Industry customer The Buckle posted strong Q3 results Friday on both the top and bottom lines.
Comparable store sales jumped 12.4% during the quarter, while online sales increased 72.5%. Net income grew 60% to $41.6 million.
Sales in all major categories increased including:
- Women’s: up 12%
- Men’s: up 13%
- Accessories: up 15%
- Footwear: up 36%
A Hey Dude shoe – Photo courtesy of Hey Dude
Hey Dude a Key Footwear Brand
Sales of casual footwear were very strong in both men’s and women’s during the quarter, executives said. And judging by The Buckle’s website, Hey Dude is a top seller for the retailer.
Hey Dude was founded in Italy, and according to the brand’s website, The Buckle was its first major retail customer in the U.S. and was key to Hey Dude’s expansion in the region. Hey Dude started as a men’s brand, but now sells women’s styles as well.
Pandemic Retail Winners and Losers
Trying to decipher why some retailers are winning and some are losing during the pandemic is really difficult, and there are no hard and fast rules.
We know core stores in the industry are doing quite well, especially with the demand in hardgoods. Sales at sporting goods chains and equipment stores such as REI are also soaring.
But then you have department stores, which are suffering. Macy’s, for example, reported a 20% drop in Q3 comparable sales (stores and online), with store comps falling 36%.
It’s easy to say the problem is at the malls. But then how do you explain The Buckle?  The majority of the company’s 446 stores are in malls. And The Buckle doesn’t sell hardgoods – it’s an apparel, accessories and footwear retailer.
Industry customer Glik’s, which has a mixture of street and mall locations in the Midwest and sells apparel, accessories and footwear as well, is also posting stellar results. For August, September and October combined, comparable sales increased 11.6%, CEO Jeff Glik told SES.
Mall-based Footlocker also posted solid Q3 results, with comparable sales rising 7.7%.
More industry customers including Nordstrom, Tilly’s and Zumiez are reporting earnings in coming weeks so it will be interesting if any discernible pattern develops about which stores are still resonating with consumers.
