Sport footwear sales flat

The report shows sale declines in Q1, which is roughly in line with declines that started towards the end of fiscal 2007. Q2 rose slightly, Q3 accelerated somewhat, but Q4 again posted a small decline. Q4 was seen as positive as seen against the market in general and was much better than it was expected to be in mid December. The Q4 results point to the fact that consumers probably waited untill the week of Christmas and the week after to make their purchases.

2008 results were impacted by a 3.2% decline in women’s business, while men’s moved back into positive territory after the decline in 2007.

The estimates by SportsOneSource are based on analysis of retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanINFO from over 10,000 retail rooftops in the sporting goods, athletic specialty, sport specialty, Internet, mid-tier department stores, family footwear stores, and discount/mass retail channels, as well as data compiled by other various industry trade sources, and a survey of retailers and manufacturers conducted throughout the year.