{"id":243,"date":"2025-08-19T15:57:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/active-footwear-a-bright-spot-in-the-first-half-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:57:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:57:49","slug":"active-footwear-a-bright-spot-in-the-first-half-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/active-footwear-a-bright-spot-in-the-first-half-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Active footwear a bright spot in the first half of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?500116090725\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/>\n        Listen to the article<br \/>\n        <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">3 min<\/span><br \/>\n    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dmgi9movl\/video\/upload\/q_1\/v1755610973\/news\/text_to_speech\/active-footwear-bright-spot-category-sales-declines-first-half-2025_v1faxc.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"\/><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/contact\/\">feedback<\/a>.\n        <\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Dive Brief:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. footwear sales declined in the first half of the year, though average selling price was up 2% year over year, according to a recent Circana report. Dollar sales for the category were down 1% in the period, while units sold declined 2%.<\/li>\n<li>Fashion and outdoor footwear drove the declines, with fashion down 6% in the first half due to softness in seasonal categories. There were some exceptions, with pumps, high shaft boots, boat shoes, flats and ballerina shoes all seeing growth.<\/li>\n<li>Sport lifestyle and performance footwear were the real winners in the first six months of 2025, though, with those categories experiencing growth across all three metrics.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dive Insight:<\/h3>\n<p>Tariffs may be threatening activewear brands this holiday season, but shoppers are continuing to buy athletic footwear \u2014 at least for now.<\/p>\n<p>Running-inspired shoes drove dollar sales up 3% in sport lifestyle, the largest footwear segment, with soccer and cross-training styles also contributing. Similar trends bolstered the performance category, with dollar sales of running and cross-training shoes up 7% and unit sales up 9%. Walking shoes saw both dollar and unit sales increase by double-digits, according to Circana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConsumers continue to focus on their footwear must-haves,\u201d Beth Goldstein, footwear and accessories adviser at Circana, said in a statement. \u201cSneakers are driving much of the growth, along with a handful of fashion styles that offer both newness and versatility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although prices are already increasing, Goldstein said those are largely due to product mix shifts, with high-priced brands and products taking market share.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nike <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/nike-amazon-marketplace-raising-footwear-prices-tariffs\/748986\/\">raised prices on some products<\/a> in the spring, while running brand On did so in July (though the Swiss retailer in August said it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/on-raises-guidance-tariff-currency-impact-second-quarter-earnings\/757409\/\">didn\u2019t expect to increase them further<\/a>). Hoka owner Deckers is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/hoka-growth-retail-stores-full-price-sales\/754062\/\">aiming to combat tariffs<\/a>, in part, with price hikes. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/adidas-tariff-price-increases-earnings-results-sales-growth\/746738\/\">Adidas has warned it will follow suit<\/a> if tariffs don\u2019t abate, but said it is planning to let others in the industry <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/adidas-two-hundred-million-trump-tariff-impact\/756290\/\">set the pace<\/a> and will not \u201crun away\u201d from lower price points. That may be important in the back half of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we move through the back-to-school and holiday seasons, rising prices may begin to test the limits of consumers\u2019 wallets \u2014 making value an even more critical factor as they prioritize their footwear purchases,\u201d Goldstein said.<\/p>\n<p>One of the trends bolstering active footwear in particular is its popularity with teen shoppers, who are also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/nike-top-athletic-footwear-teen-brand-declining-interest-share\/712780\/\">helping the trajectory of fast-growing brands<\/a> such as Hoka and On. Both have been flying high on double-digit growth in recent quarters. Needham analyst Tom Nikic noted in a recent note that Google searches for \u201cOn Cloud\u201d sneakers grew 27% year over year in Q2, up from 24% in Q1, and accelerated even more in July.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile some footwear brands have discussed challenging wholesale trends, this has largely been on the lower end of the distribution pyramid, where [On] does not participate (family footwear, off-price, etc.),\u201d Nikic said in an Aug. 8 note. \u201cMeanwhile, rival [Deckers] was very bullish on the wholesale channel for Hoka.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildive.com\/news\/active-footwear-bright-spot-category-sales-declines-first-half-2025\/757640\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: U.S. footwear sales declined in the first half of the year, though average selling price was up 2% year over year, according to a recent Circana report. Dollar sales for the category were down 1% [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-footwear-socks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redbulltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}