Walgreen's clothing line off to rocky start

David Ng, manager of Walgreen at 191 N. Clark St., admits he hasn't seen much of an increase in foot traffic for the apparel in the chain's new Casual Gear line since its launch a few days ago, but he's hopeful that a current nationwide promotional campaign the company is running will help increase customer awareness and sales.

Curiously, though, while the initial promotion is "buy one, get one 50 percent off," there's no such sign at the display of t-shirts, shorts, casual pants, hoodies and quilted vests near the front of the store.

"We do sell a lot of inexpensive t-shirts," said Ng. But the new Casual Gear "is a better quality. . . Instead of going to Old Navy, we hope they'll come to us."

Deerfield-based Walgreen Co., the largest drug store chain, hopes the line expresses a "more cohesive" unit in comparison with its previous apparel offerings including caps, gloves and flip-flops, according to Walgreen spokeswoman Tiffani Bruce.

Casual Gear is the company's first complete apparel collection. The items are priced from $6.99 to $14.99.

The collection, which will be featured in nearly all its 6,200 stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, includes products for both men and women.

"Casual Gear taps into the demand for quick access to versatile, easy-to-wear clothing that suits today's active lifestyles," said Kathy Steirly, divisional vice president and general merchandise manager for Walgreen beauty and fashion division, in a March 27 press release. "This line delivers an outstanding combination of comfort, convenience, quality and value we believe customers will appreciate."

Casual Gear was created in partnership with wonderbrand, a design and product development agency based in San Francisco. Walgreen has worked with wonderbrand on previous projects and, according to Bruce, the company is "good to work with from a creative standpoint."

"We took extraordinary care to develop the right product mix that would speak to Walgreens broad customer base," said wonderbrand CEO Nick Graham in the press release.