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Men’s Jewelry on the Rise
This niche market is growing thanks to hip-hop and celebrity influences.
Sep 18, 2019 5:09 AM
By Lara Ewen
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RAPAPORT... It seems men are tired of letting women do all the
sparkling. In September 2018, The New York Times printed a story about
the growing popularity of men’s jewelry, tying the trend to the introduction of
men’s fashion weeks and the rise of Instagram. More recently, nautical-cord
bracelets, upscale chains, signet rings, and dog-tag-like pendant necklaces have
made style headlines in magazines like Forbes and Men’s Health.
But this isn’t new to jewelry store owners.
“The men’s jewelry market has made a big turn in the past
few years, especially with a large influence coming from the entertainment
industry,” says Zahir Jooma, co-owner of Icebox Diamonds & Watches in
Atlanta, Georgia. Jooma, whose family-owned business has served the area for
over 40 years, ties some of the demand to the mainstreaming of hip-hop. “If you
listen to the big, big rappers, they’re talking about diamonds,” he notes. In
the song “Put a Date on It” by rappers Yo Gotti and Lil Baby, for example, a
line mentions not only diamonds, but their clarity: “VVS diamonds drippin’ over
my t-shirt,” raps Lil Baby.
“Right now, hip-hop is the number-one [music] genre,” says
Jooma. “It used to be pop. But now there’s a lot of men rapping about jewelry,
and the [listener] demographic is older, and they can afford to buy for
themselves.”
While celebrities may drive trends, Jooma — who has plenty
of celebrity clients — says his customers also include young professionals,
teens whose parents buy them jewelry, and suburban men who drive into the city
to visit his store. Many of his clients want to emulate their favorite
musicians, athletes and entertainers.
Bring the bling
Self-purchasing men are also driving sales at Shyne Jewelers
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has an entertainer- and athlete-driven
base as well.
“It’s definitely a culture in Philadelphia,” says Lea
D’Onofrio, the company’s business development director of e-commerce. “We’ve
seen a strong increase in men self-purchasers investing in jewelry. Our
business here is 85% male self-purchasers, and we only see it increasing.”
Younger men in particular are beginning to buy, she adds.
“We find a strong focus in millennial men wearing jewelry. Many men in their
late 20s are investing in their first piece of fine jewelry.”
Whereas traditional ideas about men’s jewelry are usually
limited to yellow gold chains, tastes have changed, Jooma says. Natural
diamonds — his customers are not interested in lab-grown stones — are big
sellers, as are tennis bracelets, tennis necklaces, and diamond-covered Cuban
link chains in white, yellow and rose gold. He says custom pendants, large
pinky rings, and athletic championship-style rings are also trending.
Size definitely matters, according to Joseph Aranbayev,
co-owner of Avianne & Co., which has been operating in New York since 1999.
“The bigger, the better,” declares Aranbayev, whose clients also include
celebrities and young professionals.
He says his customers insist on natural diamonds over
lab-grown, and that many clients want custom. “Big chains, big medallions.
Everybody wants to put something right up on their chests. It speaks right there.
The jewelry says hello right before you even say hello.”
Of course, lots of men also want more low-key pieces. “We
need simple, basic stuff, too,” comments Ben Smithee, CEO of consumer
consultancy The Smithee Group (TSG), which specializes in digital strategy and
millennial marketing. He suggests that classic items such as rings, bracelets
and stainless steel cuffs are good entry-level pieces for both customers and
retailers. “Ask what allows a man to tell a story about himself,” he says. “My
signet ring is a lion, because I’m a Leo and king of the jungle. And it’s
something I can wear with shorts and tennis shoes as well as a suit.”
Male-order bridal
Regarding prices, Jooma says the average self-purchase in
his store ranges from $7,000 to $10,000, although many items are much higher —
$30,000, $50,000, and even $200,000 sales are not uncommon. Those sales also
translate into bridal.
“People who buy a lot of jewelry for themselves spend a lot
on the engagement ring, and they want higher quality for women than they buy
for themselves,” explains Jooma. “They buy large center stones for women, and
they also buy a lot of men’s eternity bands to match the rest of their jewelry
— a plain band for daily wear.” He says the average men’s eternity wedding band
in his store costs between $12,000 and $20,000. When people buy gifts for their
male partners, the sales are more modest, ranging from $1,000 to $3,000.
In New York, Aranbayev says men spend an average of $8,000
to $10,000 on self-purchases each time they shop, and that the average price of
a men’s diamond wedding band in his shop is $3,000. “There’s a lot of men who
do basic, but in the last 15 years, it’s become flashier, like a big diamond
eternity wedding band,” he says. “And everything is custom.”
When it comes to gifts, Aranbayev says many significant
others receive accessories that go with items they already own. “I have a
client with numerous custom pieces,” he relates. “For his birthday, his
girlfriend came in and bought him something to go with his diamond bracelet.”
Gifts are also big sellers at Shyne, where D’Onofrio says
white sapphire initial pendants, costing between $150 and $350, are big
sellers. Of course, many people spend bigger. “A woman recently came in and
spent over $10,000 on a Father’s Day gift,” D’Onofrio reports.
Self-purchasers, who overwhelmingly prefer mined diamonds to
lab-grown, are heavily investing in gold chains and custom work, she continues
— especially in pendants, which start at $1,500 but can run upward of $50,000
for larger pieces, such as diamond-covered portrait necklaces. “Men want things
that are crazy and out of the box,” she says.
Instagram inroads
The majority of Shyne’s customers find the store via its
Instagram account, where it has over 358,000 followers, according to D’Onofrio.
“We try to keep our feed organic, and we post throughout the day. Our clients
want to see what we’re working on at the moment.”
Digital is important for Aranbayev, too. “Social media has a
big role,” says the New York jeweler, who has over 288,000 followers on
Instagram. “The hip-hop industry has become mainstream, and that culture comes
with a lot of men’s jewelry.... It’s trendy, and the more you read about it and
hear about it, the more you want to wear it.”
With over 1.8 million Instagram followers, Jooma is clearly
embracing his dedicated online following. But his success is really predicated
on knowing his clientele. “Marketing to men is more of a year-round sale,” he
elaborates. “Women are more seasonal. And men buy a lot more fashion. A lot of
men are buying their fifth diamond ring or their third diamond watch. The whole
culture of collecting watches has moved [instead] to collecting jewelry.”
Companies such as David Yurman, John Hardy, Inox, and Goth
Chic are serving the men’s fashion customer, but without enough retailers to
stock them, many are going directly to the consumer.
“We’re forcing the men’s consumers online. I shop directly
from brands on Instagram,” says Smithee. “Someone has to be the tastemaker. If
I were a jewelry store, locally, I would find men who were Instagram
influencers and have them create a men’s audience and a men’s line for me.”
Jooma says retailers looking to dip into the men’s market
should start small and build. “Start with items that are actually women’s
items, like a ladies’ diamond necklace or a diamond tennis bracelet, but a
longer version,” he advises. “You can always cut it shorter and sell it to
women. Then you can add some risky men’s pieces, like a large pendant.”
Stores can also tap into the online consumer base
themselves. “I see a continued increase in millennial men investing money in
jewelry,” says D’Onofrio. “We also see the online market increasing
continuously, even in the luxury business, so it’s crucial that we provide the
same intimate relationship online that we do to our customers face to face.”
Open to diversity
One of the reasons men’s fashion jewelry hasn’t yet
penetrated the market more deeply, suggests Jooma, is that some retailers are
not ready to accommodate the customers who seek it out. “Some of these stores
are not welcoming to the hip-hop customer who wants hip-hop jewelry,” he says.
“But a lot of those stores are suffering, and they can’t have that attitude for
long. A lot of people come into our store because they feel respected. We have
heard about some jewelry stores not showing love to them, but people who have
that attitude will miss out.”
Jooma understands some of the hesitation, from a business
standpoint. “The diamond jewelry market is still over 90% women, especially if
you [don’t count] bridal,” he notes. “So it does make sense for [the industry]
not to dive into men’s jewelry. But a lot of stores are failing, [and] it’s not
because people don’t want diamonds. As [men’s jewelry] becomes more prominent,
one or two years from now, we’ll see them adding more proven men’s designs.”
Stores that aren’t already courting men may be hurting
themselves. “People are missing out on the market,” agrees D’Onofrio. “In
Philadelphia, we get a lot of diversity, and people with tattoos on their
faces, and piercings and shaved heads. I don’t know if those clients would be
helped by associates in some stores. But you have to be able to cater to
everybody and take everybody seriously.”
Part of the problem may be that the industry continues to
struggle with a changing demographic. “There’s a big disconnect between white
America and urban America, and that’s why white America doesn’t want to accept
a large amount of men’s jewelry,” says Aranbayev. “And you have to understand
the trends. If you’re talking to a whole bunch of old-timers, they don’t know
what’s going on. Traditional studs or earrings or tennis bracelets are nice and
all, but there’s a market that hasn’t been tapped into. In the next 20 years,
everything will be different. You should just start accepting it now.”
Smithee agrees. “There’s a lot of jewelry dollars [that
retailers] are leaving on the table because they feel like it’s not their
customer.”
Elsewhere in luxury fashion, brands are already embracing a
diverse clientele. Smithee points to Virgil Abloh, the creator of urban fashion
brand Off-White, who is designing at Louis Vuitton. “And there’s people like me
who wear a lot of men’s jewelry, who are not hip-hop artists and not biker
dudes,” he adds. “Why not serve all those communities?”
Businesses already doing so say the space is lucrative.
“We had some kid come all the way from China,” recalls
Aranbayev. “He’s 15-and-a-half years old and he spent a quarter of a million
dollars. The kid heard about us through rap music... That’s how mainstream this
is.”
The original version of this article was published in the September issue of Rapaport Magazine.
Image: Ice Box Rolo link necklace with 225.96 carats of diamonds and Icebox Mariner link necklace with 95.67 carats of diamonds. (Icebox)
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Tags:
Avianne & Co, Ben Smithee, david yurman, Goth Chic, Icebox Diamonds & Watches, Inox, john hardy, Joseph Aranbayev, Lara Ewen, Lea D’Onofrio, Lil Baby, Louis Vuitton, men's jewelry, Rapaport News, Shyne Jewelers, The Smithee Group, todd reed, TSG, Virgil Abloh, Yo Gotti, Zahir Jooma
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