Athleta’s sales grew 26.2 percent in 2021 to $1.43 billion a year ago and are on track to reach $2 billion by 2023, officials from Gap, Inc., Athleta’s parent, said on its fourth-quarter conference call.

Athleta received a boost as consumers gravitated toward fitness activities during the pandemic. Sales in 2020 rose 16.1 percent to $1.13 billion from $978 million in 2019. On a two-year basis, 2021’s sales were up 48 percent compared to fiscal year 2019 with comparable sales up 39 percent versus 2019.

“Athleta is on track to hit $2 billion in sales by 2023, led by its digital dominance, including growth in the wellness space, now six months into the launch of AthletaWell,” said Sonia Syngal, CEO.

Launched in July 2021, AthletaWell is a digital platform designed to build loyalty and engagement with a message of empowering women.

Syngal also called out the benefit of Athleta’s brand ambassador program, including signing two Olympians, sprinter Allyson Felix in 2019 and gymnast Simone Biles last year. Last month the company announced a partnership with Grammy-award-winning singer/songwriter Alicia Keys to include community content, impact grants and co-created products.

“The brand’s world-class partnerships and inspiring marketing are helping reach new customers,” said Syngal. “Take, for example, its announcement of Simone Biles partnership last summer supported by TV, which generated a significant pickup in traffic in-stores and online from that investment; this helped drive a five-point increase in brand awareness for Athleta in fiscal year 2021 Q3 alone. And for the full year 2021, Athleta grew its customer file in the double-digits, with nearly half new customers driven by marketing investments.”

In the fourth quarter, Athleta’s sales grew 15.3 percent year-over-year to $428 million. In the fourth quarter of 2020, sales gained 28.8 percent to $371 million from $288 million in 2019. On a two-year basis, fourth-quarter sales were up 52 percent versus 2019, with comparable sales up 42 percent versus 2019.

Athleta closed the year with 227 locations against 199 at the end of 2020, and it opened 30 stores and closed two. For 2022, about 30-to-40 Athleta stores are scheduled to open.

In the Q&A section of the call, Syngal also described Athleta’s margins as “healthy.” She said, “We believe in our strategy. We believe we’re doing the right work to grow our operating margins and enable Athleta’s growth. They have healthy margins, and they’re also enabled by the company’s power, whether it was launched into Canada, the leverage of the e-commerce site, the first-party customer data, etc. We’re happy with our strategy. We’re focused on executing it and growing all of our brands.”

Photo courtesy Athleta x Alicia Keys