The National Sporting Goods Federation is reporting that retail sales of athletic footwear rose just 1.0% during the six-month period from October 2006 through March 2007. Sales for the six-month reporting period were $6.14 billion versus $6.08 billion for the same period the previous year, while unit sales declined 0.3%. Sales had increased 9.8% for the comparable prior-year period.
Of the major categories only the gym shoe/sneaker (+2%), fashion sneaker (+10%) and walking shoe (+6%) categories showed increases in dollar sales. Basketball shoe sales, the biggest loser among major athletic footwear categories, were down 4%. The largest categories in terms of dollars spent by consumers during this six-month period were walking shoes ($1.83 billion) and running/jogging shoes ($1.02 billion).
Sales for all categories are running behind the 4% increase the Association had forecast for footwear sales for 2007.
