I'm still convinced that the athletic channel is increasingly clean. I'm not a 'fashion guy' by any means, but I like to go through all the online sites pretty religiously - more often than not I learn something. I was struck by something on the Famous Footwear website.
- Based on my math, there are 917 styles on sale in the 'clearance' section. That's not unusual. But the fact that I had to count past 304 dress shoes to even get to the first sneaker was noteworthy.
- In fact, Famous' traditional product mix is 43% athletic, but less than 20% of its online 'clearance' inventory appears to be athletic. That's music to my ears if I am long anything in the Athletic arena.
- Yes, I know that these little anecdotes are dangerous given sample size, and lack of depth into number of pairs backing each advertized style. But when anything 'fashion' or 'style'-related hits my fairly unsophisticated eyes, I think it's usually worth calling out.