2014 Top 7 Brands

As 2014 cruises to a finish,  we build anticipation for our 2014 #Top7 shoe lists by first taking a look at the bigger Brand picture.

Top 7 Brands of 2014:
(in terms of total shoes sold, road and trail; men’s and women’s. Excludes all clearance/sale shoes)

1. Altra – 18.8%
2. Pearl Izumi – 15.9%
3. Hoka – 15%
4. Saucony – 9%
5. Salomon – 8.3%
6. Scott – 6.7%
7. New Balance 6.7%

Close behind in 8th was Montrail at 6.3%.

The Top 7 brands accounted for 80.4% of our business.  The remaining 19.6% was: Montrail, Brooks, Inov-8, Merrell, LaSportiva, Topo, Zoot, Patagonia, Newton, North Face, On.

Latecomers Brooks and Topo, should move up considerably in 2015.  We started carrying Brooks in June; Topo in September. If you haven’t heard of Topo before…now you knowpo!!

In 2013 our Top7 brands made up 85% of total sales. Pearl Izumi, Saucony, and Altra were 1, 2, 3 respectively.

In 2014, Saucony took a big dip dropping from 2nd overall at 15.2% of 2013 sales to only 9% of 2014 sales.  Pearl Izumi’s numbers were almost identical.  Hoka and Altra saw big increases.

For 2014, we predicted Hoka, Pearl Izumi, and Altra, to be 1, 2, 3.  Pretty good predictions there!

Proving we are a Trail Running Specialty shop, 68.2% of our total shoe sales were in the Trail Running category.

Top7 Women’s Trail Running Brands of 2014:

1. Pearl Izumi – 15.1%
2. Altra – 14.1%
3. Hoka – 13.5%
4. Salomon – 12.7%
5. Montrail – 9.6%
6. Scott – 8.4%
7. Brooks – 7.2%

Top7 Men’s Trail Running Brands of 2014:

1. Altra – 19.1%
2. Hoka – 15.1%
3. Pearl Izumi – 14.6%
4. Montrail – 8.9%
5. Scott – 8%
6. Salomon – 6%
7. Inov-8 – 5.9%

Predictions

Top7 brands of 2015:

1. Altra – How can we go against the top dog–after it just gained 5% of overall sales!?!  2015 will see the Torin 2.0–wow! In July, a new road shoe launches that is stellar: the Impulse.  The Superior 2.0 is here now and blowing people away.  The Lone Peak 2.5 comes in July!!
2. Hoka – The Huaka is catching on…slowly. It was my favorite shoe of 2014!! The Clifton has been a hit, and the Clifton 2 launches in July.  The Challenger ATR in February will boost sales.  The Speedgoat in July will crush sales!!
3. Pearl Izumi – A lot of talk lately has centered on Pearl’s decision to drop their Ultra Team.  I initially thought that this wouldn’t effect sales much.  At last night’s group run, John said that he’d try new shoes in 2015 because of that decision. Only time will tell.  With the early release of new road shoes–the road N3 (April) and the road M3 (March)–and with new versions of their best-selling trail shoes coming out in July, I am keeping Pearl in our Top 3.  Who else but Hoka could jump over Pearl?
4. Salomon – If any brand other than Pearl, Altra, or Hoka has a shot at cracking the Top 3, it’s Salomon.  The new Sense Mantra 3 (January) will be an easy sell to everybody.  The new Sense ProPulse in July will take a few sales away from Hoka.  Salomon’s mud shoes are second to none: the Fellraiser and S-lab Sense Ultra SG remain, the new Speedcross Pro could do well, too.
5. New Balance – New Fresh Foam road shoes from NB will hopefully prove worthy.   On the trail side, the 980 trail gets a better upper and a jazzy name: the Hierro–due out in July.  Oh, we should sell a few of the re-issued 101. (look for our future blog post about that!)
6. Montrail – After a few years of the same Bajada and Mt. Masochist–new versions will arrive in February.  But what will really fly is the new Fluid Flex ST.
7. Topo – This is my dark horse to crack the Top7!  The MT has done well and the new Runventure comes out in February.  They have figured out what Altra is capitalizing on–Wide Toe Boxes Sell Lots of Shoes!

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