French apparel brand Damart, while developing recycling solutions and new ways to use its Thermolactyl and Evolutyl fabrics, is keen to enter mass-market retail in 2026, and is approaching international e-tailers with a view to expand its footprint in Europe.

Damart is currently distributed via nine marketplaces in France, where it wants to offer an assortment consistent with that of its own retail channels. It is also looking to attract new consumers, beyond the ‘silver economy’ segment which constitutes its core target. “[Event sales site] Veepee said that Damart is one of the three best-selling fashion brands on its platform,” said Damart’s Managing Director Filiep Blontrock.

And Damart, whose main markets are France, Belgium and the UK, is keen to rely on fashion e-tailers to expand internationally. Damart has recently started selling on German e-tailer Zalando, a move that required an upgrade in the brand’s delivery organisation. “We had to be able to offer four-day deliveries, and the improvements we have introduced will also benefit all our online customers,” said Loïc Bouquet, Damart’s head of marketplace and B2B operations.

“We’re chiefly aiming for countries neighbouring [with France],” said Blontrock. “We’ll enter Austria early next year, delivering there from our warehouse. Experimenting with e-tailers in this way enables us to identify the countries where we can perform best, and where deploying our own e-shop will become a priority,” he added.

After deploying an international expansion strategy a year and a half ago, Damart is now generating one third of its e-tail sales outside France, and is expecting this share to reach 50% next year. Such growth will bolster Damart’s online business, currently accounting for 21% of revenue, while the mail-order business accounts for 34% and in-store sales for 45%. Damart is currently available at 150 retailers, 94 of them in Europe, and in 2025, for the first time ever, store sales have exceeded catalogue sales.

A symbolic milestone which, according to Blontrock, underlines the in-store experience’s importance. “We’re able to generate traffic independently because we’re a destination brand,” said Blontrock. According to him, the in-store experience must distinctly embody Damart’s signature ‘heat generator’ features. Blontrock is concerned by the fact that central retail locations in many cities are losing commercial appeal, and mentioned that several stores have relocated. This happened also in Damart’s own backyard, the city of Roubaix, where the brand’s long-established store was replaced by another on its headquarters’ ground floor.

Mass-market retail and recycling

Damart is preparing to enter mass-market retail in Fall/Winter 2026. The brand’s signature t-shirts, ordinarily retailing at €24.90, will be priced €19.90, following tweaks to the product’s value chain. Damart said they will be available in long and short sleeves, for men and women, in black and white. It will be a significant milestone for Damart, distribution-wise. The name of the mass-market chain hasn’t yet been disclosed.

Damart is also working on fabric recycling. For winter 2026, it will sell comforters 70% made using fabric offcuts collected and recycled at the brand’s Tunisian factory. It is also producing shoes 20% made using frayed fibres that have been re-spun and knitted in Portugal. The brand also intends to set up an in-store system to collect garments at the end of their useful life.

New uses

After introducing the Thermolactyl thermal fabric and cool-feeling Climatyl, Damart is putting new emphasis on its Evolutyl fabric technology, launched two years ago. This “phase-change material,” which protects against low temperatures and minor bursts of heat, will be used in the lining of sleeved garments, giving an extra outlet to Damart’s expertise in this mid-layer material, which is harder to sell. It is another project the brand will focus on for winter 2026.

RainProtect, the brand’s range of waterproof fabrics, was quite successful in the spring, encouraging Damart to expand this range and combine it with Thermolactyl, in order to utilise it in the colder seasons.

Winter campaign

Damart’s busiest season begins when temperatures start to drop. The brand is therefore ready to deploy an extensive multi-media campaign, scheduled from October 17 to November 30. It will feature on the France TV and TF1 television channels, as well as on streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+ and others. The campaign will also be released on Spotify and on about 1,000 digital advertising screens.

The Damartex group, Damart’s parent company, generated a revenue of €521 million in the fiscal year that ended in June. The result was 0.6% below the previous year, a more stable performance after the 9.9% drop in 2023-24. Damartex has 2,000 employees, and is active in apparel with the Damart and Xandrès brands, in home textiles with 3 Pagen, Vitrine Magique and Coopers of Stortford, and in healthcare with Almadia, Santéol and MSanté.