Despite being dropped by Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom Inc. due to supposed challenges with its productivity, a spokesperson for the Ivanka Trump brand said all is well with the company’s top line.
“The Ivanka Trump brand continues to expand across categories and distribution with increased customer support, leading us to experience significant year-over-year revenue growth in 2016,” Rosemary K. Young, senior director of marketing at Ivanka Trump, said in a statement to Footwear News. “We believe that the strength of a brand is measured not only by the profits it generates but the integrity it maintains. The women behind the brand represent a diverse group of professionals, and we are proud to say that the Ivanka Trump brand continues to embody the principles upon which it was founded. It is a company built to inspire women with solution-oriented offerings, created to celebrate and service the many aspects of their lives.”
A Nordstrom rep said last week that the department store will no longer carry the Ivanka Trump line, but an unnamed Ivanka Trump spokesperson told FN today that Nordstrom purchased Ivanka Trump apparel for spring 2017.
Watch on FN
In a followup email to FN, a Nordstrom spokesperson said today that customers can expect to see products available for a while “because of variations in timing of when orders were placed, when they’re delivered, and how quickly they sell through.”
Ivanka Trump’s brand spokesperson did not speak specifically to Neiman Marcus’ decision over the weekend to discontinue carrying Ivanka Trump’s jewelry online but did address the brand boycott that many believe is putting pressure on retailers to unload the label. (Neiman Marcus told FN today that it carried “a very small” selection of Ivanka Trump precious jewelry that it was dropping based on productivity.)
“The originator of this boycott cites the impetus for the boycott as the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, but she doesn’t acknowledge that Ivanka did in fact provide a statement on the record in Fast Company,” the spokesperson said.
Shannon Coulter, a marketing specialist in California, started an online petition calling for a boycott of all Trump-branded merchandise and of the retailers that carry the products in response to last year’s release of a 2005 video — or “the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape” — in which Donald Trump made sexually aggressive statements about women.
In an article published Oct. 17, Fast Company shared the following statement from the soon-to-be first daughter in response to the infamous tape: “My father’s comments were clearly inappropriate and offensive, and I’m glad that he acknowledged this fact with an immediate apology to my family and the American people.”
Macy’s, TJ Maxx and Zappos are among the retailers still on Coulter’s list of 80-plus companies.
