SGB Executive

At Vista Outdoor’s Investor Day held Tuesday in New York City, company officials lowered revenue guidance for the current year due to Walmart’s decision to stop selling certain forms of ammunition. But a three-year plan was also revealed that calls for a return to modest growth in ensuing years along with significant improvement in profitability.

With another round of tariffs arriving on September 1, tariff-mitigation strategies were again detailed on recent quarterly conference calls. Only a few companies significantly reduced earnings forecasts at least for 2019 due to their likely impact. Tariff insights from Sportsman’s Warehouse, Genesco, Lululemon, Designer Brands, Zumiez, Shoe Carnival and others.

As Lululemon Athletica Inc. continues on a five-year vision of growing its core business in the low-double digits annually, the company’s aspirations go far beyond executing on the three pillars of product innovation, omni-guest experience and market expansion. It also requires working up a good sweat.

Helped by the ongoing success of fashion athletic styles, Journeys delivered a better-than-expected 3 percent comp in the second quarter to help its parent, Genesco Inc. significantly exceed Wall Street’s consensus targets.

Continuing to be driven by footwear and hard lines, Zumiez Inc.’s second-quarter earnings increased two-fold and came in well above guidance. Combined with a strong start to back-to-school selling in August, the action-sports chain hiked its outlook for the year.

Top headlines from across the active lifestyle industry featured in SGB for the Week of September 2, 2019.

Clarus Corp. President John Walbrecht took his message about the company’s “superfan” brand strategy on the road this week when he presented at the 2019 Gateway Conference in San Francisco. Here’s what he shared about Clarus’ unwavering vision for its portfolio.

At Goldman Sachs’ annual retail conference, Gerald Evans, CEO of Hanesbrands, described Champion as a “bit late to the party” as far as participating in the activewear boom over the last decade but is positioned for solid growth in the years ahead.

G-III Apparel Group Ltd. lowered its full-year guidance due to the impact of new tariffs but shares rose strongly as the tariff charge was less than feared.

At Goldman Sachs’ annual retail conference, officials at Dick’s Sporting Goods discussed how stronger partnerships with vendors are helping revive top-line growth and how Dick’s complements their vendor partner’s aggressive DTC-growth efforts. Other topics included the challenges addressing girls playing sports, tariffs and the baseball category’s resurgence.

Camping World Holdings Inc. has put outdoor retail in the proverbial rear-view mirror and set its sights on selling only recreational vehicles and accessories—even as the RV market sputters along. As SGB detailed Tuesday in our August M&A Roundup, Camping World last month sold a pair of outdoor specialty retailers. Now that the company has shed some light on its larger plan, those moves are just a hint of what’s to come.

M&A heated up in the final full month of summer with several market-shifting transactions occurring in the active lifestyle space. August’s biggest moves included Camping World and Accell Group unloading non-core assets and Nike adding to its portfolio.

SGB is back from the third annual Paddlesports Retailer show, held this week in Oklahoma City. We identified six takeaways from the event, including reaction to the format changes, why most paddlesports brands believe this show trumps Outdoor Retailer and the meaning behind one attendee’s description of demo day as “mayhem and awesome.”

Designer Brands Inc. (formerly DSW Inc.) said its second-quarter results were distorted by last year’s mega-acquisition of Camuto Group and DSW’s 2018 relaunch of its VIP rewards program last year. But company officials asserted that DSW’s underlying momentum remains healthy.

American Outdoor Brands, dragged down by prolonged weakness in firearms, reported earnings before charges dropped significantly the first quarter ended July 31. Sales shrunk 10.9 percent to $123.7 million.