Market statistics : Outdoor Product Sales Get Late Lift in December

Outdoor Product sales posted a solid increase in December as a resurgent Outdoor Apparel business and strong Outdoor Hardgoods sales easily offset a continued decline in footwear segment revenues. After a mediocre week to start the month, followed by two weeks of declines, the market posted two successively stronger weeks of sales growth at month-end. The last week of the month got a significant lift versus the comparable year-ago period, as this year included two shopping days leading into Christmas Day versus none last year and a reliance on post-holiday sales. The benefits of the calendar combined with advantageous weather conditions across portions of the U.S., which drove Outerwear sales in key markets and trade channels.

Overall Outdoor Product sales were up 6.8 percent to $2.17 billion in the fiscal month ended December 29, 2012. The last week of the month represented 20.5 percent of total sales for the five-week month versus just 16.4 percent in the comparable month in 2011. The last week delivered 17.8 percent of total sales for the six-week holiday selling period ended December 29, 2012, up from 14.2 percent for the holiday period in 2011. Total Holiday period sales (the six-weeks from Thanksgiving week through Christmas week) increased 5.7 percent to $2.49 billion.

After falling below the billion-dollar mark in December 2011, Outdoor Apparel sales increased 12.3 percent to $1.12 billion in the five-week period ended December 29, 2012 – the largest Outdoor Apparel sales month recorded by OIA VantagePoint. 

The growth trend in the Outdoor Outerwear business was most pronounced in the National Accounts Internet business, which grew nearly 41 percent for the month, a signal that promotions may have played a key role. Still, Independent Outdoor Specialty sold the largest share of the category and grew nearly 20 percent for the month.

Outdoor Hardgoods continued its strong performance with all major categories except Snow Sports posting strong growth versus 2011. The sales trend in the most recent month again jumped in double-digits, growing 10.6 percent to $651.3 million for the five-week fiscal month ended December 29, 2012.

The Outdoor Footwear business had another down month in December but most of the decline can be tracked directly to the Mall Retailer trade channel, which posted a 75 percent decrease in Outdoor Footwear sales for the five-week period ended December 29, 2012.

Overall Outdoor Footwear sales fell 10.6 percent to $399.9 million in the five-week month. Excluding the Mall Retailer channel, Outdoor Footwear sales would have been up 11.8 percent to $371.1 million for the period.

Outdoor Industry Association
Based in Boulder, Colo., with offices in Washington, D.C., Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) is the leading trade association for the outdoor industry and the title sponsor of Outdoor Retailer. OIA supports the growth and success of more than 4,000 manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, sales representatives and retailers of outdoor recreation apparel, footwear, equipment and services. For more information, go to outdoorindustry.org or call 303.444.3353.

The SportsOneSource Group
The SportsOneSource Group is a full service market research company delivering solutions through consumer insight research, retail insight research and retail point-of-sale trending and analysis. The company provides the most reliable, timely and comprehensive sports and outdoor industry information available in the market today. SportScanInfo, developed by SportsOneSource, is a technology platform that compiles and disseminates aggregated retail point-of-sale information. SportsOneSource also publishes the Sports Executive Weekly and The B.O.S.S. Report executive newsletters, along with the SGB and SGB Performance print publications and their related online, email and digital products. For more information about The SportsOneSource Group call 303.987.3450 or go to SportsOneSource.com.