Factory stores for athletic brands Adidas, Nike and Under Armour are the biggest drivers of overall traffic to outlets.
Source: U.S. Traffic To Outlets Hits Two-Year High, Athletic Brands Soar | Footwear News
DTC, DTC, DTC, I think I’ve said DTC at least 30 times in the last posts and videos I’ve done. It’s important to understand what’s happening with footwear and if you want to go from being a sneaker lover to a sneaker business owner, or investor. The trend of dying malls is being reinforced by outlets and standalone clearance locations by footwear brands and apparel companies.
Here is a bit of trivia, if you have a mall in your city that is struggling, does it have a Macy’s and a Sears as an anchor? If you answered yes then you can expect that mall to lose both of those anchor stores and begin to close down unless there are an abundance of shoe stores and cheap clothing stores in it.
The DTC approach is an automatic win for any company. If I don’t have to sell you anything at wholesale and I can get directly to the consumer, I offer my private or public owners a substantial return on investment. Which leads me to a different question, how in the hell is Footlocker still growing? Oh yeah, I wrote this and I honestly don’t think it’s a conspiracy anymore. Click the source link above to read more and plan accordingly if you are looking at opening your own spot.