AMB Designs: Bringing a fresh look to activewear

AMB Designs: Bringing a fresh look to activewear

Bringing a fresh look to activewear

AMB Designs is dedicated to bringing a fresh look to activewear, dance and fashion retailers, offering quality products and great prices, with fast and friendly service, and most importantly, an exciting assortment of colors and designs that “pop” on the street, in the studio, and on stage. Building on the success of pioneering the original Sheer Top in the dance industry - a category which has since become a staple in dance apparel - AMB Designs is expanding its line and market segments by constantly pushing the traditional frontiers with COLORS in ACTION.

“Colors in Action”

AMB Designs’ registered “Colors in Action” phrase is derived from combining two concepts that characterize the company’s vision. “Colors” is about boldness, variety, creativity – bringing brightness – not just to the stage, but to everyday wear, warm-up wear, even casual-wear and club-wear. The market has credited AMB Designs with bringing a breath of fresh air to the dance apparel industry through its aggressive use of color – as many as 50 to pick from, in a variety of tops.

“Action” is about movement, about energy and expression – capturing the essence of the active girl and young woman – in whatever setting she chooses to act. Thus was born the “Colors in Action” tagline – an aggressive vision, and one that AMB Designs is committed to fulfilling with every new style and color it introduces.

“Life in the Dance Apparel Jungle”

AMB Designs was founded based on the vision of bringing bold, creative designs, great service and honest competition to the dance apparel segment. Ana Maria Bartley, AMB’s founder and designer pioneered a new category of styles (sheer tops), a new wearing concept (layering), and the use of bold colors and tie-dye techniques in basic categories. As newcomers to the dance apparel market segment, AMB’s owners fully expected to find a degree of cross-fertilization between its own styles, colors and creative ideas, and those of other suppliers.

However, they have been surprised and disappointed by the degree of blatant imitation, not only from smaller players in the industry, but from the industry’s leading suppliers. Shortly after AMB’s launch, small suppliers in Colorado, Florida and California began a barrage of “me-too” knock-offs, and one of the industry’s top suppliers also launched an “imitation” category. Over the years, others have attempted to copy AMB’s success in this category.

Most recently, the largest supplier in the industry, who for two years, had purchased AMB products for their chain of retail dance apparel stores, suddenly sourced an imitation line from China, not only for its own store chain, but aggressively marketing the products among its captive retail store accounts.

AMB’s bittersweet experiences with product imitation in the dance apparel industry have reinforced its own sense of conviction in its core values and its confidence that creativity (versus imitation) will ultimately prevail. AMB has been happy to find that many suppliers value the fact that it is the original pioneer of these styles, that its variety and quality are still hard to match (after all, this is AMB Designs’ core business), and that service (at-once shipping, flexible returns, etc) are still head-and-shoulders above competitors.

On the “creative” side, the company is moving forward with a constant flow of new style designs, dyeing techniques, print concepts and product improvements on successful pieces, in order to stay ahead of the competition. The company trusts that the market will reward its innovation and leadership with continued loyalty and their preference at the retailers’ point of sale.

Live and learn for another day in the dance apparel jungle…

The AMB Designs Story

In mid 2003, Ana María Bartley, artist and decorator, mother of four daughters, with no previous apparel business experience, used her instincts and good artistic taste to identify an opportunity for sheer tops in the dance apparel industry, as a comfortable, flattering, colorful, layering piece. Based on her vision and persistence, in late 2003, Ana obtained some samples from an artisan manufacturer in her native Chile, and convinced nearby neighborhood dance retailer, to exhibit an initial sampling of colors in the basic sheer top style – on a consignment basis. The first sale occurred when the store owner called a couple of days later, asking for more styles and colors, signaling the launch of AMB (Ana Maria Bartley) Designs. After several sales to this store, Ana then offered her growing line to another dance store, where she not only received a very positive response, but also an introduction to a successful independent sales rep for the Florida dance apparel market. Upon viewing the line, he immediately signed on, enthusiastically introducing AMB to his dance apparel accounts. Based on his positive experience with AMB Designs, in terms of service, reliability and a growing product lineup, he then introduced sales rep colleagues in other states to AMB Designs, setting the stage for the snowballing of the company’s presence nationwide.

The excitement and energy of bringing this new, colorful category to the market was tangible! Store owners talked about a “breath of fresh air”, “breaking the mold” in a laid back market, “loving doing business with AMB”, and many other accolades. Though other vendors tried to copy some of AMB’s products, no one quite matched the products, approached the variety or reached the service levels --- this WAS (and continues to be) AMB’s core business – not a sideline.

During 06-07 AMB literally came out of the basement, and came of age in many other ways. Formal importing (instead of friends bringing merchandise with their luggage) and inventory management, a real business office-warehouse (instead of the home basement), full-time management, and industrial-grade systems and communications have given AMB the scale to continue growing. On the market side, state-of-art packaging, creative point of sale display pieces, advertising campaigns, trade show presence and first-class catalogs have given momentum to the line. Most importantly, the product line itself has grown to near 300 style-color-size combinations. Styles include sheer long sleeves, camis and tanks, shrugs, fishnet tops, capri leggings, and some specific “cut and sew” styles such as shorts, skirts, and jumpers. Color range covers up to 30 colors in some styles, and most are one-size, simplifying things for retailers and customers alike.

Today, 700 dance apparel stores, 300 sku’s, 50 styles, presence in 48 states, Canada, UK, Germany, Spain and Australia and tens of thousands of satisfied consumers are eloquent evidence of the power of Ana’s vision, and drive. Stay tuned…. AMB Designs is just getting started!