Sport Footwear Comes in Flat for Back-to-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 were also clear signs (both negative and positive) 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 for 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.

Sport Footwear sales at the traditional start of the back-to-school season the last week of July and first week of August were down for the second year in a row and didn’t see a year-over-year increase until week four of the season.  That increase tracked to a later tax-free holiday in many southern states and did not make up for the decline in week three.  The season peaked in week seven, one week later this year, but fell short of last year’s dollar sales total at the peak.  All the BTS growth came in the last week of the eight-week season.

“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. Basketball was also up in the mid- to high-single-digits for BTS and Outdoor Footwear sales jumped nearly 10% for the period.

There was little evidence of the recently reported demise of the Skate category, which posted a mid- to high-single-digit gain for the back-to-school 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 that offset weakness the other weeks of the eight-week back-to-school selling period. (See Skate Footwear Hit a Bump – Not the Wall, page 6)

Running Footwear sales declined in the low-single-digits for the period, with a high-single-digit decline in Fashion Running more than offsetting 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.

Sales of men’s Sport Footwear were up in very-low-single-digits and kids’ Sport Footwear was up in low- to mid-single-digits for the back-to-school period.  Women’s Sport Footwear sales were down in the low- to mid-single-digits for the period.