Even as back-to-school becomes less important to a retailer’s success for the total year, the season is still a bellwether for how the market views retail health in the back half of the year and the prospects for Holiday sales growth. The BTS season may be more important to the Sport Footwear business as parents send their little ones packing for school. A later Labor Day holiday this year had a noticeable impact on the timing of sales at retail as many school openings were pushed back, but there was also clear signs of the impact of tax-free holidays in many states and a consumer that was going to wait until the very end to spend money.
Based on retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanINFO, back-to-school sales of Sport Footwear were flat to the year-ago period when measured in dollars, but declined low-single-digits when measured in units. Most of the increase in average selling prices came from a shift in gender sales and categories, but there was also evidence of continued bifurcation in the market as sales of Sport Footwear over $90 and under $50 both posted increases for the period, while sales in the middle, from $65 to $90 declined for the period. Sales of Sport Footwear over $90 were up in the high-single-digits as consumers made the move to premium.
“We saw a considerable impact of the shift in Labor Day this year,” said James Hartford, chief market analyst at The SportsOneSource Group, which manages the SportScanINFO platform. “Sport Footwear sales were flat to down for most weeks of the selling season, but saw strong growth in the week when tax-free holidays in the South kicked in and jumped more than 9% in the last week, reflecting the Labor Day shift.”
Skate, Canvas, Basketball and Outdoor Footwear all outpaced the overall business for the back-to-school period. Canvas far outpaced all other categories for BTS, with sales jumping in strong double-digits. There was little evidence of the recently reported demise of the Skate category, which posted a mid- to high-single-digit growth for the period on top of a very strong double-digit gain in the year-ago period. Growth has slowed, but the category did manage a strong double-digit increase in the last week of the measured eight-week back-to-school selling period that offset weakness in other weeks. Basketball was also up in the mid- to high-single-digits for BTS and Outdoor Footwear sales jumped nearly 10% for the period.
Running Footwear sales declined in the low-single-digits for the period, with a high-single-digit decline in Fashion Running more than offset a high-single-digit increase in Performance Running. Fashion Running sales only grew in the full-line sporting goods and family footwear channels on low-single-digit declines in average selling prices.
