Why Afterpay’s Nick Molnar (ASX: APT) is hugging the fashion world...

In a year when most S & P / ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) Stocks are grappling with pandemic charges, which have cut the index by 7% since Jan. 2. Afterpay has done well.

While the ASX 200 was up more than 1.5% this early afternoon while the ASX 200 slipped, Afterpay stock is now up a whopping 214% for the year.

And if you were insightful, brave, or just lucky enough to buy stocks at the March 23 lows, you’d be sitting on more than 980% profit today.

How Afterpay is wooing Millennial and Gen Z consumers

Afterpay’s BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) platform is dominated by younger consumers (under 40). More women prefer BNPL options than men.

So it seems like a smart move by co-founder Nick Molnar to sponsor a major event that does justice to this segment of the population.

For COVID-19, the Australian Fashion Week was canceled this year. But the event is back on the agenda for 2021. And with great funds from Afterpay, Afterpay Australian Fashion Week has been renamed.

Nick Molnar, co-founder of the company, explains the company’s reasons for supporting the fashion event Australian Financial Review):

The fashion industry was the first to hug us. They were the ones who supported Afterpay from the beginning – they got Millennial and Gen Z’s attitude towards money …

Our earliest brands were Spell and the Gypsy Collective, Aje and Cue. It is a great pleasure for me to see that Australian brands like this are successful internationally and are part of this story. When we started talking to Natalie (Xenita, Managing Director of Event Host IMG Australia), the consideration was how we could leverage the reach of (Afterpay) locally and globally to work with Australian designers who really have a moment . We feel privileged to work with Fashion Week …

Molnar said from Afterpay’s point of view the company is proudly Australian:

The ability to start with Australia gives us the right learning experience to see what opportunities arise in the future. We have 1 million users in the UK and 5 million in the US. As a result, we are in a unique position to embrace something like fashion week as it becomes increasingly consumer-centric.

With a dominant share of the BNPL market in Australia, and such growing numbers in the US and UK, Afterpay stock price could keep making headlines for a long time.