Some have asked how we did on our 2025 predictions. Let’s take a look.
Brands and retailers that over-index with Hispanic consumers saw weak traffic and sales.
Areas that had intensive ICE actions saw all retail soften.
The long-term impact remains unclear, but it will not be positive.
Brands did a great job holding off on price increases, using every possible tool to keep prices down.
Recent results indicate that we’ll see higher prices as we move into 2026.
The big unknown is that prices for everything are going up.
10% of the population accounts for 50% of consumption. The vast majority of consumers are really struggling.
This was an easy one. Newness and freshness have always driven retail.
The problem is that we don’t have enough newness and freshness.
Smaller brands continue to outperform larger ones.
However, we began to see a softening among some of the challenger brands.
While there are clearly green shoots for Nike, the brand is still not healthy yet.
Opportunity remains for retailers to exploit smaller brands.
Some are trying to say activewear is over.
Recent air travel would argue against that.
This has become more clear as we moved through the year.
The challenge for brands and retailers is how to respond to this shift and how to listen to the consumer voice.
Evergreen.
The extreme colors we saw had a decent reaction from consumers.
However, many of the wildest colors are now flooding the clearance racks.
Performance run won the year and likely will in the future.
Retro remains very important, but must be fresh.
Low profile continues to be a winning silhouette.
The Skechers acquisition rocked the industry.
What will Skechers be like under private ownership?
Nothing really feels normal anymore.
Looks like this one was optimistic.