Weekly athletic apparel sales accelerated on a sequential basis across all channels for the second straight week. Consistent with the recent trend, the greatest improvement came from both the family and discount/mass channels with athletic specialty breaking out from the +3%-4% range reported over the last 4-weeks to +7.7% this week. It’s also worth noting that ASPs decelerated in both the athletic specialty and family channel (less than 1%) driving unit volume while pricing at discount /mass retailers increased considerably last week. Our prior commentary regarding what appears to be healthy inventory positions at retail as we transition out of the holiday appear to be magnified in the discount/mass channel. Finally, sales growth was positive and improved sequentially across all regions for the first time since the first week of the 2011 lead by New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest all of which have outperformed in the first few weeks of Q2 (good for DKS). The Pacific/Mountain regions continue to underperform though each were up +9% and +11% respectively (less good for BGFV).

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Casey Flavin

Director