Takeaway: Here are the key retail callouts as it applies to Nike and the rest of the Athletic brands...

In case you care about Nike, Adidas, Puma, Under Armour, VFC/Vans, here are all of the major brand callouts from everyone who sells shoes and reported incremental trends accordingly.

  • Industry: Strength particularly evident in the low/mid channels (JCP, KSS and SCVL) while higher end distribution (FL and HIBB saw mixed trends overall). Europe is problematic (note FL) due to slowdown in all brands. This synchs with the ‘Europe rolling’ macro theme Hedgeye’s macro team has continued to promote.
  • Mix: Basketball still has not hit bottom. Overall. Apparel clearly a bigger callout as positive comp driver than shoes. Bearish on both accounts.
  • Jordan: Appears to have stabilized for FL. Not growing, but lower unit sales at less discounted price points.
  • Nike: Lots of hype around new Nike launches, yet did not show up in results. Supports my view that for a company that makes 300mm pair of shoes a year, new platform launches don’t meaningfully impact growth until season 6-8 of the product launch.
  • Adidas: Foot Locker particularly dinged Adidas as being unable to ‘comp the comp’ with strength from last year. Did not call out Macro headwinds -- which was a partial driver. 
  • Puma: Nearly identical commentary from FL on Puma as Adidas – if not slightly more negative. Again, did not blame Macro even though it was a factor.
  • Vans/VFC: Vans not slowing down -- still red hot.
  • UAA: Only callout positive side was KSS. Otherwise no mention across the board.

Here are full management comments.

Nike North America

FL:
Overall, store traffic was down low single digits for the quarter, with our U.S. banners experiencing stronger traffic than our international banners
Men's basketball was down low single digits as we are starting to see some of the benefits of Nike's tighter distribution of the Jordan brand across the marketplace along with improved full price sell-throughs of Jordan retros.

KSS:  
“As I mentioned, Active continues to outperform the company, increasing 10% in Q1, driven by our top three Active brands, Nike; Under Armour; and Adidas."
"We have distinct strategies to drive the sustained growth of each of these important brands." "Nike, which is one of our largest national brands, continues to post strong growth on both the core across all lines of business as well as new additions such as Nike  Golf. We are pleased to share that Under Armour is experiencing strong growth in its second year through expanded assortment and new categories such as Under Armour Golf, Men's Basics, swim and outerwear.”

JCP: 
"We will be leaning more heavily into Nike as we move forward, the expansion of Adidas and the other active brands, and also our own private label Xersion brand"

HIBB:
"The most exciting news that started really in the first quarter throughout the rest of the year is just the amount of new products and franchises that will start to scale for us as we go through the year whether it be at the Air Max platform from a new product creation such as VaporMax and Air Max 270, heritage models around 1990s, 1995s, 1997s, 1998s Air Force, React, Adidas Xplorer, Swift, there are a lot of models that we feel can really impact our business, that we can start to scale as we go throughout the year ."

Nike Europe

FL:
"In line with our U.S. banners, Foot Locker Europe has also seen growing excitement from other brand offerings, including the various iterations of Nike Air Max, Vans, and Fila. While we expect these new offerings will drive more full price selling, we still have some work to do in Europe near term in order to clear through the slower moving styles. We anticipate that the Foot Locker Europe business will progress in the back half of the year as we improve the depths of up-trending styles from Nike, Adidas, Champion, Vans, and Fila, just to name a few."

Industry Sales Trends

FL:  
“As we have previously discussed the reduced allocations will continue to be top-line headwinds over the next few quarters but it will essentially lessen as we progress through the year. While signature basketball was down overall, we continue to see strength in the LeBron business led by both the game shoe and the soldier. Within our casual business, which was down slightly, there was a lot of heat around Vans classic styles and the feel la disrupter but this was offset by softness in select styles from Adidas, PUMA, and converse.”

KSS:
“As part of our efforts to invest in our Active and Wellness initiative in a bigger and bolder way, we will launch an Active expansion test in 30 stores in August. This will result in an increase in square footage for the Active business of approximately 40% and will provide customers with almost 50% more choices."

M:  
"We also saw a standout performance in men's tailored clothing, in kids, dresses, active, and home"

JWN:
"That's the best growing part of our business is designer across the handbag, the Women's apparel, and the Men's apparel, and shoe offerings." 

HIBB:
"Footwear was up low single digits. Men's and women's were both positive for the quarter while the kids business was down low single digits."

SCVL:
"Children's shoes were up low-single digits on a comparable basis. This increase was driven primarily from Athletics, Adult athletics was also up low single digits on a comparable basis. The strong athletic and athleisure trend shows no sign of slowing down. I'll tell you that I believe, personally, that the family footwear channel is the best managed footwear channel out there. And I'm not going to comment on their inventory levels, but I think it's suffice to say that most of the family footwear leadership is very concentrated on having the right levels of inventory." 

Athletic Apparel

FL:
"Apparel was an especially bright spot, up double digits, with gains across all genders. While accessories was down double digits due to weakness in socks, hats, and insoles. A clear bright spot in the quarter was apparel. The strength in our apparel business was relatively broad-based with gains across most of our geographies, channels, and genders. These strong results were led by branded assortments from Nike and Adidas as well as the resurgence of '90s influence brands like Champion and Fila." 

HIBB:
"Branded apparel was expressly strong during the quarter with comparable store sales in the high single-digit range. Footwear and cleats were positive as well. Early in the second quarter and at the end of April, we're up about mid-single digits in our total comp. And a lot of that is being driven by our branded apparel business and a healthier footwear business."

Inventory

FL:
"The lower merchandise rate was primarily the result of higher markdowns as we continue to proactively manage our inventory, clearing slower moving styles while maintaining a strong inventory position in new and exciting products. Our inventory discipline, which included the use of markdowns, leaves us well positioned to flow in fresh and exciting product throughout the balance of the year."

HIBB:
"Looking forward, as we start the second quarter, we feel that we're well-positioned with our inventory, excellent shape with fresh assortments, easier comparisons as we prepare for the back-to-school season.  Our aged inventory is significantly reduced and we are continuing to improve our productivity by reducing our overall inventory."

SCVL:
"We ended the quarter with inventory down 1.6% on a per store basis. We entered the first quarter with lower per-door inventory in fashion boots and seasonal clearance merchandise."

Adidas

FL:
"As you may recall, Foot Locker Europe has historically experienced a higher penetration of Adidas than its U.S. brothers. Furthermore, Adidas has been highly sought after over the past few years, with Foot Locker Europe being the first to capture that increased demand."
"While adidas is still a vibrant and exciting brand the demand from our fast-moving consumer has come off that peak which has led to a more promotional environment. Looking forward, Adidas has recently put some new listing to the marketplace like the result and we have seen some improving demand from this platform as we shifted into warmer weather."

KSS: 
"With respect to adidas, we're seeing tremendous growth from our focus on greater breadth of product, elevated assortment and enhanced space in some of our stores."

Puma

FL:
"Foot Locker Europe also faced to him headwinds in PUMA due in large part to the tough footwear comparisons against last year's platforms and baskets programs.The Fenti from PUMA last year, the Rihanna product was phenomenal. That exposure goes down in the greater in the year. With the great Max Air platform that's coming the adidas product that's coming, she's very much into Vans these days so we feel very good about the women's footwear business getting better in the back half."

VFC

FL:
"Within our casual business, which was down slightly, there was a lot of heat around Vans Classic styles. In line with our U.S. banners, Foot Locker Europe has also seen growing excitement from other brand offerings, including the various iterations of Nike Air Max, Vans and Fila. We anticipate that the Foot Locker Europe business will progress in the back half of the year as we improve the depth of up-trending styles from Nike, adidas, Champion, Vans and Fila, just to name a few, with some of the adidas product that's coming, she's (women customers) very much into Vans these days our relationship with Vans continues to improve, so there's more depth coming across key silhouettes."