Trend Watch: Sneaker Wars

The athletic apparel market is having a hard time gaining its footing in the Covid-19 economy.  

Uptick in Discounting: Recent web scraping data collected by Jefferies indicates footwear giants Nike and Adidas are cranking up the discounts on footlocker.com. In April, Nike's percentage of Top 60 Sellers on discount on footlocker.com was at a 3-year high of 33% in April, and Adidas's percentage of Top 60 Sellers on discount grew compared to a year earlier as well.

Drop in Prices: Nike is dropping average selling prices on dickssportinggoods.com in response to weakened demand. Nike Footwear average selling prices fell 17%, 19%, 22%, and 27% in January, February, March, and April, respectively. 

• Why it matters: Footwear makes up about 66 percent of the Nike Brand’s revenue. Weakness in footwear will disproportionately hurt Nike relative to its peers. 

Big Picture: Q1 athletic footwear sales were down in mid-teens, with March sales down about 40%, according to data from NPD.