Academy Sports + Outdoors’ addition of Nike and Jordan Brand is starting to bear fruit.
On the company’s second quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Academy Sports chief executive officer Steve Lawrence told analysts that the retailer’s “successful” rollout of Jordan Brand and an expanded Nike assortment have helped it to gain access to more brands.
“The team did a really good job [bringing Jordan to life in our stores on our site], Lawrence said on the call. “I’m really proud of the work they did on this front. I think Nike is very happy with the partnership and what we’ve managed to do there. And I think it definitely has helped us continue to gain access to brands.”
The CEO noted that it brought in Converse this year, which it didn’t have before, and other non-footwear brands like HydroJug and Burlebo, an outdoor lifestyle brand. “We continue to have dialogues with brands that we want to have access to,” Lawrence added. “I think that the way we launched Jordan, definitely helps our case as we get access to those [new] brands.”
As for what’s selling, Lawrence noted that the company has made a “significant investment” in Nike. “We have the Vomero 18 on the floor as well as the Plus,” the CEO said. “We have the P-6000 out there that’s doing very well, and we’ve got [Air Max] 270s out in almost every door at this point.”
As for Jordan Brand, which Academy launched in late April, Lawrence said that the business is building, particularly for back-to-school. “We had our biggest weeks of the year during back-to-school as we expected,” he said. “We expect that to continue, particularly on the footwear side as we move into the basketball season. We also think it’s going to be a big gift-giving category for us this year as well for holiday.”
Other footwear wins also made their mark in the second quarter. Matt McCabe, executive vice president and CMO of Academy Sports, told FN on a call on Tuesday that in addition to Nike and Jordan Brand, performance running shoes have been performing well. The executive noted that the category was led by double-digit gains across Asics, Brooks and Nike in Q2.
“I believe what’s driving this success in run is that our customers are wearing these shoes every day,” McCabe said. “I’d say over the last 4 to 5 years, the trends have shifted from basketball and tennis styles over to running as what customers choose to wear as a lifestyle shoe. And you can see that in what’s selling.”
McCabe also noted that Birkenstock is now available in the majority of the retailer’s stores now and is performing well.
But in the meantime, Academy is focused on its growth with Jordan Brand and Nike.
“Our assortment will continue to expand both from an expanded door count perspective as well as the SKU count throughout the back half of the year,” Lawrence added on Tuesday’s call. “And then obviously, as we go into next year, the goal is to expand those shops out into more doors. And we haven’t given guidance on that, but we’re working with them right now what that plan looks like, but it will be a more doors for us next spring.”
This comes as the Katy, Texas-based retailer reported on Tuesday that net sales in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 increased 3.3 percent to $1.60 billion, up from $1.55 billion the same time last year. Net income in Q2 fell 12.1 percent to $125.4 million, down from $142.6 million, while adjusted earnings per share dipped 4.4 percent to $1.94 versus $2.03 the same time last year.