sportstyle

8 • September/October 2022 sportstyle • sportstylemag.com BUSINESS Shoe Carnival Gets Lift from Non-Athletic Faced with a lack of athletic inventory for weeks due to late deliveries, Shoe Carnival leaned on non-athletic footwear to bolster its results in Q2. e value-focused chain, which expects to operate 400 locations by year-end and have no store closures in 2022, reported a segment sales increase of more than 30 percent compared to Q2/19. Sales of women's non-athletic, paced by dress and sandals, increased in the "high 20s" versus Q2/19; men's non-athletic sales, bolstered by sell-throughs of dress, casual and boots, rose in "mid-20s" for the period ended July 30. Conversely, men's, women's and chil- dren's athletic sales were down "low teens" compared to Q2/19. Shoe Carnival senior management, which had expected "relatively flat" athletic sales in the period ahead of the Back-To-School season, called the segment's performance and lower store traffic tied to inflationary concerns an "anomaly," adding the flow of athletic products has already started to improve. e retailer has been aggressively chasing the non-athletic business for over a year. It is forecasting continued growth from the seg- ment in the second half as more consumers shi toward late '90s trends in casual and sport shoes—aggressive bottoms and combat lace-up boots, for example. Meanwhile, the Shoe Carnival-owned retailer Shoe Station, a 21-door Southeast U.S.-based chain, is expected to grow to 30 doors by the end of FY23 and to 100 locations over the next five years. And at Shoe Carnival, more than 50 percent of stores will be modernized by the Summer of 2023 with the remainder scheduled for completion by end of FY24. DSW Going 'Narrower, Deeper' with Top Brands, Testing New Format The Designer Brands-owned retailer DSW, which experienced a 40 percent year-over-year increase in sales of its own brands in Q2, is working with top branded partners to go narrower and deeper with their respective assortments. In Q2, DSW's top 50 brands represented 80 percent of all revenues as their aggregate sales increased 20 percent year-over-year. On the own brands side, Designer Brands determined that six of its owned brands, including Kelly & Katie and Vince Camuto, would be part of its top 50 brands during the period based on market and internal data. DSW, beyond its historic strength in dress and fashion styles, is working to build its own athletic business through its recent investment in Le TIGRE and partnership with Reebok. Starting last year, DSW made changes to its overall assortment to be more inclusive with athletic and kids footwear products. e retailer pointed out that sales within its Q2 kids business rose year-over-year despite the lack of Nike in its assortment. e retailer is also working diligently to rebuild its clearance footwear business, re-acquiring approximately two million clearance customers in H1 that resulted in a 5 percent year-over-year Q1 sales increase for the segment. With all of its brand and segment maneu- vering, Designer Brands is also working on strategies for the future that include opening a new format store for a test launch in Hedwig, TX, and testing shop-in-shop brand formats in existing doors. TAKEAWAYS & RETAIL TRENDS What's trending at footwear retail chains across the country? Here's a glimpse, of sorts, based on news of note from some of the industry's biggest players. By Bob McGee

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