The growth rate eased over the past week for sports apparel sales, though not to a point that leaves me concerned. Sales are running at about +1.4%, which slowed by half vs. prior 3-week run-rate due to incremental weakness in the mass channel. On the flip side, the Sport Retail channel is hanging in at about 10% -- not bad for FL, FINL, DKS and HIBB. Tough to find these growth numbers elsewhere in retail. I still think that we’re entering a better part of the cycle for this group.
Source: SportscanINFO
Source: SportscanINFO
