Press Center
Sept. 21, 2020
By Denise Incandela, SVP Women’s Group, Elevated and Online Brands, Walmart
Walmart’s fashion portfolio has grown significantly over the past few years as we’ve focused on expanding our assortment. We’ve launched exclusive, elevated brands. We’ve added more than 1,000 apparel brands to our online assortment, and we have a new strategic partnership with leading re-commerce business, thredUP, all in an effort to give our customers more of what they want – quality, stylish and accessible fashion.
Through our ongoing strategy of expanding our assortment for our customers, we’ve shown that we’re serious about establishing Walmart as a fashion destination. And, now we’re doubling-down to offer customers something they couldn’t find at Walmart before – a fashion essentials-inspired brand for both men and women created by our in-house design team.
Today, I’m excited to introduce Free Assembly, a modern fashion brand that offers elevated style essentials at an incredible value. At its core, this new brand is born from thoughtful, simple design, quality fabrics, modern silhouettes and styles updated for today. It’s as timeless as it is versatile, with wardrobe staples that are easy to mix, layer and assemble freely. These are pieces designed to have staying power.
With Free Assembly, we have a vision to create a new kind of brand that would entice any fashion shopper. So, we’ve built an in-house fashion design team with decades of experience designing for modern American brands known for mass appeal. Led by industry veteran, Dwight Fenton, whom I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with on the development of this new brand, our talented design team created Free Assembly from the ground up – everything from the brand concept to fabric selection, to product attributes and fit to eco-friendly denim washes and the manufacturing process. It was a huge task that started two years ago, and I’m blown away by the final product.
Free Assembly rounds out our elevated brands portfolio to offer customers incredible market value among modern clothing brands available today. Starting today, the Fall collection will include more than 30 items for women and 25 items for men, all priced between $9 and $45. Customers will discover well-designed, high-quality pieces at prices below other American clothing brands – including a $45 structured blazer with an updated silhouette, a $39 viscose tiered maxi for women and a $30 fishtail parka at a fraction of the price found at specialty retailers. What I’m most proud of though is the $40 organic selvedge denim that retails at an incredibly low price. Customers are going to be wowed by the style, quality and fit of these pieces for the value. They are that fantastic.
I’m thrilled for customers to discover Free Assembly. I’m confident that this new brand will quickly become an essential part of their everyday wardrobe – for today, tomorrow and years to come.
