Should children’s clothing be categorized as ‘plus’ or ‘husky’?

Many parents have started the mad dash for back to school shopping, hauling their kids from store to story, and one retailer is using words such as “husky” and “slim” to label their clothing.

Old Navy, a major kids retailer, is making waves after parents realized that the company has separated girls clothing into “slim” and “plus” sizes, while boys clothing has been labelled “slim” and “husky.” Old Navy has a full size chart explaining what is considered slim, regular or plus or husky size online.

Sasha Emmons from Today’s Parent says obesity among children is real so there is a market for larger kids clothes.

“I think it’s just a sign of the times, that they’re creating sizes to cater to this market,” said Emmons.

The main concern seems to be the specific terminologies being used, “plus” for bigger girls clothing, whereas clothing for bigger boys is not labelled “plus” it’s labelled “husky”, which many parents say carries a different connotation.

Parents say “husky” tends to refer to a broader more muscular build, as opposed to overweight or obese.

Emmons says it’s definitely sending the wrong message.

“I agree that the terminology is really unfair and definitely shows you that its much more acceptable for a man to be carrying some extra pounds than it is for a woman or a girl to be carrying extra pounds, and that’s not okay,” she said. “It’s not a great message that we’re sending to our sons or our daughters.”

We asked Gap Canada, the parent company of Old Navy and Gap about the terms slim, plus, and husky and they said “this is standard sizing within the retail industry and many of our competitors share this practice. It’s not specific to Gap or Old Navy,” in a statement. CityNews also checked H & M, Abercrombie, and The Children’s Place websites and couldn’t find any of the same sizing terminologies being used. The clothing company Sears does use husky for boys.

“I think it’s addressing, actually, a very real need. We know at this point that childhood obesity has tripled in the last thirty years,” said Emmons. “There’s been a slight dip recently, which is really encouraging, but still a third of Canadian school age children are obese.”

Emmons said that while there is a market for larger children’s clothing the focus really needs to be on healthy active living for kids not plus, husky, or, slim sizes.