Loft aims to wake up market with Fear No Color’ program
New covers inspired by hot apparel trends
Ray Allegrezza -- Furniture Today, August 1, 2008
LAS VEGAS — University Loft came to the Las Vegas Market with a new upholstery program it hopes will help wake up the somber and drab retail landscape.
Aptly called Fear No Color, the program features bold and dramatic hues on nine of the 21 upholstery collections the company is introducing in Vegas.
Buyers visiting Loft’s showroom in the World Market Center, B-1400, will see sofas in attention-grabbing patterns with names like Tiger Lime, Zoom-Peach, Leopard-Grape, Tiger-Turquoise and Cheetah-Fuchsia.
Retail pricing for items in the Fear No Color program opens at $599 for a sofa and tops out at $1,299 for a sectional.
“We want to bring some excitement in colors to the retail floor,” said Stainton McArthur, Loft’s national sales manager. He added, “Women purchase more than 80% of the upholstery in our industry, so it made sense to take a cue from the colors that are currently hot in women’s fashions.”
What’s popular in apparel, McArthur said, are colors like lime green and sky blue paired with rich tones like chocolate. “We believe it makes perfect sense to offer the same colors in sofas, especially since women make the majority of upholstery purchases,” he said.
“These introductions leave no room for the color-shy,” said Ted Jarnagin, the company’s director of retail sales. “Instead, they call for a break from the monotony of neutrals while giving a very compelling reason for the consumer to take furniture off her list of things to buy sometime in the future.”
Jarnagin said that in markets like contract furniture and ultra-contemporary furniture, color is a cornerstone.
“For us, the bottom line is that we are striving to move the consumer and the retailer emotionally, and the only way to do that is through some bold and different means of presentation,” he said.
According to Loft, the inspiration for the Fear No Color initiative came in part from a supplier Regal Fabrics, which made a similar statement with some of its introductions at the most recent Showtime fabric show in High Point.
Even so, University Loft has a history of trendsetting in its own right. According to Jarnagin, University Loft’s college, contract and government furniture division has earned a reputation for developing innovative products and services.
”Those efforts have allowed our retail division to have a product development department second to none, along with the capabilities to make almost any product one can imagine,” he said.
While University Loft hopes to make a splash with its Fear No Color program, the company also is featuring a dozen other upholstery collections in more traditional colors and patterns in Las Vegas. Products also include features such as hidden storage, fold-out tables and hidden ottomans.
Loft also is making two introductions in what it calls upholstered master bedroom, and is showing a new youth seating piece.
