Shoe business

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By: Jeff James

Listed Under: Top Story

Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Through the publication of its trading statements, Sports Direct has confirmed its leading position in the sports retail market over the past few years. By maintaining competitive pricing, it has generated high volume sales among cost conscious consumers.

Sports Direct’s performance has not come as a surprise, however whether JD Sports would be able to sustain consumers’ desire for its premium, high priced fashion products during a difficult economic climate was less certain.

Successful
It turns out that the new owner of Blacks Leisure has been quite successful, firmly cementing its position as the second biggest sports retailer in Great Britain.

JD Sports’ ability to provide consumers with a wide range of exclusive products from brands such as Nike and adidas, as well as an increasing number of exclusive licences and own brands, has been the key to its success. Consumers’ desire for sports style shoes has increased and helped the retailer maintain growth in recent years.

Sports style or leisure is by far the largest category in footwear and even a one per cent growth or decline within this category will lead to substantial retail sales gains or losses. JJB Sports, suffering from strong declines since the recession started, lost tens of millions of pounds in this category, which has affected the overall footwear market.

Today leisure footwear sales through multiple door sports retailers are still below 2008 levels, as sales via JD Sports and Sports Direct haven’t fully compensated for declining sales at JJB. Further changes have occurred in the sports style footwear market, with sales through internet stores, supermarkets and factory outlets increasing.

The sports style category has much less pronounced peaks and troughs than other footwear categories - its best and worst performances were plus two per cent and minus three per cent, compared to the outdoor sector, for instance, which grew six per cent at its best, but also recorded a 13 per cent decline, according to NPD’s Online Consumer Panel.

We can broadly separate footwear into two distinct categories - shoes made primarily for sport and those primarily made for leisure. But from a consumer’s point of view, there’s not a clear distinction.

Lifestyle
A large number of leisure shoes are used for sport, and this trend has grown over the past four years. Conversely, a significant proportion of consumers purchase sports shoes for leisure purposes, meaning the look of the shoes is more important than how it performs. For example, a wide number of basketball, skateboard or tennis shoes are used for leisure and their purchase is perceived by consumers as a lifestyle one. If we look at the sports footwear market as a whole, combining both sports and sports inspired shoes, we can see that one out of every two pairs of shoes purchased are intended for leisure purposes.

Although predominantly blue shoes have caught the eye of an increasing number of consumers, black and white remain the two key colours. Three out of four sports style shoes are either predominantly black or white, according to NPD’s Online Consumer Panel. In addition, black has gained in popularity to reach the same level as white sports style shoes purchased in 2011.

The leisure category is different to the other main sports footwear categories, where either black or white shoes dominate. In running, for instance, white is significantly more popular than black, whereas in football it’s the opposite. In the outdoor sector, black footwear is the most popular, with white in sixth place.

The NPD Group monitors the sales of sports footwear and apparel in many countries around the world. For more information contact The NPD Group sports team on 01932 355580.