Source: FDRA | Footwear Consumer Report 2017
I contemplated writing the title. I initially thought of stating that this is the most comprehensive article online in regard to footwear demographics. Ultimately my internal argument settled on what I thought was eye catching in this discussion:
Black People and the amount we spend on footwear.
FDRA has compiled an interactive chart showing the shifting spending habits in the footwear industry. While the market usually salivates over the data presented from point of sales that ranks brands, I find that this information presented by FDRA is much more relevant and important when looking at marketing in regard to footwear. Specifically the data set which shows the age of the biggest spending group in the last few years. On one of the charts the age group 35-44 is the largest growing segment spending on footwear. This is in direct support of my consistent discussion points that brands are marketing to the wrong people in most instances and the brands and other data analysts are failing to understand just who might be driving the footwear industry.
Point of sales data is an after the fact collection of information that fails to speak to “why”.
This FDRA report captures the essence of growth and the change in spending throughout the last 30 years. The picture above shows that Blacks lead in the purchase of footwear, but this isn’t quite accurate. A click on the interactive chart shows that Blacks have not been the biggest spenders in the last three years. Use the source link to mine the data presented by the FDRA. It will be time well spent.
