Outdoor Brands Are Struggling

REI just had their third round of layoffs. Prana recorded a 21% revenue decline, VF reports ‘disappointing’ quarter which includes a 11% revenue drop for the North Face, which grew sales in Asia but the US dragged them into negative numbers., Columbia announce layoffs and Mountain Hardware is struggling.

Ooooof, and a couple of thoughts:

• Folks bought a ton of gear during COVID lockdowns, it could be that all this stuff is just still good to use and there’s no need to buy more.
• And most of the gear folks did buy they bought at huge discounts, so these post-COVID price surges we’ve seen haven’t gotten unnoticed with consumers.
• This also could be n reason on why we see a bit higher than usual shuffle with elite runners switching their brand sponsors.

Overall the economy is supposed to be looking up. So this feels like the outdoor industry is going into the opposite direction of consumer sentiment. If everything everywhere would be on a downturn the issues would be more on a macro level and could be blamed on outside factors, but it feels like the ball’s in the outdoor industry’s court to fix for themselves.

Thus concludes my absolute inadequate understanding of economics and financial trends. Carry on everyone.