The rise in popularity of running footwear isn’t about just athletic performance anymore.
While the sport of running has certainly grown as consumers seek a healthier lifestyle, they’re also “choosing everyday comfort even for shoes to just walk around and running shoes fit that bill,” said Beth Goldstein, Circana’s industry advisor for footwear and accessories, noting that the fashion element has also been a contributing factor.
Circana’s surveyed 1,000 consumers about their running preferences.
Forty-nine percent identified themselves as either the casual, moderate or serious runners, with 51 percent as non runners. Follow-up questions weren’t posed to the nonrunners but runners were asked about how often they ran. For those identifying themselves as runners, more than half said they were casual runners who run occasionally, about a third run regularly, and 10 percent said they were serious runners participating in races and events.
The growth isn’t the same across consumer groups. The teen market between ages 13 to 17 — think high school athletes — represent a small piece of the business, “driving about a quarter of the growth on about 12 percent of total sales,” Goldstein said, adding that those purchases are likely made by parents. That growth drops off somewhat as they move into the 18 to 24 demographic, in part because as this group begin buying their own shoes, they might be spending a bit less, the analyst said.
The biggest growth is coming from the demographic group between ages 25 to 34, representing “about 20 percent of the business, but contributing 40 percent of the growth. And then there’s the 55-plus group that’s also about 20 percent of the business, but contributing about a third of the growth,” Goldstein said.
So which brands are consumers demanding now? “Brooks and Hoka are vying for the number one spot in the industry right now. They switch off every once in awhile, but Brooks is holding on to it by a little bit of volume at this point,” she said.
Goldstein said Circana’s proprietary data points also correlate with market talk regarding a resurgence of the Nike and Adidas brands.
“They’re definitely improving again. They’ve been focusing on premium product and are in the more premium-type retailers and Adidas is fairly small in the running space. We’re definitely seeing strong growth….They’ve had some innovation and definitely trying to break back into the market,” Goldstein said.
Other labels are also edging their way in. Skechers is one brand that continues to grow in the performance space, and Goldstein added that its product is a “little bit more mid-tier” but that the brand is looking to “go more premium with their running shoes.” Another brand seeing growth is Altra, which appears to be moving from a specialty brand to one that’s more widely distributed, she said of its focus from “zero drop” to increasing the assortment mix to include “heel-to-toe drop,” which is more for the average runner. In the run specialty space, brands such as “Mizuno and Topo also are on the radar,” Goldstein noted.
“It’s just interesting because the industry is very geared toward that serious runner, with a lot of the technology and the price points but that’s really the smallest piece,” she said, explaining that the potential opportunity for brands is the “casual runner where quality and durability and fit and comfort [are key] followed by features [such as] performance and innovation that come into play. There are interesting ways for retailers and brands to segment their products and speak to the different needs of the different types of runners.”
She explained that major sporting goods retailers and athletic specialty doors — such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Foot Locker, JD Sports and Academy Sports + Outdoors — are more likely to have better sales support to talk to the serious runner about the technical details such as foam support and technology. In comparison, the important family channel retailers where the environment is more self-serve, probably could use more signage to educate consumers.
As for why the respondents purchased a running shoe, 42 percent said it was for actual athletic use. Of the 60 percent balance, 32 percent said for casual/everyday use, 10 percent bought for recreational or social occasions, 9 percent said they wanted the sneaker for work and the balance said the purchase was to use the shoe equally for all purposes.
