SGB 2024: Navigating the Shifting Currents of the Active Lifestyle Market

As SGB Media readers consistently followed the quarterly financial reports in 2024 to keep updated on brand and retailer performances throughout the year, the prominent news trends for 2024, evaluated by SGB Media Editors analyzing our most popular articles, predominantly focused on turnaround initiatives at some of the largest publicly traded firms in the active lifestyle sector.

Reports from Columbia Sportswear, Nike, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Under Armour, and VF Corporation featured a blend of employee reductions and significant shifts among the highest ranks of each organization.

SGB Media Editors also detailed what seemed to be incessant discussions and declarations in a new trend where the company’s Board of Directors battled publicly with its investors and management, as illustrated by Vista Outdoor’s year-long attempts to split into two entities and Gildan Activewear’s effort to create a new CEO.

Vista’s Board succeeded. Gildan’s did not.

The year witnessed fervent debates surrounding Lululemon and Nike experiencing a decline in consumer interest as both grappled with product-related challenges, affecting both brands negatively on Wall Street.

Stifel’s annual 2024 Back-to-School Survey and Report offered a glimpse of sneaker brands at the retail front, highlighting which companies surged and which faced downturns. The firm’s 2024 findings marked a stark contrast to its previous reports, with the Teen Survey outcomes indicating a waning Nike brand and a growing interest in alternative performance brands.

For Nike, the market continuously pointed out an absence of innovation as emerging brands capitalized on the gaps left by the giant, particularly in the performance running sector, which had been the foundation of Nike’s identity.

A decline in the Jordan brand at retail sparked concern.

Nike’s challenges compounded in the spring of 2024 after then-CEO, John Donahoe, announced that addressing the company’s growth stagnation would involve a return to visible Air.

By October, Donahoe was replaced, and Nike initiated the process of reinstating former executives to reassemble the company’s structure.

Introducing Elliott Hill, returning to Nike after a brief hiatus, bringing with him 33 years of experience in brand and retailer relationships to the organization as the new CEO. Others accompanied him to rectify the company’s direction, which needed to swiftly undo ineffective strategies that had marginalized innovation and retailer connections in favor of a DTC-first strategy.

The year wrapped up with Hill unveiling a strategy in late December aimed at reinstating growth and innovation, while acknowledging that the journey ahead for Nike would be lengthy, with a few early challenges.

For Lululemon, the brand experienced a dip in momentum throughout 2024 as its new Breezethrough collection, targeted at warm, low-impact exercise, faced backlash regarding its design, holding a 3.1-star rating from 112 evaluations on Lululemon’s website, with remarks pointing out flaws such as unflattering seams and discomfort. Following this, analysts downgraded the stock, prompting LULU to revise its yearly forecasts downwards. Nevertheless, the company ultimately performed well by year-end, exceeding guidance and receiving acclaim from Wall Street during the third quarter’s business performance.

Throughout the year, concerns arose regarding the overall decline of the athleisure market and the potential weakening of the leggings sector. However, this did not materialize as Lululemon sustained its growth, and the market witnessed Athleta re-emerge as a growth story, along with Alo Yoga, Fabletics, and Vuori, among others.

Adidas continued to navigate its Kanye West/Ye/Yeezy dilemmas throughout the year as the company strove to reduce the effects of its 2022 fallout with West due to his anti-Semitic remarks. After depleting Yeezy stock in 2023, the company announced in January 2024 that it would not write-off most of the remaining Yeezy inventory as initially anticipated and instead crafted a sales strategy and release timeline throughout the year to enhance revenue and lessen the financial impact. Each quarter of the year bore an asterisk as the company observed growth during a couple of quarters, but a shortage of inventory to compare with previous year’s Yeezy sales affected the third quarter. Adidas eventually reached a settlement with West in October, potentially closing the chapter on this issue for the future.

Additional vital trends observed in 2024 included the swift expansion of new facilities and clubs within the fitness industry, significantly propelled by the pickleball phenomenon and fitness-as-a-lifestyle developments, alongside the overall growth of pickleball as companies incorporated gear to cater to market demands.

The sector also experienced mergers and acquisitions propelling growth for leading fitness consolidators and franchisors, including Crunch Fitness, Life Time, Ohm Fitness, Orangetheory Fitness, Planet Fitness, Pvolve, PickleRage Kingdom, PureGym, and Xponential Fitness, among others.

The market was also heavily influenced by the evolving regulatory framework concerning PFAs as brands hurried to ensure that their 2025 products would comply with or exceed the standards set by key states, such as California, which advanced ahead of national movements to prohibit or regulate “forever chemicals.”

Yeti generated buzz by acquiring outdoor industry darling Mystery Ranch, established by backpack designer Dana Gleason. By the end of the year, voices from within the heart of the outdoor sector expressed anxiety as speculation grew regarding Yeti’s intentions to shut down Mystery Ranch and integrate its technology into the Yeti brand following a divergence of visions from different executives concerning the future of the MR brand.

Foot Locker was among the leading retail stories overthe summer as it declared a strategic relocation from New York City to Florida, a more lucrative avenue ahead and optimism in the market that the retailer might be making a comeback.

Conversely, the developments regarding the bankruptcy proceedings of the parent organization of Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports attracted significant attention as those traditional retail brands faced dissolution.

Another significant narrative of 2024 focused on VF Corporation, the parent company of The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Jansport, and Dickies, as that frontrunner in the active outdoor lifestyle and streetwear markets advanced its revitalization initiatives with pivotal divestitures, none more prominent than the transfer of the Supreme brand to Oakley’s parent and several crucial appointments to oversee the Vans and TNF divisions.

The year concluded with further controversy in the core outdoor sector as The North Face introduced a partnership with Kim Kardashian and her Skims apparel collection.

The resolution by the Board of Directors at Camber Outdoors to halt operations was also a significant news item in 2024. The non-profit, established to promote the advancement of women in the outdoor sector, but more recently had become the advocate for DEI initiatives in the outdoor industry, witnessed its importance diminish as more companies adopted the cause or completely abandoned their DEI initiatives.

Outside the Top 25 Most Read list from SGB Media, but certainly deserving an honorable mention, were the articles published about BSN Sports viewing KKR as the new majority stakeholder, Topgolf Callaway making moves to sell off the Topgolf segment of its operations, the sale of the Sanuk brand to Lolë Brands, thorough reports from Birkenstock, Fleet Feet recruiting and new FF locations, and Dick’s SG closing the remaining Moosejaw locations it acquired in spring 2023.

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See below to explore SGB Media’s Top 25 Most Read Articles of 2024:

SGB 2024 Year in Review: Most Read Articles for the Year