Women’s ‘apres-hike’ apparel hot item

Editor’s note. Staff Writer Beth Potter is in Salt Lake City covering the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market.

SALT LAKE CITY – Colorado and other Western states lead the country with 39 percent of all sales of outdoor gear and apparel this year, according to a report from Boulder-based Leisure Trends Group.

“Apres-hike” and lifestyle women’s apparel sales are driving sportswear sales across the United States, with dresses, skirts and skorts accounting for $12 million in retail sales in the first six months of the year, according to the Leisure Trends report.

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The Boulder-based tracking company presented the information at an industry breakfast at the Marriott in downtown Salt Lake City on Friday. An estimated 24,000 outdoor company representatives are in town for the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market, which runs through Sunday.

New designs for brands such as Prana, based in Santa Barbara, California, with a Boulder store, Horny Toad, and Boulder-based Skirt Sports are drawing customers into stores, according to Leisure Trends statistics.

Prana saw dress dollars nearly doubled at 95 percent compared with the same period the year before, and Horny Toad women’s apparel grew 37 percent, according to Leisure Trends. Dollar amounts were not released.

“Skirt Sports is doing really well, too,´ said Scott Jaeger, a senior analyst at Leisure Trends. Jaeger did not have specific numbers on hand for the brand.

Boulder-based Sea to Summit was listed as a “hot brand to watch” in the Leisure Trends report.

Nationally, all outdoor retail sales are up 11 percent in the first six months of the year over the same period in 2010. Snow-related retail was up 12 percent, running-related sales are up 8 percent and bicycling-related sales are up 6 percent, according to Leisure Trends.

Apparel represented about $3 billion of the $5.7 billion in total outdoor retail sales so far for 2011, so “if apparel stumbles, everything else stumbles as well,´ said Julia Clark Day, vice president of sales and marketing at Leisure Trends.

Finally, customers appear to be more willing to spend this year than they have in recent years, Day said, based on an anecdotal poll Leisure Trends recently conducted. If a consumer had $1,500 in cash to spend on anything he or she wanted, most said they would either sock the money away in savings or buy new outdoor clothes, Day said. Other poll choices included paying down credit cards and taking outdoors-related trips.