A stack of retail surveys and studies arrived just in time for last week’s NRF Big Show in New York City. Research included the arrival of the “Emerging Male ‘Power Shopper” as well as retail developments with artificial intelligence, mobile apps, smart speakers, fulfillment technologies, personalization, card-not-present fraud and more.

Top headlines from the active lifestyle industry you may have missed this week, including Foot Locker making a strategic investment in Pensole Footwear Design Academy.

At a session, “Company Conscience: Leading With Conviction,” at the NRF Big Show in New York City, Ed Stack, chairman and CEO at Dick’s Sporting Goods, discussed the retailer’s efforts to ensure a work/life balance for its employees and the retailer’s commitment to community that’s reflected both in its Sports Matter funding program and controversial decision to change its gun policy.

Here is our final installment of the 2019 industry outlook. Thank you to all the industry executives and business owners who shared expectations, hopes and concerns for the new year. This was the biggest response we’ve ever gotten, with almost 60 participants, prompting three parts instead of the usual one or two.

Top headlines from the active lifestyle industry you may have missed this week, including Portland, OR-based outdoor apparel firm Poler filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate.

This is the second installment of our annual series that gauges what the industry’s key players are projecting for the coming year. Also, due to overwhelming response, we’ve extended our industry outlook to three parts due to so many of people wanting to contribute their thoughts on 2019. Look for even more commentary on 2019 in Friday’s edition of SGB Executive.

Over the past week, dozens of executives across the active lifestyle industry shared their outlook for 2019 with SGB. We reached out to large, medium and small brands and retailers in sporting goods, footwear, apparel, outdoors and tactical with two simple questions that were fairly open-ended: What gives you optimism and what causes concern in the coming year? This is the first of a two-part series that gauges what the industry’s key players think will or won’t happen in 2019.

The liquidation of Sports Authority and other retail closures and mega-mergers over the last few years led to many executives finding new jobs inside and outside the industry. See where many landed.

As the new year gets underway, plenty of questions linger around the active lifestyle, outdoor and sporting goods industries. The writers of SGB Executive came up with, fittingly, 19 questions that are likely to dominate headlines in ‘19, including the future of trade shows, the staying power of the athleisure trend, the effects of the trade war, the impact of channel disruption and much more. Here they are.

2018 was a tumultuous and transformative year in the active lifestyle, outdoor and sporting good industries, and SGB was there to cover every political action and channel disruption, retail rebound and corporate change, merger and acquisition.

Rewarded for its turnaround progress, Crocs saw its shares catapult 105 percent in 2018, pacing a group of stocks in the active lifestyle industry. Overall, however, the industry’s stocks delivered a mixed performance. Among the stocks losing considerable ground were Hibbett Sports, Big 5, Camping World, Skechers, Newell Brands and Vista Outdoor.

Friends who left us in 2018 included Nike’s Sandy Bodecker (above), The North Face’s Ann Krcik and Jason Hairston, founder SITKA and KUIU.

Performance Bicycle and Sears led a number of companies that landed in bankruptcy court in 2018 although the case load was lighter than recent years and a major liquidation was avoided for a change. Others major filings included Rockport, Bon-Ton, Walking Company, Remington Outdoor and AcuSport.