Ask Tug: Are J Ferrar Undershirts from JCPenny Being Discontinued?

the j ferrar undershirts from jcpenny are being discontinued

This is pretty interesting info about the J Ferrar Undershirts from JCPenny that launched earlier this year. Just the other day I was responding to a reader’s question about some undershirt suggestions, and I referred to the J Ferrar Undershirts being on sale for around $9  (2-pack). It didn’t occur to me at the time, but that price is exactly 50% off of what they were originally being retailed for. When a company starts marking down a product like that, in most all cases it’s being discontinued.

Fast forward to yesterday, I get the following email from a reader:

Dear TUG. I read your Q&A about 95pct cotton /5pct Lycra blends. Like the other reader, I liked the Merona (Target brand) 95/5 blends. Unfotunately they were discontinued. I saw your recommrndation for JCP brand J Ferrar with similar blend. Although they were on the jcp.com website, when I tried to check-out, the product was shown as discontinued. Your other recommendation for Stafford blend was not available, huts the 100pct cotton. Do you know of any available 95pct cotton /5 pct Lycra (or similar) ? Thank you

At that moment it dawned on me that if those undershirts were marked down that much on JCPenny’s website, they were most certainly discontinuing them. Thankfully, I been interacting with the folks in the JCPenny Menswear Product Development team, so I sent a couple of my contacts an email inquiring about J Ferrar Undershirts and these are the responses I got:

- contact 1 –
yes, discontinued due to poor selling…
There is a similar cotton / lycra tee on the floor under Stafford Performance…it comes in a zipper bag. 
He needs to scoop them up now as that program will be discontinued come next spring…

- contact 2 –
The product was very well received from a review perspective with those that did purchase it, but with it being our first modern introduction – sales did not reach the level that we expected them to.

However, good news.  We have worked with our partners at Claiborne to redevelop the product and a very similar product will be relaunched under the Claiborne label in the next few months.  Claiborne obviously has a stronger name recognition and the initial sales of our new Claiborne apparel (which is available only at JC Penney) is off to a rapid start!

As soon as the new Claiborne undershirts get released (probably after the beginning of the year), I’ll pick some up and compare them to the J Ferrars and some other 95/5 blends I have and report back here!

As for offering up some alternative 95/5 blend undershirts he could pick-up in the interim, I told the reader to check out the Alfani Stretch undershirts from Macys.

10/4/10 Update:  Ask Tug: Why Do Good Undershirts Get Discontinued?

Tags: claiborne undershirt, cotton spandex undershirt, discontinued j ferrar, featured, j ferrar, j ferrar discontinued, j ferrar undershirt, jcpenny undershirt

Category: Ask Tug