Passion and PromiSe meeT

As Casual Market Returns to chicago

Catch your breath. It’s time for the casual furnishings industry’s biggest buying market.

Inside this issue, you’ll see a sampling of the products being introduced this month at the International Casual Furniture & Accessories Market in Chicago. You can take a dip into the color trends that are developing for the 2015 marketplace.

Also inside these pages is our exclusive research report to provide details of 100 Powerhouse Retailer businesses that offer outdoor furnishings in the United States. Casual Classics, the industry’s largest member-owned buying/design cooperative, describes how its members are responding to the ever-changing marketplace. Canadian retailers even share their stories about what’s happening north of the border. The growth of smartphones and mobile commerce is also detailed, along with an update on the leading e-tailers that sell outdoor furniture online. 

There’s a lot of content here to help you keep up with our constantly changing outdoor furnishings niche. And there are good reasons for you to want to stay up-to-date.

Consumer demand remains strong for attractive outdoor living areas, residential landscapes and easy-care home exteriors that add to curb appeal. Today’s busy homeowners’ efforts to select long-lasting outdoor products and stylish home enhancements that resist moisture, warping, UV damage, insects and other weather-related threats go far beyond their desire to boost their home’s re-sale value.

Those efforts are more reflective of how consumers want to live today. They want to invite friends over to enjoy their outdoor living rooms, which may take the form of an urban balcony or a suburban backyard. Most have some form of shade, whether an umbrella, shade sail, pergola, awning or big oak tree. They almost always have a grill, if not a full outdoor kitchen. They may include a pool or spa, but a growing number are extending their outdoor enjoyment into the cooler months with the addition of a patio heater, fire pit or fire table with seats for gathering around. 

Because people want to enjoy outdoor gatherings for longer stretches of time, deep seating comfort has become more popular than outdoor dining tables for many homeowners.

The casual lifestyles that are evident through the manner Americans dress are equally clear in the way they want their homes to look and function. The formal living rooms and dining rooms that I grew up with are no longer what young people envision for their homes. Such formal settings are uncommon for what people of any age use regularly. For example, the 10-piece dining table in the formal dining room at my home fills up with food for parties, but rarely is set for diners other than at Thanksgiving and Christmas when our extended family returns to celebrate.

The folks who gather at this time of year in Chicago are starting to feel like extended family. We travel from across North America or beyond to take part in a business that is close to home.

I talk to people who express passion for what they do, whether it is to design, manufacture, buy or sell. They radiate the love they feel for the “people, product and customers,” as Casual Classics Group Director Buzz Homsy summed up when he spoke of devoting 50 years of his career to the outdoor furnishings niche. Call it the patio or the outdoor room, but it’s a place where it’s OK to feel passion about something that’s as big as the whole outdoors. See you in Chicago!