Taking Stock With Teens®

KEY FINDINGS

• Teen “self-reported” spending was down -6% Y/Y to $2,263, and up 1% vs. last fall; parent contribution was 62% in-line with last fall.
• Teen footwear spend was down -1% Y/Y, led by average income teens footwear spend decreasing -3% Y/Y, partially offset by upper-income teens footwear spend increasing 5% Y/Y.
• Upper-income female fashion spend was down -12% Y/Y with lower spend across apparel (-13% Y/Y), shoes (-3% Y/Y), and accessories spend (-21% Y/Y).
• Nike remains the No. 1 favorite footwear brand, but mindshare decreased 190 bps Y/Y and 230 bps from fall 2023.
• New Balance gained the most footwear mindshare Y/Y, while Converse lost the most footwear mindshare Y/Y.
• Among upper-income teens, HOKA remained the No. 3 athletic footwear brand, increasing mindshare by 280 bps Y/Y, and On Running remained the No. 5 athletic footwear brand, increasing mindshare by 120 bps Y/Y. Nike lost 510 bps of mindshare Y/Y in athletic footwear among upper-income teens.
• Lululemon remains the No. 2 athletic apparel brand among upper-income teens (No. 1 among female upper-income teens), but we note that Alo Yoga was the No. 11 favorite brand and Vuori was the No. 15 favorite brand compared to No. 35 and No. 24 respectively in the fall.
• Beauty remains a heightened priority, with the core beauty wallet reaching the highest level seen since spring 2018 at $339 (+8% Y/Y), driven by growth in all categories.
• Cosmetics still holds the highest share of total beauty spend, but fragrance is experiencing the greatest growth at +23% Y/Y. 
• e.l.f. continued its dominance as the No. 1 cosmetics brand, and grew its share by 16 points Y/Y to 38%. The brand also continues to rank in the top 10 skincare brands and beauty destinations.
• Beauty consumers still prefer to shop in-store vs. online at 85% preference for in-store. Ulta is ceding some mindshare to Sephora, but with both retailers having ~60% loyalty membership penetration, our viewpoint remains that both retailers can successfully coexist.
• Instagram made a big improvement from fall ‘23 (+700 bps) & is now the No. 2 favorite app with 30% of teens. TikTok remained No. 1 but declined ~300bps to ~35%.  SNAP fell ~600bps to the No. 3 favorite at ~22%.
• Weekly usage of VR devices improved to ~13% from ~10% in fall ’23. 33% of teens now own a VR device, up from 31% in fall '23.
• Roblox active usage improved to ~34% in spring ’24 from ~31% in fall ’23. ~22% of teens have never played Roblox, down from ~24% in fall ’23.
• 66% of teens have used Spotify over the last six months (down from 68% last spring), with 45% of teens opting to subscribe/pay for Spotify (up from 44%).
• Teens spend 29% of daily video consumption on Netflix (-210 bps vs. spring '23) and 27% on YouTube (-130 bps vs. spring '23).
• Chick-fil-A remains the No. 1 favorite restaurant at 16% share, McDonald’s (10%) moves up to No. 2 (from No. 3 in the fall), and Chipotle (9%) moves up to No. 3 (from No. 4 in the fall).
• Raising Cane’s (No. 4 at 4%) is rapidly gaining share from the fall (No. 5) where they first made it into Top 5 Restaurants.
• In our new category measuring coffee, tea and beverage places, SBUX holds the overwhelming majority of share at 37%.
• Celsius over-indexes with teens, with 17% citing it as their favorite energy drink brand (vs. ~12% market share); Monster and Red Bull under-index.
• Teens that consume or are willing to try plant-based meat hits all time low with 32% in spring '24 vs. 49% in spring ’21.
• Teens report highest intentions to eat more or the same amount of MDLZ’s Clif Bar and HSY’s Hershey; CPB’s Goldfish still most preferred snack brand.
• Phone remains the No.1 preferred method for customer service interactions (~50% share); Text/SMS showing best secular growth trends.
• Preferred orthodontic treatment shifts more in favor of clear aligners (57% vs. 55% last survey), Invisalign dominance as top clear aligner choice grows further (88% vs. 86% last survey).
   

View the press release

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The Piper Sandler Taking Stock With Teens® survey is a semi-annual research project that gathers input from 6,020 teens with an average age of 16.1 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 254,303 teens and collected over 61 million data points on teen spending.​​