chanel N°5 was named after the designer’s name. What’s more, the double C icon makes this perfume one of the most valuable products in Chanel, has survived through time, and is still featured on Chanel’s official website.

After Gabrielle Chanel died, the talented designer, Karl Lagerfeld, took her place in 1983. Since  1983, Karl Lagerfeld has been the chief designer for Chanel and pushed Chanel apparel to another peak. Moreover, Karl has a free, random, relaxed design attitude, so he can always perfectly integrate two opposite designs into one – spunky and demure, which has French romance, humor, and German rigor and sophistication. Karl doesn’t have non-changeable styling lines and favored colors, but from his design, people can appreciate the classic and pure Chanel style.

4. Hermès

Hermès was founded in 1837, Paris, and all were derived from the Paris workshop that made saddles and harnesses. After 6 generations of the Hermès family’s hard work, the Hermès group was founded. Since its foundation in 1837, Hermès has adhered to its hand-made model and humanistic values. Freedom of creation, the pursuit of delicate materials, adherence to sophisticated craftsmanship, wear resistance, and the ability to withstand all trials, all these features make Hermès the brand it is.

Hermès has combined traditional craftsmanship and premium materials, integrating the past, now, and future together to create innovative and quality products. Based on the resistance of its brand root, the pursuit of brand value creation, and the encouragement from splendid family members, Hermès has still continuously kept its step in development.

Up to now, Hermès has 17 types of product collections: Harnesses, bags, scarves, women’s wear, men’s wear, perfumes, watches, small leather goods, hats, belts, footwear, gloves, enamel jewelry, home living collections, interior design collections, tableware, and jewelry accessories. As a family enterprise, Hermès has adhered to the running theory of independence and social responsibility, insisted on putting the production core in France, and maintained 60 production and training spots. At the same time, Hermès has also developed a global network, having 294 boutiques in 45 countries.

5. Zara

In 1975, the apprenticeship – Amancio Ortega Gaona, OMC, opened an apparel store named Zara in a distant town in the western north of Spain. Nowadays, Zara has become a globally famous fashion brand from a formerly unknown apparel store, with 1808 boutiques in 86 countries worldwide.

A Brief Introduction to Inditex

In 2005, the total sale amount of Inditex was 6.741 billion Euros, the total sale pieces reached 42.9 billion Euros, and the net profit was 803 million Euros. 

6. Gucci

Founded in 1921, Florence, Gucci is one of the world’s boutique brands. Gucci is globally famous, based on its unique creations, revolutions, and delicate Italian craftsmanship. Gucci belongs to a high-end boutique enterprise – Kering, owning a series of apparel, leather goods, jewelry, watches, etc. Gucci is the symbol of class and wealth, which makes it a favorite in the upper class, and favored by business men and women – fashionable yet elegant.

Product Features

After polishing outer appearances, Gucci has created nostalgia products. This style can show the unique texture of hand-made products and enhance the personalized sense. Backpacks through this new water treatment polishing integrate professional and innovative crafts from the master craftsmen, which can make each piece vivid and unique in appearance. Moreover, consumers can go through a custom service to add the golden letter (name abbreviation) on backpacks, which can make this piece a forever and precious family heirloom.

Couple Letters – G

Attaché cases, handbags, wallets with printing the trademark – double capital alphabets – G and the eye-catching green and red combo, are the classic style of Gucci at the early stage. That’s why G is its design logo now.

7. Dior

Dior was founded by Christian Dior – a French Fashion Designer, in 1946 in Paris. Dior has kept its noble and elegant design to show the sense of fashion, confidence, and buoyance. Dior is the perfect combination of elegance and luxury in these fields – fashion apparel, jewelry, watches, perfumes, makeup, and skin care.

8. Adidas

Adidas is a sportswear manufacturer and was originally named by Adolf Adi Dassler – the founder of Adidas. In 1920, Adidas began manufacturing footwear in Herzogenaurach, its headquarters near Nuremberg. Later, it was registered as Adidas AG, from Adi Dassler, on 18 August 1949. The 3 parallel stripes are common on Adidas apparel and sports footwear, same for the logo. Therefore, 3 parallel stripes are the feature of Adidas.

In the sportswear field, Adidas represents a special symbol and people call that the three stripes of victory. Since its founding in 1948, Adidas has helped numerous athletes to gain better scores and make their achievements. That’s why Adidas is a reputable paragon that gathers people’s trust and respect.

Moreover, Adidas is also the breaker of many techniques, gaining more than 700 patents, particularly for replacement football studs. The invention of replacement football stubs is a revolutionary concept. Moreover, people also thought that Adidas replacement football studs helped the German football team a lot to win the 1954 FIFA World Cup. Since the start of the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Adidas had become the official sponsor of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and has provided match balls for FIFA.

Besides that, Adidas also has sponsored many sports teams, such as football teams, marquee teams, and NBA leagues. National jerseys designed by Adidas are included in China, China Hong Kong, Nigeria, Argentina, France, Spain, Japan, etc. The football teams that are sponsored by Adidas include Chelsea, Germany, Benfica, Bayern Munich, Schalke04, Marseille, AC Milan, Liverpool, as well as our domestic Dalian Shide and Beijing Hyundai.

Nowadays, Adidas still adheres to the theory of Adi Dassler making footwear and has continuously discussed with athletes and coaches the demands and sports conditions to pass a series of tests and trials and develop products that can pass various ergonomic tests. These products can help athletes improve their performance and better meet the market demands for common consumers in the general market and the requirements for high-quality sports goods. In recent years, Adidas has made breakthroughs in design and function. The representative three stripes design has become another trend in fashion, covering the trendy new generation to form a new hot style, leading sports goods worldwide to become more diversified.

Adidas is never lacking excellent high-tech products because Adidas has regarded “sports tech” as the original movement and base of its brand development. That’s the important reason why Adidas sportswear is so popular among sports goods. For example, Adidas has applied A3, T-MAC3, Y-3 to its products.

At the same time, Adidas has been used to continuously improve its techniques and designs. For example, in 2004, Adidas launched the A3 Ultraride, which is revolutionary wear-resistant, anti-temperature, and vibration-resistant, after releasing Y-3 A3 Control (vibration absorption, guidance, transmission, three in one) in 2022. At the same year, adidas launched Climacool collection – 360℃ Breathable Sneakers.

Old & New Icon – Trefoil and Three Stripes

Adidas adopted trefoil as its trademark in 1972, respectively representing diversity, heritage, and style of its brand. In 1996, the year that the Olympic Games were born for 100 years, to celebrate the great achievements and wish a better future, Adidas decided that the trefoil only appeared on classic collections and other products used 3-Stripes to represent the quality inner though and better future of its brand.