“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…