The apparel and footwear industry has had a tough start to 2021 following a challenging 2020 as clothing demand fell overall and retailers were left with unsold inventories, Reuters reports. Panjiva’s data shows that U.S. seaborne imports of apparel and footwear dipped 1.9% year over year in January, making it the worst performing consumer discretionary sector as outlined in Panjiva’s research of Feb. 8.

The footwear segment has struggled most of all, with shipments down by 21.4% year over year in January, while imports of clothing declined by 3.1% and textiles – led by homewares – improved by 17.6%.

Chart segments U.S. seaborne imports of footwear and apparel by product. Source: Panjiva

 

Footwear producer Deckers Outdoor, whose brands include Ugg and Hoka One One among others, reported FQ3’21 (Q4’20) revenues which surged 14.8% higher year over year, beating analysts’ estimates by 10.3% year over year according to S&P CapitalIQ figures. Panjiva’s data shows U.S. seaborne imports linked to the firm climbed 42.1% year over year in calendar Q4’20 and have continued to expand in the new year with a rise of 18.8% in January.

Yet, the firm has had to deal with increased operating costs which were “primarily driven by variable marketing, warehouse and logistic costs and performance-based compensation” according to CFO Steven Fasching. The increased shipping costs has hit a wide variety of sectors including leisure goods, technology and autos.

Those are expected to persist in the new year as the firm “continue(s) to experience higher costs related to logistics and warehouse fulfillment“. The firm also faces longer term uncertainties, indeed CEO David Powers has noted “longer term, it’s hard to say at this point what the supply chain environment will look like, overseas with tariffs and demand and logistics and other things“.

Chart shows U.S. seaborne imports linked to Deckers Outdoors. Source: Panjiva

Few of the other major footwear importers managed to match Deckers’ performance. Shipments linked to Italian sports shoe producer FILA increased by 10.8% year over year in January. Most others experienced a decline with imports linked fellow sports shoe makers Puma and Nike having declined by 1.8% and 32.9% respectively. Imports linked to fashion shoe manufacturers Steve Madden slumped 49.9% lower after improving by 5.9% in Q4’20, indicating the varying fortunes of different footwear segments.

Chart segments U.S. imports of footwear by consignee. Source: Panjiva