ActionWatch Update: June US core skate and surf sales grew +15%
by Patrik Schmidle / ActionWatch
While core shops experienced a V-shaped recovery in June, there are reasons to remain concerned about the health of the channel. The good news is that skate and surf participation has been up during the pandemic, which fueled sales growth in the lower margin skate hardgoods, surf hardgoods, and wetsuits categories. The not so good news is that the larger, much more profitable apparel, footwear, and accessories categories have not yet rebounded to the same degree and have suffered large year-to-date losses.
Key Highlights:
- Participation rise fuels exponential hardgoods and wetsuits growth
- Apparel, footwear, and accessories flat in June
- Largest, most profitable segments declined
- Smallest, least profitable segments grew
- Apparel, footwear, and accessories growth vital to recovery
In summary, while the V-shaped recovery in June was very encouraging and provided much-needed cash flow to core retailers, it is a very uneven recovery driven primarily by the smaller, less profitable hardgoods and wetsuit categories. Hopefully, the increased skate and surf participation rates will continue to drive store traffic and accelerate the upward trend for the larger, more profitable apparel, footwear, and accessory segments, not only for July but also for the remainder of the year.
Click to view graphs that illustrate the trends and to read the full story.