Top-of-Mind Brands with Teens

America’s teens are tightening their spending, with such consumers self-reporting that their annual spending has dropped to $2,213, a 6% decline year-over year and a 1% decline on average in the past 10 years. That’s one the findings of the latest Piper Sandler Teen Survey, a semi-annual research project that gathers input from 10,969 teens with an average age of 15.7 years.

On a more positive note, looking at wallet share for the upper income teen, clothing grew 1% year-over-year driven by females, while footwear share held steady after a decline last spring, said Anna Andreeva, Piper Sandler’s Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst.

Here are some of the top brand-related preferences of this shopping cohort as charted by Piper Sandler:

Clothing and footwear

Nike continues to dominate as the top clothing brand for teens with Hollister ranking number two and Brandy Melville a distant third among upper income teens. In footwear, Nike held strong as the top brand, followed by Adidas and then New Balance. Notably, On Running overtook HOKA for the first time in the past six survey reads, to place fourth and fifth, respectively. Amazon remains the number one shopping website by a wide margin for upper-income teens.

Beauty

The core beauty wallet declined 2% year-over-year to $336. e.l.f. Cosmetics continues to dominate as the number one cosmetics brand among teens with Rare Beauty a distant second. Sephora remains the number one favorite beauty shopping destination followed by Ulta at number two. Target is back to the third spot, in line with its historic trend.

Restaurants and food

Chick-fil-A holds strong in its number one spot as the preferred chain restaurant among teens while McDonald’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill rank number two and three. Dr. Pepper remains the number one favorite beverage brand followed by Coca-Cola and Gatorade. Lays was the top choice among teens for snacks, followed by Goldfish and Cheez-It.

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