KEY FINDINGS
- Teen “self-reported” spending was up 6% Y/Y to $2,361 and up 4% vs. the Spring.
- Nike maintained its No. 1 spot as a favorite brand for all teens; in footwear, NKE shed 4-points Y/Y (57% vs. 61%), with a sharp drop among females (48% this Fall vs. 56% last Fall), and the upper income cohort seeing an 11-point Y/Y decline.
- Lululemon maintained its No. 3 rank in apparel for all teens with 5% mindshare, down 1-point Y/Y. For upper income teens, LULU lost 4-points of mindshare Y/Y.
- New Balance moved to No. 3 (No. 4 last Fall) for upper income teens and doubled its mindshare to 8%, while for females, Adidas had the biggest increase (to 14% this Fall from 3% last Fall).
- The core beauty wallet reached the highest level since spring 2018 at $342 (+6% Y/Y). All categories except for skincare (-4% Y/Y) grew Y/Y. Fragrance is growing the fastest at +25% Y/Y.
- Ulta is ceding share in favorite beauty shopping destinations, now at No. 2 and 27% vs. 32% a year ago. Sephora (No. 1) lost one point of share Y/Y and Target (No. 3) gained 4 points Y/Y.
- e.l.f. maintained its position as the No. 1 cosmetic brand, gaining 6 points of share Y/Y to 35% of female teens.
- Teens prefer energy drinks (39%) over coffee (31%) and soda (30%). Monster, Red Bull, Celsius and Alani Nu held their top four rankings, but Celsius lost ~2pp of share vs. Spring 2024.
- Goldfish (CPB) remained the most preferred snack, followed by Lays (PEP) then Cheez-It (K).
- Consumers willing to try plant-based meat stabilized vs. sequential declines since Spring 2021.
- Roblox active usage improved to 46% from 34% in Spring 2024. 17% of Teens have never played Roblox, down from 22% in Spring.
- Among Gig Economy names, the most dominant providers are UBER in ridesharing (79%) and DoorDash in food delivery (75%).
- 87% of teens own an iPhone and nearly 30% of teens plan to upgrade their Apple hardware in the next 6 months because of Apple Intelligence.
- 61% of Upper Income households shop at Walmart vs. 81% of Avg. Income (75% all together). We look to future surveys to assess market share gains within upper income.
- A higher % of teen females shop at Target vs. Walmart in non-food categories: 70% shop at Target for Beauty & Skincare and 46% for Apparel & Footwear.
- Stanley Cups moved up to the No. 2 ‘most popular trend for teen women’ (No. 3 in Spring 2024) but also moved up to the No. 3 ‘fashion trend on its way out’ (No. 8 in Spring 2024).
ABOUT THE SURVEY
The Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens® survey is a semi-annual research project that gathers input from 13,515 teens with an average age of 15.8 years. Discretionary spending patterns, fashion trends, technology, brand and media preferences are assessed through surveying a geographically diverse subset of high schools across the U.S. Since the project began in 2001, Piper Sandler has surveyed more than 267,818 teens and collected over 63 million data points on teen spending.
