Footwear Insight

8 • Footwear Insight ~ September/October 2018 THE FOOTWEAR EYE footwearinsight.com By Bob McGee E ach of the major U.S. foot- wear chains reported stronger results in their most recent quarters. Retro is up and sandals and canvas styles also surged for the summer. What's the prediction for Fall and Winter? Here's a breakdown of the highlights: Famous Footwear, which welcomed new president Molly Adams at the end of May, delivered a 150-basis point improvement in operating margin to 7.7 percent. Same store sales were up 2.6 percent on improvements in traffic, con- version and pairs per transaction. Total sales rose 6.1 percent, driven by lifestyle athletic and sandals and benefitting from a quarterly sales shift of $20 million from Q3 last year. The Caleres-owned chain said it could not keep pace with con- sumer demand for retro styles, but saw performance athletic sales fall mid-sin- gle digits and kids' dip low-single digits despite growth in athletic. The 1008- door chain shipped nearly 500,000 pairs from its stores in Q2. E-commerce sales represented approximately 10 percent of quarterly revenues, or approximately $43 million, up about 15 percent. DSW sales and comparable store sales each rose 10 percent in Q2 ended Aug. 4. All categories posted positive comps for the first time since Q1/15, with stronger in-stock positions driving higher margins and more regular-priced sales. While sandals produced a double- digit comp increase, athletic lifestyle sales were said to remain healthy as demand for non-athletic dress, casual and seasonal offerings increased. Senior management says the chain will con- tinue to invest in athleisure styles due to its under-penetration in the seg- ment. Given the rise in vendor DTC, the retailer is eying more offering more styles from own brands. Journeys' comps rose double-digits in Q2 for parent Genesco as demand exceeded internal expectations. This Fall the banner's website is being relaunched with better search and navigation fea- tures, new payment options, new help availability and better local store inte- gration. Genesco has also completed the expansion and upgrade of the chain's DC, including a customized module for ecom- merce picking. At Shoe Carnival, sandals and canvas drove a comparable stores sales increase in the teens in women's non-athletic, with sandals up in the high 20s. The company attributed part of the gain to its strategy to offer broad assortments in key cat- egories. Meanwhile, a double-digit gain in men's sandal sales paced men's non- athletic, which rose mid-single digits on a comp basis. Both adult athletic and children's shoes were each up mid-single digits. Asked to offer his assessment of the chain's current merchandise assortment, Shoe Carnival president and CEO Cliff Sifford said, "I'm really happy with where our women's business is performing. But there is some concern whether or not the athletic trend will continue at the current rate through the rest of the Fall season." Shoe Carnival has had seven consecu- tive years of strong athletic, athleisure footwear sales, he added. While August was off to a strong start for the chain with a 7.6 percent compara- ble store sales increase through Aug. 27, Shoe Carnival senior management admits Mother Nature will impact footwear sales from late September into October. "Our customer shops at need and we've proven that time and time again when the weather turns cool, our boot sales will accelerate," said Sifford. "We're always somewhat cautious on this because we obviously don't have any visibility to the weather." l Breaking Down the Sales Drivers and Predicting Trends for Fall and Winter. What's Trending Up at the Chain Stores FORECAST

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