• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, August 8, 2019

In the latest fusion of fitness and fashion, Columbia Sportswear is stepping out with SH/FT, its biggest footwear launch ever. The company hopes the collection will become the yoga pants of footwear, as at home on a city street as it is scrambling up a trail.

And amid major downturns in the athletic shoe universe, it wants this line to attract the kinds of Gen Z kids who are unlikely to encounter the Columbia brand in their usual world.

“This introduction leverages a lot of things we have always been good at, and some things we haven’t done before,” says Ethan Pochman, Columbia’s vice president of global brand marketing. “We’ve got a great history in hiking and the outdoors. And we are seeing a real movement among this younger set: They want to get outdoors. They want more balance.

“And we want to serve their needs in a way other brands aren’t, and help them with shoes that prepare them for anything that might come their way.”

Columbia’s core customers are in the upper age realm of millennials and Gen-Xers, he says, with more experience outdoors.

To reach the new-to-Columbia crowd, the campaign is using YouTube, Spotify, Facebook and Instagram, focusing its advertising for now on New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco. It intends to introduce the line globally, as well.

Influencers are a key part of the equation. The Portland, Oregon-based company is teaming up with Zedd, the Grammy-winning artist, DJ and producer.
Columbia says the campaign is a collaboration between McCann Worldwide; Tether, a creative agency in Seattle, and its in-house team.

Pochman tells Marketing Daily that while the company is angling for a fashion hit with the line’s modern aesthetic and high-energy colors, the company is taking tremendous pride in SH/FT’s performance capabilities. “These are absolutely rugged enough to go climb a mountain in,” he says.

Gen Z-ers “may own fewer pairs of shoes,” he says, “but they expect them to do more. We wanted to put all our performance DNA into the shoe. They can climb. They’re great on trails. And they can hold up in the rain.”

For now, the shoes come in four styles and are available online, as well as in a few premium sneaker boutiques. And starting next week, plans call for availability in such retailers as Dick’s, Champs and Foot Locker.

Still, it’s a tough time for the footwear category. The NPD Group says sales of athletic footwear are down in the mid-single digits so far this year. Breaking it down further by category, sales of all performance sneakers continue to languish, with basketball down 20%, training shoes tracking decreases in the high teens, and running shoes down in the mid-single digits.

And while hiking shoes fared a little better, sales declined there as well, falling in the low single digits.

And even sport-lifestyle footwear — where SH/FT falls, and which has been the heartbeat of the category of late — slowed to growth in the mid-teens, below the previous rate.

Columbia, however, is bucking the trend. Last week, it posted record results for the second quarter, with net sales rising 9% to $526.2 million, from $481.6 million for the comparable period last year. And footwear sales climbed 8% to $94 million.