Aisle Talk Week Of August 16, 2021

»DRG Acquires Saltwater Arms
DRG Manufacturing announced the acquisition of Saltwater Arms LLC. Read more

»Recall: Ravin Crossbows
About 220,000 Ravin White Arrow Nocks are being recalled. Read more

»Fanatics Partners With Brooklyn Nets
Fanatics announced an exclusive, multi-year omnichannel retail partnership with BSE Global, becoming the official e-commerce and physical retail partner of the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty. Read more

»Under Armour Enters Into Exchange Agreements With Convertible Senior Noteholders
Under Armour, Inc. announced that it hasd entered into exchange agreements with certain holders of its 1.50 percent Convertible Senior Notes due 2024. The noteholders have agreed to exchange approximately $169.1 million in aggregate principal amount of Under Armour’s outstanding 2024 Notes for cash and shares of Under Armour’s Class C common stock. Read more

»The Buckle’s Profits Climb 48 Percent In Second Quarter
The Buckle, Inc. announced that net income climbed 48.1 percent for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, to $51.4 million, or $1.04 per share, from $34.7 million, or 71 cents, a year ago. Sales gained 36.6 percent. Read more

»Foot Locker’s Q2 Blows Past Wall Street’s Guidance
Foot Locker, Inc. reported earnings and sales in the second quarter ended July 31 came in well above Wall Street’s targets. Sales increased 9.5 percent year-over-year and 28.2 percent compared with the second quarter of 2019. Said Dick Johnson, chairman and CEO, “This quarter reflects strong results in our women’s and kids’ footwear business along with broad demand for our apparel and accessories offerings, which, combined with more limited promotional activity, led to the outstanding top and bottom-line results.” Read more

August 19, 2021

»Report: Amazon Plans To Open Smaller Department Store Concept
Amazon is planning to open several large retail locations in the U.S. that are similar to department stores, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Read more

»Toys R Us Stores Opening Inside Macy’s
Macy’s announced that Toys R Us “shop-in-shops” will open in more than 400 of its stores nationwide next year. Read more

»Ross Stores Sees Q2 Sales Expand 21 Percent Against 2019
Ross Stores, Inc. reported earnings per share for the 13 weeks ended July 31, 2021 grew 22 percent to $1.39 on a net income of $494 million. This compares to $1.14 per share on net earnings of $413 million for the 13 weeks ended August 3, 2019. Sales rose 21 percent to $4.8 billion, with comparable-store sales up a robust 15 percent. Read more

»The Ironman Group Acquires Haute Route And The Gravel Epic
The Ironman Group announced the acquisition of the multi-day cycling event series Haute Route and the Gravel Epic, a soon-to-launch multi-day gravel race event series. Julie Royer, CEO, Haute Route Group, will also join its leadership team as senior director of Road Cycling. Read more

»The Ironman Group Appoints Chief Financial Officer
The Ironman Group announced it had appointed Ajay Singh as the company’s CFO. He brings over 20 years of financial and managerial experience to the position, including ten years at an executive leadership level. Read more

»Black Diamond Names Industry Veteran As Business Unit Director, Ski
Black Diamond Equipment appointed industry veteran Mike Hattrup as business unit director for its ski category. Read more

»Winnebago Industries Increase Dividend And Sets Headquarters Move
Winnebago Industries said its board approved a 50 percent increase in its quarterly dividend. It also announced it will be shifting its corporate headquarters address from Forest City, IA to Eden Prairie, MN. Read more

»Callaway Golf Announces Highest Golf Ball Market Share In Company History
Callaway Golf announced that it achieved its highest monthly U.S. golf ball share in July, per Golf Datatech analysis. Read more

»Macy’s Raises Guidance On Above-Plan Q2 Results
Macy’s, Inc. reported results for the second quarter of 2021, raised guidance for fiscal 2021 and announced plans to return capital to shareholders. Read more

»Kohl’s Raises Guidance As Q2 Results Surpass Expectations
Kohl’s Inc. raised its outlook for the year after reporting second-quarter earnings and sales handily topped Wall Street’s targets. Read more

»Dick’s SG Appoints Chief Financial Officer
Dick’s Sporting Goods announced that Navdeep Gupta has been appointed executive vice president, chief financial officer, effective October 1, 2021. Gupta will be responsible for the company’s finance, investor relations, accounting, business development and procurement functions. Current CFO Lee Belitsky will remain with Dick’s as executive vice president and continue to oversee several key areas – supply chain, real estate, construction and GameChanger. Read more

»REI Celebrates Store Opening In Orland Park, IL
REI is celebrating the opening of its 20,000-square-foot store in the Village of Orland Park in Illinois with a three-day celebration that runs from August 27-29. Read more

August 18, 2021

»NHL Owners Approve Jersey Ads For 2022/23 Season
The NHL plans to add the jersey patch starting in its 2022/23 season, according to a number of reports. Read more

»Topps’ Revenues Surge In Second Quarter
The Topps Company Inc., in its first report since going public, reported sales in the second quarter ended July 4 jumped 77.7 percent, to $212.2 million.  The maker of sports and entertainment collectibles raised its outlook for the year. Read more

»Under Armour Veteran Joins BlueChip Holdings As Advisor
Todd Montesano, the former senior vice president of global entertainment and partnerships at Under Armour, will join BlueChip Holdings Inc. as a board member and senior advisor. Read more

»Lululemon Makes Equity Investment In Genomatica
Lululemon Athletica Inc. made an equity investment in sustainable materials firm Genomatica as part of a multi-year collaboration to bring renewably sourced, bio-based materials into its product assortment. The move represents its first equity investment in a sustainable materials company. Read more

»Wilson Sporting Goods Opens NYC Pop-Up Museum Timed With US Open
Wilson Sporting Goods, which has long been the official ball and racket stringer of the US Open, announced opening plans of its New York City pop-up museum and retail shop to celebrate the upcoming sporting event. Read more

»Old Navy Overhauls Plus-Size Fashion Line
Old Navy said it will end its practice of separate plus-size sections for women’s clothing in stores and online and begin offering all of its women’s apparel in sizes 0 to 30. Read more

»Randolph Sunglasses Appoints VP Of Product
Randolph Sunglasses appointed footwear industry veteran Sunni Fleming as the eyewear company’s VP of product. Fleming was most recently global strategic business unit manager of New Balance’s Made in USA Lifestyle footwear. Read more

»Bass Pro and Cabela’s Introduces Club Business Card
Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s, in partnership with Capital One, announced the launch of its first Club Business credit card for small business owners. Read more

»Primary Arms Outbound Marketing Director
Primary Arms announced the promotion of Kenneth Ross to director of outbound marketing. Read more

»Adventure Ready Brands Adds Advisory Board Members
Adventure Ready Brands announced that consumer product executives Michelle Stacy and Bruno Silva had joined the company’s advisory board. Read more

»Target’s Q2 Comps Climb 9 Percent
Target Corp. reported second quarter comparable sales grew 8.9 percent, on top of record growth of 24.3 percent last year. Read more

»Hanesbrands To Require All U.S. Office Employees To Be Fully Vaccinated For COVID-19
HanesBrands announced that all U.S. office associates must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 15, 2021. Read more

»Canada Goose Launches Share Repurchase Program
Canada Goose Holdings Inc. announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) has approved a normal course issuer bid (NCIB) providing for the purchase for cancellation of up to 5.94 million subordinate voting shares of Canada Goose. Read more

»TJX’s Q2 Comps Climb 20 Percent
The TJX Companies, Inc. reported earnings and sales topped Wall Street’s expectations. Open-only comp-store sales increased 20 percent against the second quarter of 2019 with apparel ahead in the low-teens. Read more

»RYU Apparel Announces Canadian $12.5M Non-Brokered Private Placement
Vancouver-based RYU Apparel Inc. announced that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement financing of up to 12,500 units at a price of $1,000 per unit for aggregate gross proceeds of up to Canadian $12.5 million. Read more

»361 Degrees’ Revenues Gain 16 Percent In First Half
361 Degrees reported net profit rose 32.9 percent in the first half to ¥401.4 million. Revenue increased by 15.7 percent year-on-year to ¥3,107.1 million. Read more

»Firearms Imports Continue Strong Gains In May
Imports of Handguns, Shotguns, Rifles and Other firearm categories continued to generate strong double-digit gains in May, according to ITC data compiled by the NSSF. Read more

»The North Face Forms Partnership With Spinnova
The North Face has reached an agreement with textile material company Spinnova to develop high-performance textiles with a sustainable component. Read more

»ITF Global Tennis Report 2021 Shows Worldwide Participation Gains
The International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) 2021 Global Tennis Report found healthy growth in tennis participation despite the impact of the pandemic. Key findings of the report indicate that there are more than 87 million players within the 41 nations that contributed to the report, an increase of 4.5 percent in these countries. Read more

August 17, 2021

»Trevco Acquires Women’s Apparel Brand Sub Urban Riot
Trevco announced its acquisition of Los Angeles-based women’s fashion brand, Sub Urban Riot. Read more

»July Retail Sales Slow Amid Tight Supply Chain
Retail sales slowed during July as retailers continued to face supply chain disruptions and increased COVID-19 vaccinations allowed consumers to shift some spending from goods to activities like going out to dinner and traveling despite the delta variant, the National Retail Federation said. Read more

»Sun & Ski Sports To Open Third Store In Washington D.C. Area
Sun & Ski Sports announced the opening of its 31st store at Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, MD at the former site of Modell Sporting Goods. Read more

»Nike Renames Alberto Salazar Building
Nike has renamed the Alberto Salazar Building on its Beaverton, OR campus to Next%. Read more

»Rouvy Secures $6 Million Investment
The Pale Fire Capital investment group reached an agreement to acquire a major stake in VirtualTraining, the Czech company behind the Rouvy indoor cycling and running software application. Read more

»Foot Locker Raises Quarterly Dividend By 50 Percent
Foot Locker Inc. announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on the company’s common stock of 30 cents per share, an increase of 10 cents per share or 50 percent. Read more

»Walmart Raises Guidance After Strong Q2
Walmart reported U.S. Q2 comp sales grew 5.2 percent year-over-year and gained 14.5 percent on a two-year stack. The retail giant raised its outlook for the second consecutive quarter, expecting FY22 Walmart U.S. comp sales of 5 percent to 6 percent and global eCommerce sales of $75 billion. Read more

»Bruce Akin Retiring As CEO Of B.A.S.S.
After 10 years serving as CEO of B.A.S.S., Bruce Akin will retire on September 30. B.A.S.S. Chairman Chase Anderson will assume responsibility for the organization’s day-to-day operations as CEO. Read more

»Peloton Begins Repairs On Recalled Treadmills
Peloton Interactive Inc. said it plans to install U.S. regulator-approved repairs to the touchscreen console on its treadmills starting this month after reports of injuries earlier in the year led to product recalls. Read more

»Fila Holdings’ Sales Expand 63 Percent In Second Quarter
Fila Holdings Corp. reported profits grew 198.2 percent in the second quarter as sales gained 63.1 percent. Sales for FILA USA grew 101.1 percent. Read more

»Li-Ning’s Sales Climb 65 Percent In First Half
Profits at Li-Ning rose 187 percent in the first half on a 65 percent revenue gain. Read more

August 16, 2021

»Academy Sports Partners With Whataburger
Academy Sports + Outdoors has partnered with Whataburger to launch an apparel line called Magellan Outdoors x Whataburger. Read more

»QBP Named Distributor Of Adidas Five Ten In Canada
Quality Bicycle Products has been named the new distributor of Adidas Five Ten cycling and climbing products in Canada. Read more

»Hayes Bicycle Group Strengthens Rep Force
Hayes Bicycle Group announced it has increased its U.S.representation by adding new agency partners. Read more

»ABG’s Debt Ratings May Face Downgrade If Reebok Acquisition Delays IPO
S&P Global Ratings revised the CreditWatch implications on Authentic Brands Group (ABG) to developing from positive as its pending acquisition of Reebok may delay its initial public offering. Read more

»BSN Sports Acquires Buffalo Team Dealer
BSN Sports, a division of Varsity Brands, announced that it has acquired Jim Ludtka Sporting Goods based in Depew, NY, a suburb of Buffalo. Read more

»Southeast Region’s Lodging Strength Continues Through Summer
Once again, participating resort properties in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are celebrating a second consecutive summer with all-time seasonal records for occupancy, room rates and revenues according to DestiMetrics. Read more

»Under Armour Appoints Board Member
Under Armour, Inc. announced that David Gibbs had been appointed to its Board of Directors effective September 1, 2021. Gibbs is the chief executive officer of Yum! Brands Inc., the parent of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill restaurants. Read more

»New Balance Sues Michael Kors For Trademark Infringement
New Balance has filed a lawsuit in United States District Court District Of Massachusetts charging Michael Kors infringed on the shoe brand’s trademarks. Read more

»Sequential Brands Group
Sequential Brands Group has sold the Ellen Tracy and Caribbean Joe brands to GMA Group for a total of $20 million, according to a regulatory filing. Read more

»StockX Adds Board Member
StockX announced the appointment of its newest board member, Stacy Brown-Philpot. Read more

»Sells Ellen Tracy And Caribbean Joe Brands
Sequential Brands Group has sold the Ellen Tracy and Caribbean Joe brands to GMA Group for a total of $20 million, according to a regulatory filing. Read more

»Recall: Rossignol All Track DH Bike
About 150 Rossignol 2018 and 2019 Model Year All Track DH Bicycles are being recalled. Read more

»Nike Opens Rise Store Concept In Seoul
Nike is expanding its tech-driven Rise concept to Seoul, Korea. The opening follows the launch of its first Rise retail concept store in Guangzhou, China last summer. Read more

»Neiman Marcus Appoints SVP Of Digital Business & Customer Strategy
Neiman Marcus Group announced the appointment of Renée Paradise as senior vice president of digital business & customer strategy. Read more

»Dick’s SG To Open Golf Galaxy Performance Center Concept
Dick’s Sporting Goods has upgraded its Golf Galaxy store at Shoppers World in Framingham, MA. The store will reopen on August 28 under a new banner, Golf Galaxy Performance Center. Read more

Photo courtesy Kara Groucher/Women’s Running