Regional value-based retailer Academy Sports + Outdoors, which filed for a proposed $100 million offering of public stock last week, generated more than $1.02 billion in footwear sales for the fiscal year ended Feb. 1, 2020. The footwear sales total, up 2.4 percent year-over-year, represented 21.2 percent of the retailer’s annual revenues of more than $4.82 billion. The Katy, TX-based retailer generated approximately 20 percent of its annual revenues from 17 owned brands, including BCG and Magellan Outdoors.

But the 259-door regional chain, whose senior team has been spearheaded by former Foot Locker executive Ken C. Hicks since early 2017, realized a 4.8 percent drop in FY20 first half footwear sales to nearly $489.6 million. The decline occurred in the pandemic-impacted first quarter as second-quarter footwear sales rose more than 11 percent year-over-year to slightly more than $293.1 million. In its 1,260-page S-1 filing, Academy reports its FY18 footwear sales of nearly $986.9 million were driven by higher work and casual sales and partially offset by lower revenues from athletic styles. Comparatively, the larger Dick’s Sporting Goods generated 21 percent of its FY19 revenues from footwear, or slightly more than $1.81 billion, as annual segment sales rose 5.3 percent.

Citing Allied Market Research, Academy is projecting 6 percent annual sales growth, including footwear, between 2019 and 2027. The chain, whose stores average 70,000 gross square feet, intends to open 8 to 10 doors annually starting in 2022. Currently, some 41 percent of its brick-and-mortar base, or 106 locations, are in its home state of Texas.

After investing more than $50 million in omnichannel capabilities over three years ended 2018, Academy upped its game in the segment last year by launching a BOPIS program and a newly designed website as it also developed a small-box (40,000 sq. ft.) format for urban and less-dense markets. During the first half of 2020, Academy’s smaller store in Dallas experienced 25 percent higher sales per square foot and 13 percent higher inventory turn than the average of all Academy locations. Meanwhile, ecommerce represented 11 percent, or an implied $301.7 million, of sales in the first half of 2020 with BOPIS orders representing 50 percent of that total.