Nike is still winning the teen market

Dive Brief:

Ugg dethroned Lululemon as a top fashion brand for upper income teen women, according to Piper Sandler’s 49th semi-annual Taking Stock with Teens survey that polled 6,455 teens nationwide. Until now, Lululemon held the top spot among brand favorites since spring 2018
E.l.f. Cosmetics remains the No. 1 beauty brand for teens, followed by Rare Beauty and Maybelline. Sephora remains the top beauty destination, ahead of Ulta and Bath & Body Works. Bath & Body Works ranked in the top 10 for the first time since 2018.
Nike is still the top clothing brand for upper income teens, across clothing and footwear. Amazon remains the top shopping website, as shown in last fall’s survey.

Dive Insight:

Until Ugg’s reemergence, Lululemon spent six years atop the list of teen fashion brand favorites. The athleisure brand is continuing to open brick and mortar stores as it eyes growth.

Teens are continuing to increase their spending, which was up 6% year over year to $2,388,  the survey found. Beauty spending was up, too, and reached its highest level during the spring 2025 survey at $374. 

Younger generations prefer to shop for beauty in-person and shopping in stores leads to more spending, research from Adyen found.

After Nike, teens also prefer Hollister then American Eagle as clothing brands. For footwear, almost half of all teens chose Nike as their favorite brand, followed by Adidas and Ugg. Nike remained the top brand, even as its footwear sales have plunged.

For social media, almost half of all teens choose TikTok as their top platform. A recent Fiver report found that half of U.S. Gen Z customers shopped from TikTok’s e-commerce segment for the recent holiday season. Instagram and Snapchat rounded out the top three for favorite teen apps, according to Piper Sandler.