Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Certainly. (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Dan Wewer - Raymond James.
Dan Wewer - Raymond James
Mickey or Jeff, can you remind us the last time that Hibbett went through a cycle where footwear sales were down in this mid to high teen rate? And how long that weakness lasted?
Jeffry O. Rosenthal
Dan, I really don’t remember one being down this low. We have gone through some down cycles in footwear but not to the extent that this one is. And you know we really believe a lot of it is coming from the stimulus and the shift in back-to-school. You know August we are seeing some rebound back in footwear. Not that it’s at the levels we want it to be but it is a lot better than it was.
Michael J. Newsome
I agree with what Jeff is saying. I don’t ever remember one that was this tough. Now in the early 2000’s it got a little bit soft in footwear but not to this degree.
Dan Wewer - Raymond James
As I recall we began to see the weakening footwear sales I guess it was like at the end of March, right? So before we had the problem.
Jeffry O. Rosenthal
We had in February, we were up almost in the double digits at the end of February and then it started dropping in March. We were still up but it dropped some.
Dan Wewer - Raymond James
So that was taking place before we had issues with stimulus check comparisons or shift in back-to-school shopping holidays.
Michael J. Newsome
Yes, but not to the degree. It got certainly more negative in May and June and July than it did in March and April.
Dan Wewer - Raymond James
And I know you’ve talked in the past about the benefits of becoming a preferred customer of Nike, you know efforts there making to improve margin rate for Hibbett and Nike product. Can you maybe give some examples of what they’re doing to help Hibbett in this current cycle, either in terms of protecting margin, taking extra product returns, etc.?
Jeffry O. Rosenthal
Well you know with Nike we have a very good relationship. You know we always work on margin and different types of containers and special products, and we always look at the financial pieces of it. And we work very closely to monitor that. Sometimes it doesn’t always come in the quarter that you want it to come but we always manage to get to a field where we both can live with. And you know we still see lots of opportunities on how we go to market and how much allocations and those type of things that will help our business. And you know we’re told we’re still the place to go to, especially since we go to small markets that we’re needed.
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