Academy Sports and Outdoors Inc (ASO) 2022 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Academy Sports and Outdoors Second Quarter Fiscal 2022 Results Conference Call. At this time, this call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) I will now turn the call over to Matt Hodges, Vice President of Investor Relations for Academy Sports and Outdoors. Matt, please go ahead.

女士們，先生們，早上好，歡迎參加 Academy Sports and Outdoors 2022 財年第二季度業績電話會議。此時，此通話正在錄音中。 （操作員說明）我現在將把電話轉給 Academy Sports and Outdoors 投資者關係副總裁 Matt Hodges。馬特，請繼續。

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the Academy Sports and Outdoors' Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results Call. Participating on the call are Ken Hicks, Chairman, President and CEO; Michael Mullican, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Steve Lawrence, Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer.

大家早上好，感謝您參加 Academy Sports and Outdoors 的 2022 年第二季度財務業績電話會議。參加電話會議的有董事長、總裁兼首席執行官 Ken Hicks； Michael Mullican，執行副總裁兼首席財務官；和執行副總裁兼首席營銷官史蒂夫·勞倫斯（Steve Lawrence）。

As a reminder, statements in today's earnings release and the comments made by management during this call may be considered forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors identified in the earnings release and in our SEC filings. The company undertakes no obligation to revise any forward-looking statements.

提醒一下，今天的收益發布中的陳述和管理層在本次電話會議期間發表的評論可能被視為前瞻性陳述。這些陳述受到風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致我們的實際結果與我們的預期和預測存在重大差異。這些風險和不確定性包括但不限於收益發布和我們提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中確定的因素。公司不承擔修改任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

Today's remarks also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures are included in today's earnings release, which is available at investors.academy.com. Unless otherwise noted, comparisons are to 2021 with 2019 comparisons also provided, where appropriate, to benchmark performance, given the impact of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Ken Hicks.

今天的評論還提到了某些非公認會計原則的財務措施。與最具可比性的 GAAP 措施的對賬包含在今天的收益發布中，可在 Investors.academy.com 上獲取。除非另有說明，否則考慮到 2020 年和 2021 年大流行的影響，在適當的情況下，還提供了與 2021 年的比較和 2019 年的比較，以基準績效。我現在將把電話轉給我們的首席執行官肯·希克斯 (Ken Hicks)。

Thank you, Matt. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. Our performance this quarter was in line with our expectations. We remain confident that the durability of our strong assortments and everyday value model positions us well to deliver consistent sales and profitability growth going forward. This growth is supported by operational excellence, healthy inventory levels, a strong balance sheet, new store expansion and omni-channel advancement. The Academy team remains focused on executing our priorities to achieve our vision of becoming the best sports and outdoors retailer in the country while delivering a great experience for our customers and creating value for our stakeholders.

謝謝你，馬特。早上好，感謝大家今天加入我們。我們本季度的表現符合我們的預期。我們仍然相信，我們強大的品種和日常價值模型的耐用性使我們能夠很好地實現持續的銷售和盈利增長。這種增長得益於卓越運營、健康的庫存水平、強勁的資產負債表、新店擴張和全渠道發展。 Academy 團隊仍然專注於執行我們的優先事項，以實現我們成為該國最好的運動和戶外用品零售商的願景，同時為我們的客戶提供出色的體驗並為我們的利益相關者創造價值。

Part of our plan to achieve this vision is by expanding our footprint and bringing more fun to the rest of the country. I'm excited to announce we opened our second store of 2022 in Panama City, Florida during the second quarter. It is our first location in this market and our 13th store in Florida. So far, in the third quarter, we've opened 2 additional stores, 1 in Richmond, Virginia, a new market for us, and another 1 in Atlanta, Georgia, an existing market we continue to build out. These stores bring our total opened so far this year to 4 stores with 5 more expected to come in 2022. While it is early, the new stores opened in 2022 are overall exceeding our initial sales expectations, which is a good indication that customers are drawn to our broad assortment of top national and high-quality private brands at an everyday value. Thanks to all of the team members who helped execute these highly successful store openings.

我們實現這一願景的部分計劃是擴大我們的足跡並為該國其他地區帶來更多樂趣。我很高興地宣布，我們將於第二季度在佛羅里達州巴拿馬城開設了 2022 年的第二家門店。這是我們在這個市場的第一家店，也是我們在佛羅里達州的第 13 家店。到目前為止，在第三季度，我們又開設了 2 家商店，其中 1 家在弗吉尼亞州里士滿，這是我們的一個新市場，另外 1 家在佐治亞州亞特蘭大，這是我們繼續建設的現有市場。這些門店使我們今年迄今為止開設的門店總數達到 4 家，預計 2022 年將新增 5 家。雖然時間尚早，但 2022 年新開的門店總體上超出了我們最初的銷售預期，這很好地表明了客戶的吸引力以日常價值購買我們種類繁多的頂級國家和高品質自有品牌。感謝所有幫助執行這些非常成功的商店開業的團隊成員。

We're excited to be in a growth mode and expect to open 9 new stores this fiscal year and 80 to 100 stores over the next 5 years. Academy stores have the highest store productivity in our peer group, making our new stores a compelling use of our capital with a high return on investment. As I mentioned on the last call, our expansion plans consist of 3 distinct opportunities. First is building scale in existing fast-growing markets like Atlanta, Georgia, where we've opened 2 new stores in the past 4 months and now have 12 locations. Second is expanding into adjacent markets like Panama City, Florida, where we just opened, and Lexington, Kentucky, where we will open a new store later this fall. And third is opening in a new market such as Richmond, Virginia, where we opened in mid-August, and West Virginia later this year.

我們很高興能夠進入增長模式，並預計本財年將開設 9 家新店，並在未來 5 年內開設 80 至 100 家門店。學院商店在我們的同行中擁有最高的商店生產力，使我們的新商店成為我們資本的一種引人注目的用途，並且投資回報率很高。正如我在上次電話會議中提到的，我們的擴張計劃包括 3 個不同的機會。首先是在喬治亞州亞特蘭大等現有快速增長的市場擴大規模，我們在過去 4 個月裡開設了 2 家新店，現在有 12 個地點。其次是擴展到鄰近的市場，例如我們剛剛開業的佛羅里達州巴拿馬城和肯塔基州列剋星敦，我們將在今年秋天晚些時候在那裡開設一家新店。第三個是在新市場開業，例如我們於 8 月中旬開業的弗吉尼亞州里士滿和今年晚些時候開業的西弗吉尼亞州。

As we continue to expand the store base over time, we believe this will increase brand awareness, leading to market share gains as well as omni-channel growth due to our high penetration of buy online pick-up in store sales.

隨著我們隨著時間的推移繼續擴大門店基礎，我們相信這將提高品牌知名度，導致市場份額增加以及全渠道增長，因為我們在門店銷售中的在線購買提貨滲透率很高。

I'll now provide a high-level overview of our second quarter results. The quarter presented similar macroeconomic challenges as the first quarter, and the team demonstrated once again their ability to perform in a tough environment. Our reported sales and negative 6% comp versus last year's were in line with our expectations. These results were a strong 36% sales increase versus 2019 through the second quarter as the business continued to substantially outperform our pre-pandemic levels of sales and profits. Our best customers have remained resilient throughout the challenging economic environment while our value offering continues to resonate. We expect the sales trend compared to 2019 to hold for the remainder of 2022.

我現在將提供我們第二季度業績的高級概述。本季度呈現出與第一季度類似的宏觀經濟挑戰，該團隊再次展示了他們在艱難環境中的表現能力。與去年相比，我們報告的銷售額和 6% 的負收益符合我們的預期。與 2019 年第二季度相比，這些結果的銷售額強勁增長了 36%，因為該業務的銷售和利潤繼續大大超過我們大流行前的水平。在充滿挑戰的經濟環境中，我們最好的客戶一直保持彈性，而我們的價值產品繼續引起共鳴。我們預計與 2019 年相比的銷售趨勢將在 2022 年剩餘時間內保持不變。

While each of our 4 merchandise divisions, Sports and Recreation, Footwear, Apparel, and Outdoors saw a decrease in their year-over-year sales when compared to the second quarter of 2019, each merchandise division grew by at least 20%, with outdoors and sports and recreation each increasing by more than 45% over 2019. This highlights the fact that each of our merchandise divisions remain substantially higher than pre-pandemic levels. Steve will discuss our merchandise results in more detail later in the call.

雖然與 2019 年第二季度相比，我們的 4 個商品部門（運動與休閒、鞋類、服裝和戶外）的銷售額同比均有所下降，但每個商品部門均增長了至少 20%，其中戶外與 2019 年相比，體育和娛樂各增長了 45% 以上。這突顯了我們的每個商品部門仍大大高於大流行前水平的事實。史蒂夫將在稍後的電話會議中更詳細地討論我們的商品結果。

During the quarter, we were very pleased with our positive e-commerce sales performance, which grew 12% versus last year. We continue to invest in technology to accelerate our omni-channel growth and create a seamless, engaging customer experience. For example, we've added new mobile payment options like Google Pay and Apple Pay in 4 and we will be launching store wayfinding on our app later this year. We will continue to invest in and deploy technology across our stores, omnichannel and supply chain to enhance the customer experience. These investments are yielding strong results as we continue to see our omni-channel business grow, store productivity increase, inventory assortment and in-stocks improve and our customer survey scores at record levels.

在本季度，我們對積極的電子商務銷售業績感到非常滿意，與去年相比增長了 12%。我們繼續投資於技術以加速我們的全渠道增長並創造無縫、引人入勝的客戶體驗。例如，我們在 4 中添加了新的移動支付選項，例如 Google Pay 和 Apple Pay，我們將在今年晚些時候在我們的應用上推出商店尋路功能。我們將繼續在我們的商店、全渠道和供應鏈中投資和部署技術，以提升客戶體驗。隨著我們繼續看到我們的全渠道業務增長、商店生產力提高、庫存分類和庫存改善以及我們的客戶調查得分達到創紀錄水平，這些投資正在產生強勁的結果。

Our adjusted earnings per share were $2.30. This was driven by our ability to sustain our gross margin rate above 35% and effectively control costs. Our gross margin rate is expected to remain in line with our full year guidance, leading to strong cash flow generation and profit growth.

我們調整後的每股收益為 2.30 美元。這是由於我們能夠將毛利率維持在 35% 以上並有效控製成本。我們的毛利率預計將與我們的全年指導保持一致，從而帶來強勁的現金流產生和利潤增長。

Looking ahead to the third quarter and the remainder of the year, we had a good back-to-school season and expect comparable sales to continue to sequentially improve as we go through tailgating, hunting and fall sports and move into the holidays. As I have stated before, Academy Sports and Outdoors is a different company from 4 years ago and is poised to utilize its operational excellence and strong balance sheet to profitably grow through new store expansion and omnichannel growth.

展望第三季度和今年剩餘時間，我們有一個良好的開學季，預計隨著我們經歷尾隨、狩獵和秋季運動以及進入假期，可比銷售額將繼續依次提高。正如我之前所說，Academy Sports and Outdoors 是一家與 4 年前不同的公司，並準備利用其卓越的運營和強大的資產負債表，通過新店擴張和全渠道增長實現盈利增長。

I'll now turn the call over to Michael to provide more details on our second quarter financial results, discuss our capital allocation efforts and provide an update on our 2022 guidance. Michael?

我現在將電話轉給邁克爾，以提供有關我們第二季度財務業績的更多詳細信息，討論我們的資本分配工作並提供我們 2022 年指導的最新信息。邁克爾?

Thanks, Ken. Good morning, everyone. Academy once again delivered solid earnings per share growth on an expected sales decline, demonstrating our earnings potential and our ability to deliver strong results in a challenging environment. In the second quarter, comparable sales declined 6%, an improvement over the first quarter, while earnings per share increased by 12% compared to last year. Net sales were $1.69 billion, a decline of 5.8% compared to the second quarter last year. The sales decline was a result of fewer transactions this quarter compared to the prior year but was partially offset by an increase in average ticket, driven by higher unit prices.

謝謝，肯。大家，早安。 Academy 在預期銷售額下降的情況下再次實現每股收益穩健增長，展示了我們的盈利潛力和在充滿挑戰的環境中取得強勁業績的能力。第二季度，可比銷售額下降了 6%，比第一季度有所改善，而每股收益則比去年同期增長了 12%。淨銷售額為 16.9 億美元，與去年第二季度相比下降了 5.8%。銷售額下降的原因是本季度的交易量比去年同期減少，但部分被單價上漲推動的平均票價增加所抵消。

On our last call, we discussed how we are benchmarking performance to 2019, which was our last normalized year prior to the pandemic. In the second quarter, sales increased approximately 36% versus 2019, which was consistent with the 36% growth we reported in the first quarter. In addition, the overall shape of the sales curve mirrored the 2019 trajectory but at elevated volume levels.

在我們上次的電話會議上，我們討論了我們如何以 2019 年為基準，這是我們在大流行之前的最後一個正常化年份。第二季度，銷售額與 2019 年相比增長了約 36%，這與我們在第一季度報告的 36% 的增長一致。此外，銷售曲線的整體形狀反映了 2019 年的軌跡，但銷量水平有所提高。

Our e-commerce sales increased 12% compared to Q2 2021, making it the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit sales growth. The penetration rate continues to improve as well, ending at 10% of sales compared to 8.4% in Q2 2021. When compared to Q2 of 2019, our e-commerce business has grown approximately 245% and the penetration rate has increased by 610 basis points.

與 2021 年第二季度相比，我們的電子商務銷售額增長了 12%，連續第四個季度實現兩位數的銷售額增長。滲透率也在繼續提高，最終達到銷售額的 10%，而 2021 年第二季度為 8.4%。與 2019 年第二季度相比，我們的電子商務業務增長了約 245%，滲透率增加了 610 個基點.

Omnichannel is an important part of our long-term growth strategy, and we continue to invest in enhancements to academy.com, the mobile app and our store support in omnichannel sales, such as Ship to Store, BOPIS and Ship from Store. These investments will further enhance the customer experience, expand Academy's reach to new customers and drive further operational efficiencies. We also expect academy.com to get a sales lift from an increase in brand awareness as we open more stores in adjacent and new markets.

全渠道是我們長期增長戰略的重要組成部分，我們將繼續投資於增強 academy.com、移動應用程序和我們在全渠道銷售方面的商店支持，例如從商店發貨、BOPIS 和從商店發貨。這些投資將進一步增強客戶體驗，擴大 Academy 對新客戶的影響，並進一步提高運營效率。隨著我們在鄰近市場和新市場開設更多商店，我們還預計 academy.com 將因品牌知名度的提高而提高銷售額。

As Ken mentioned, our new store openings are ramping up. Year-to-date, we have opened 4 of the 9 stores currently planned for 2022. The early success of the new stores demonstrates our confidence that our business model of providing a broad value-based assortment of top national brands and private label products for the whole family resonates with customers. In tough economic times, customers tend to seek out value so we believe we are well positioned to meet that need with our broad selection of good, better, best products at compelling price points.

正如肯所說，我們的新店開張正在增加。年初至今，我們已經在 2022 年計劃的 9 家門店中開設了 4 家。新店的早期成功表明我們相信我們的商業模式是提供基於價值的頂級民族品牌和自有品牌產品的廣泛分類整個家庭都引起了客戶的共鳴。在艱難的經濟時期，客戶往往會尋求價值，因此我們相信我們有能力通過以極具吸引力的價格點提供廣泛的優質、更好、最好的產品來滿足這一需求。

All of the new stores are expected to meet our general new store operating model, so we anticipate these stores will: first, have a return on invested capital of at least 20%; second, ramp to maturity in 4 to 5 years; and third, be EBITDA accretive after the first full year of being open. During the second quarter, our existing store productivity was once again very strong. Trailing 12-month sales per square foot were $356 and trailing 12-month operating income per store was $3.4 million. As a reminder, 100% of our existing stores are profitable and accretive to earnings, which gives us great confidence in our future growth potential.

預計所有新店都將滿足我們一般的新店運營模式，因此我們預計這些門店將：首先，投資資本回報率至少為 20%；第二，在 4 到 5 年內逐漸成熟；第三，在開業的第一年之後，EBITDA 增加。在第二季度，我們現有商店的生產力再次非常強勁。每平方英尺過去 12 個月的銷售額為 356 美元，每家商店過去 12 個月的營業收入為 340 萬美元。提醒一下，我們現有的門店 100% 都是盈利的並且可以增加收益，這讓我們對未來的增長潛力充滿信心。

Moving to gross margin. Our gross margin dollars were $596 million with a rate of 35.3%, only 60 basis points below last year's 35.9%, which was the highest in the company's history. Through our merchandising efficiencies, we increased our merchandise margins compared to last year. The increase in merchandise margins was offset by an increase in e-commerce shipping and freight costs compared to Q2 2021. This increase was driven by the growth of our e-commerce business and also from higher import costs as private label sales were a higher percentage of our total sales mix.

轉向毛利率。我們的毛利率為 5.96 億美元，增長率為 35.3%，僅比去年公司歷史最高的 35.9% 低 60 個基點。通過我們的銷售效率，與去年相比，我們提高了商品利潤率。與 2021 年第二季度相比，電子商務運輸和貨運成本的增加抵消了商品利潤率的增長。這一增長是由我們的電子商務業務的增長以及進口成本增加所推動的，因為自有品牌銷售額的百分比更高我們的總銷售組合。

During the quarter, SG&A expenses were 20.1% of sales, a 160 basis point decrease compared to Q2 2021. The change was primarily a result of lapping the nonrecurring expenses associated with the accelerated share vesting in the second quarter of 2021. Excluding this nonrecurring expense, SG&A expenses increased 70 basis points primarily due to fixed cost deleverage.

本季度，SG&A 費用佔銷售額的 20.1%，與 2021 年第二季度相比下降了 160 個基點。這一變化主要是由於與 2021 年第二季度加速股份歸屬相關的非經常性費用發生了變化。不包括這項非經常性費用, SG&A 費用增加 70 個基點，主要是由於固定成本去槓桿。

Operating income for the quarter was 15.2% of sales or $256.7 million, flat to last year but 43% higher than all of fiscal year 2019. In total, we delivered net income of $189 million for Q2. On an adjusted basis, net income was $195 million, making this quarter the second most profitable quarter in Academy's history. Second quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share were $2.22 per share compared to $1.99 per share in Q2 2021. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $2.30 compared to $2.34 per share in Q2 of 2021.

本季度的營業收入為銷售額的 15.2%，即 2.567 億美元，與去年持平，但比 2019 財年全年高出 43%。總體而言，我們第二季度的淨收入為 1.89 億美元。在調整後的基礎上，淨收入為 1.95 億美元，使本季度成為學院歷史上利潤第二高的季度。第二季度 GAAP 稀釋後每股收益為 2.22 美元，而 2021 年第二季度為每股 1.99 美元。調整後的稀釋後每股收益為 2.30 美元，而 2021 年第二季度為每股 2.34 美元。

Now for an update on our balance sheet and liquidity position. We ended the quarter with $400 million in cash and had no outstanding borrowings on our $1 billion credit facility. During the quarter, we generated $161 million in net cash from operating activities. Given our strong cash generation, we were able to execute on each of our capital priorities by repurchasing 5.6 million shares for approximately $200 million, paying a dividend of $0.075 per share, investing in our strategic growth and performance priorities and maintaining a strong cash balance. In addition, the Board recently declared a dividend of $0.075 per share, payable on October 13, 2022 to stockholders of record as of September 15, 2022.

現在更新我們的資產負債表和流動性狀況。我們在本季度結束時擁有 4 億美元現金，並且我們 10 億美元的信貸額度沒有未償還的借款。本季度，我們從經營活動中產生了 1.61 億美元的淨現金。鑑於我們強大的現金生成能力，我們能夠以約 2 億美元的價格回購 560 萬股股票，支付每股 0.075 美元的股息，投資於我們的戰略增長和績效優先事項並保持強勁的現金餘額，從而執行我們的每個資本優先事項。此外，董事會最近宣布派發每股 0.075 美元的股息，將於 2022 年 10 月 13 日支付給截至 2022 年 9 月 15 日登記在冊的股東。

Regarding inventory, our planning and allocation initiatives have ensured that we are properly stocked with the best value and assortment across all categories for the fall season. Our ending inventory balance was $1.3 billion, a 17% increase compared to the second quarter last year. When compared to Q2 of 2019, inventory dollars were up 8.4% and units declined by 12% on a sales increase of 36%, demonstrating that while sales have increased significantly, we have effectively managed our inventory.

關於庫存，我們的計劃和分配舉措確保了我們在秋季的所有類別中適當地備有最佳價值和分類。我們的期末存貨餘額為 13 億美元，與去年第二季度相比增長了 17%。與 2019 年第二季度相比，庫存美元增長 8.4%，單位銷售額下降 12%，銷售額增長 36%，這表明雖然銷售額顯著增長，但我們有效地管理了庫存。

That brings us to guidance. Based on our results and current trends, we are reiterating our full year net and comparable sales guidance while updating our earnings per share forecast to reflect the reduction in our share count. The updated full year guidance is as follows: Net sales are still expected to range from $6.4 billion to $6.6 billion, with comparable sales down 6% to 3%. Our gross margin rate for the full year is still expected to range from 33% to 33.5%. GAAP net income is still expected to range from $550 million to $615 million.

這給我們帶來了指導。根據我們的業績和當前趨勢，我們重申我們的全年淨銷售額和可比銷售指導，同時更新我們的每股收益預測以反映我們股票數量的減少。更新後的全年指引如下：淨銷售額仍預計在 64 億美元至 66 億美元之間，可比銷售額下降 6% 至 3%。我們全年的毛利率仍預計在 33% 至 33.5% 之間。 GAAP 淨收入仍預計在 5.5 億美元至 6.15 億美元之間。

GAAP diluted earnings per share are now expected to range from $6.50 per share to $7.25 per share. Adjusted diluted earnings per share, which excludes certain estimated expenses such as stock compensation and store preopening expenses, are now expected to range from $6.75 per share to $7.50 per share. The earnings per share estimates are calculated based on an updated share count of 85 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding for the full year. The EPS outlook does not include any further repurchasing activity for the year.

現在預計 GAAP 攤薄後每股收益從每股 6.50 美元到每股 7.25 美元不等。調整後的稀釋後每股收益（不包括股票薪酬和開店前費用等某些估計費用）現在預計在每股 6.75 美元至 7.50 美元之間。每股收益的估計是根據全年8500萬股稀釋加權平均流通股的更新股數計算的。每股收益展望不包括本年度的任何進一步回購活動。

With that, I will now turn the call over to Steve for more details around our merchandising and operations performance. Steve?

有了這個，我現在將把電話轉給史蒂夫，以了解有關我們的銷售和運營績效的更多細節。史蒂夫?

Thanks, Michael. As you heard earlier, our Q2 sales came in at $1.69 billion, which is a 6% decline versus 2021. Breaking the sales down by category, our best-performing division in the quarter was Sports and Recreation, which was down 2.5% versus '21 but up 47% versus 2019. The team sports business continued to be extremely strong with football, golf, baseball and soccer all being key contributors. We also saw strength in several of the recreation categories such as water sports and outdoor furniture.

謝謝，邁克爾。正如您之前所聽到的，我們第二季度的銷售額為 16.9 億美元，與 2021 年相比下降了 6%。按類別劃分銷售額，我們本季度表現最好的部門是體育和娛樂部門，與 2021 年相比下降了 2.5%。 21，但與 2019 年相比增長了 47%。團隊運動業務繼續保持強勁勢頭，足球、高爾夫、棒球和足球都是主要貢獻者。我們還看到了水上運動和戶外家具等幾個休閒類別的實力。

Fitness remains the most challenging category in this area of business, but we've seen it stabilize over the past couple of quarters and over a 30% increase versus 2019 pre-pandemic levels. The footwear division was our second best business at down 4% versus last year but up 22% versus 2019. Similar to Sports and Rec, we saw continued strength in our team sports cleated business where demand continues to outpace supply.

健身仍然是該業務領域中最具挑戰性的類別，但我們已經看到它在過去幾個季度中穩定下來，與 2019 年大流行前的水平相比增長了 30% 以上。鞋類部門是我們第二好的業務，與去年相比下降了 4%，但與 2019 年相比增長了 22%。與 Sports 和 Rec 類似，我們看到我們的團隊運動防滑鞋業務持續強勁，需求繼續超過供應。

Other bright spots included children's shoes, along with big brands such as Crocs, SKECHERS, Adidas and Puma, which all ran increases for the quarter. We're also excited to launch HEYDUDE in all stores in July just in time for back-to-school. We're seeing strong early results and expect HEYDUDE to be a sales driver versus the remainder of the year. Apparel sales came at down 6% versus last year but were up 29% versus 2019. Receipts and inventory level steadily improved over the course of the quarter.

其他亮點包括童鞋，以及Crocs、SKECHERS、阿迪達斯和彪馬等大品牌，均在本季度實現增長。我們也很高興能在 7 月在所有商店推出 HEYDUDE，正好趕上返校。我們看到了強勁的早期業績，並預計 HEYDUDE 將成為今年剩餘時間的銷售驅動力。服裝銷售額與去年相比下降了 6%，但與 2019 年相比增長了 29%。收入和庫存水平在本季度穩步改善。

The outdoor and licensed apparel business has led the way in this division during Q2. Our athletic apparel business was a little softer in the quarter, which we primarily attribute to not having the optimal mix of lightweight tops and shorts inventory as we entered the quarter. We did see the trend improve as we turn the corner into back-to-school selling season where we believe our inventories are better balanced and well positioned to drive sales in the back half of the year.

在第二季度，戶外和許可服裝業務在該部門處於領先地位。我們的運動服裝業務在本季度略有疲軟，我們主要歸因於進入本季度時沒有最佳的輕質上衣和短褲庫存組合。隨著我們將拐角處轉入返校銷售旺季，我們確實看到了這種趨勢的改善，我們相信我們的庫存更加平衡，並且能夠在下半年推動銷售。

Our outdoor business was down 9% versus last year but was up 46% versus 2019. Camping was the strongest business in this category, running a positive comp for the quarter. Both our field and stream businesses were down versus last year but, in aggregate, continued to run well above 2019 levels. The supply chain across most of our outdoor businesses has improved. And while not totally back to normal, we're seeing inventory and in-stocks maintain at much higher levels than we have been at over the past couple of years. We believe our improved inventory position in both these categories positions us to take advantage of the upcoming hunting season, along with the holiday gift shopping opportunity.

我們的戶外業務與去年相比下降了 9%，但與 2019 年相比增長了 46%。露營是這一類別中最強勁的業務，本季度的業績為正。與去年相比，我們的油田和流媒體業務均有所下降，但總體上繼續遠高於 2019 年的水平。我們大部分戶外業務的供應鏈都得到了改善。雖然沒有完全恢復正常，但我們看到庫存和庫存維持在比過去幾年高得多的水平。我們相信，我們在這兩個類別中改善的庫存狀況使我們能夠利用即將到來的狩獵季節以及節日禮物購物機會。

Turning to margins. We continue to hold on to most of the gains we've made over the past couple of years. Gross margin rate for the quarter came in at 35.3%, which was down 60 basis points versus '21, was up 420 basis points versus our 2019 baseline. Beneath the surface, our merchandise margin was up 20 basis points versus last year, which was the same increase we ran in Q1. All the hard work the teams have done over the past couple of years around improved buying and planning and allocation disciplines had allowed us to absorb the uptick in promotions during Q2 while still seeing increases in our merchandise margins.

轉向邊緣。我們繼續保持過去幾年取得的大部分成果。本季度的毛利率為 35.3%，與 21 年相比下降了 60 個基點，與我們 2019 年的基線相比上升了 420 個基點。在表面之下，我們的商品利潤率比去年增加了 20 個基點，這與我們在第一季度的增幅相同。團隊在過去幾年中圍繞改進購買、計劃和分配紀律所做的所有努力使我們能夠在第二季度吸收促銷活動的增長，同時仍然看到我們的商品利潤率有所增加。

Looking forward, we expect the second half of the year to be more promotional than the first half, and we've accounted for this increased discounting in the guidance Michael discussed earlier. That being said, we expect to maintain most of the margin gains from the past couple of years, and we're confident that our everyday value pricing, coupled with our promotional strategy, makes us very competitive and allows us to maintain our position as the value leader in our space.

展望未來，我們預計今年下半年將比上半年更具促銷性，我們已經在邁克爾之前討論的指導中考慮了這種增加的折扣。話雖如此，我們希望保持過去幾年的大部分利潤增長，我們相信我們的日常價值定價，加上我們的促銷策略，使我們非常具有競爭力，並使我們能夠保持我們作為我們領域的價值領導者。

Moving on to inventory. Our teams have done an outstanding job in managing through what continues to be a challenging environment. We ended the second quarter with inventory up 17% versus last year, only up 8% versus 2019 in terms of dollars and down 12% in units. Similar to the last quarter, the primary driver of the delta between inventory dollars and units versus 2019 is the increased bigger-ticket hard goods categories as part of our inventory and sales mix. Outdoors and Sports and Rec have grown to 53% of the business this year compared to 49% of total sales in 2019. The remainder of the variance is driven by the expansion over time of the better and best offerings in our assortments along with some cost inflation.

繼續庫存。我們的團隊在管理仍然充滿挑戰的環境方面做得非常出色。我們在第二季度結束時庫存比去年增加了 17%，以美元計僅比 2019 年增加 8%，以單位計下降 12%。與上一季度類似，與 2019 年相比，庫存美元和單位之間差異的主要驅動因素是作為我們庫存和銷售組合的一部分的高價硬商品類別的增加。今年戶外、運動和休閒已增長到 53% 的業務，而 2019 年佔總銷售額的 49%。其餘的差異是由於隨著時間的推移，我們的產品種類中更好和最好的產品的擴展以及一些成本通貨膨脹。

Heading into the back half of the year, our inventories are much better balanced across various businesses with in-stock improvements across every category. Additionally, the overall quality of our inventory is in a much better position this year and many of the key brands that we ran light in last year, such as Nike, Adidas, Under Armour and YETI. Many of our fall holiday receipts last year landed 30 to 90 days later than we would have liked. We moved the initial sets for these businesses back to their traditional timeframes. When you walk our stores, you will see that we're ready to take advantage of the natural fall traffic that will come in shopping for hunting and tailgating along with categories such as outerwear fleece and fire fits.

進入今年下半年，我們的庫存在各個業務中得到了更好的平衡，每個類別的庫存都有所改善。此外，今年我們庫存的整體質量處於更好的位置，我們去年經營的許多關鍵品牌，如耐克、阿迪達斯、安德瑪和 YETI。去年我們的許多秋季假期收據比我們希望的晚了 30 到 90 天。我們將這些業務的初始設置移回了傳統的時間框架。當您走進我們的商店時，您會發現我們已準備好利用自然秋季的流量，這些流量將用於狩獵和尾隨以及外套羊毛和消防服等類別。

Another sales driver for us is continuing to lean into new brands and initiatives that resonate with the sports and outdoor customers in our markets. In addition to the aforementioned HEYDUDE launch at back-to-school, we see several new brands and ideas popping up across the stores, such as Solo Stove and Rio Fire pits. There are also fun trends inspired by TikTok such as the splatter ball craze, which we've rolled out to all stores.

我們的另一個銷售驅動力是繼續關注與我們市場上的運動和戶外客戶產生共鳴的新品牌和舉措。除了前面提到的 HEYDUDE 在返校期間推出的產品外，我們還看到一些新品牌和創意在商店中不斷湧現，例如 Solo Stove 和 Rio Fire pits。還有一些受 TikTok 啟發的有趣趨勢，例如飛濺球熱，我們已將其推廣到所有商店。

Probably the idea we're most excited about is the second major limited-time cross-brand collaboration that we just launched, which is our Shiner Plus Magellan capsule products. We partner with Shiner Brewing, which is headquartered in Texas but widely distributed across our footprint, to deliver our most extensive collaboration ever. We positioned this initiative at the front of our stores a couple of weeks ago to help kick off the tailgating season. Categories in this collection included co-branded items such as tees, fishing shirts, hats, cozies, chairs, canopies, grills and even coolers. It's only been on the floor a couple of weeks but it has sold extremely well.

我們最興奮的想法可能是我們剛剛推出的第二個主要的限時跨品牌合作，即我們的 Shiner Plus Magellan 膠囊產品。我們與總部位於德克薩斯州但在我們的足跡廣泛分佈的 Shiner Brewing 合作，以提供我們有史以來最廣泛的合作。幾週前，我們將這一舉措放在了我們商店的前面，以幫助啟動尾隨季節。該系列中的類別包括聯名商品，例如 T 卹、釣魚衫、帽子、舒適、椅子、簷篷、烤架甚至冷卻器。它只在地板上放了幾個星期，但賣得非常好。

We believe building collaborations with brands that resonate with the sports and outdoor consumer can be a traffic drive initiative that we add to our playbook moving forward. Teams have worked hard to stable our supply chain and get back in stock, and we should be able to maintain a much better inventory position across virtually every category throughout fall and heading into holiday. Our everyday value offering, when coupled with the faster promotional cadence on key seasonal categories, continues to set us apart from our competition and reinforce our position as the value leader in our categories.

我們相信，與能引起運動和戶外消費者共鳴的品牌建立合作關係可以成為一項交通推動舉措，我們將其添加到我們前進的劇本中。團隊一直在努力穩定我們的供應鏈並恢復庫存，我們應該能夠在整個秋季和假期期間在幾乎所有類別中保持更好的庫存狀況。我們的日常價值提供，再加上關鍵季節性類別的更快促銷節奏，繼續使我們在競爭中脫穎而出，並鞏固我們作為我們類別價值領導者的地位。

We also believe that more controlled distribution by key vendor partners will continue to be a tailwind for us by (inaudible) shoppers looking for the best national brands and sports and outdoors into our stores. Finally, we continue to remix our marketing spend and lean into more digitally-targeted advertising while reducing our reliance on traditional broadcast and print. This will continue to improve our overall marketing reach and effectiveness.

我們還相信，主要供應商合作夥伴的更多控制分銷將繼續為我們提供（聽不清）購物者在我們的商店中尋找最好的民族品牌和運動和戶外活動的順風。最後，我們繼續重新組合我們的營銷支出，並傾向於更多以數字為目標的廣告，同時減少我們對傳統廣播和印刷的依賴。這將繼續提高我們的整體營銷範圍和有效性。

In closing, we believe that we have the proper strategies in place and are well positioned to drive the business, pick up market share during the remainder of the year. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Ken for some closing comments. Ken?

最後，我們相信我們已經制定了適當的戰略，並且能夠很好地推動業務，在今年剩餘時間裡增加市場份額。現在，我想將電話轉回給 Ken，以徵求一些結束意見。肯?

Thanks, Steve. In closing, we've demonstrated consistent, strong operational and financial performance in any environment, which is the direct result of the many improvements we put in place long before the COVID-19 pandemic, to achieve our vision of becoming the best sports and outdoors retailer in the country. I'm pleased with the sequential improvement in our comp sales and profitability versus Q1 and believe that Academy is well positioned to be the everyday value retailer of choice.

謝謝，史蒂夫。最後，我們在任何環境中都表現出一致、強勁的運營和財務業績，這是我們在 COVID-19 大流行之前很久就進行的許多改進的直接結果，以實現我們成為最佳運動和戶外運動的願景國內的零售商。我對我們的銷售和盈利能力與第一季度的連續改善感到高興，並相信 Academy 已做好準備成為首選的日常價值零售商。

We also have tremendous growth opportunities ahead of us, whether new stores, omnichannel or existing stores from operational improvements with numerous avenues of growth and the cash flows to support it. I would like to close by thanking all of the Academy Sports and Outdoors team members for their continued hard work and commitment to our vision of becoming the best sports and outdoors retailer in the country. We remain excited and confident about Academy's future and appreciate your support. Thank you, and we'll now open up the call for your questions.

我們還面臨著巨大的增長機會，無論是新店、全渠道店還是現有商店，都來自運營改進，擁有眾多增長途徑和支持它的現金流。最後，我要感謝所有 Academy Sports and Outdoors 團隊成員的持續努力和對我們成為該國最好的運動和戶外零售商的願景的承諾。我們對學院的未來保持興奮和信心，並感謝您的支持。謝謝，我們現在將打開您的問題的電話。

(Operator Instructions) Our first questions come from the line of Chris Horvers with JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Chris Horvers。

Can you talk about a little bit about what you've seen in terms of consumer behavior around trade-down? You mentioned you had a good back-to-school season, but how did the consumer behave when gas prices spiked and then receded? Did that trend versus 2019 stay consistent over the quarter? And is that also true on a quarter-to-date basis?

你能談談你所看到的圍繞降價的消費者行為嗎？你提到你有一個很好的返校季，但是當汽油價格飆升然後回落時，消費者的表現如何？與 2019 年相比，這一趨勢在本季度是否保持一致？季度至今也是如此嗎？

Chris, thank you. We are seeing the consumer continue to be interested in our category, sports and outdoors. And what we are seeing is interesting in that there's somewhat of a barbell effect that those consumers that are interested and are enthusiasts are buying -- continue to buy at the higher end. But we are seeing some of the consumers shift to our private label.

克里斯，謝謝。我們看到消費者繼續對我們的品類、運動和戶外活動感興趣。我們所看到的有趣之處在於，那些有興趣和狂熱的消費者正在購買某種槓鈴效應——繼續在高端購買。但我們看到一些消費者轉向我們的自有品牌。

And so that's why, as Steve said, our private label business was better in the quarter, and so they are looking for the value that, that's offering. But that said, we continue to see the consumer shopping for the categories that we sell. And one of the things I think that's important is we sometimes talk about what's discretionary and what's not discretionary. And I think many of the businesses that we have, the consumer, even in tough times, the kid's still going to play baseball and soccer. The person who's in the outdoors are still going to go camping or fishing, and the families are still going to barbecue. And so we're seeing a lot of those categories continue to be strong and at a much higher level than they were pre-pandemic.

這就是為什麼，正如史蒂夫所說，我們的自有品牌業務在本季度表現更好，因此他們正在尋找所提供的價值。但話雖如此，我們繼續看到消費者購買我們銷售的類別。我認為重要的一件事是我們有時會談論什麼是可自由支配的，什麼不是自由支配的。而且我認為我們擁有的許多企業，消費者，即使在困難時期，孩子們仍然會去打棒球和踢足球。在戶外的人還要去野營或者釣魚，家人還要去燒烤。因此，我們看到很多這些類別繼續保持強勁，並且比大流行前的水平要高得多。

This is Steve. I'll just add a couple of pieces of color. So to Ken's point, you see, on one hand, private label be very stronger in the quarter. On the flip side, you see a brand like YETI, it's a really strong business, which is one of the more premium brands in our assortment. So it is kind of a bifurcated result there. I would also say, you asked around kind of the shape of the quarter. One of the things, certainly as we go through quarter by quarter, month by month, you see a little bit of variance. One month maybe is a little better than that 36% average. Another month, maybe a little bit below that, but it keeps returning back to that roughly 36% increase versus 2019. And that's really kind of how we forecast the business as we look forward.

這是史蒂夫。我只會添加一些顏色。所以就肯的觀點而言，你會看到，一方面，自有品牌在本季度會非常強大。另一方面，你會看到像 YETI 這樣的品牌，它是一個非常強大的業務，是我們產品系列中更優質的品牌之一。所以這是一種分叉的結果。我還要說，您詢問了該季度的形狀。其中一件事，當然，當我們逐個季度，逐月經歷時，你會看到一點點差異。一個月可能比 36% 的平均值要好一些。再過一個月，可能略低於這個數字，但與 2019 年相比，它不斷回到大約 36% 的增長。這就是我們對未來業務的預測方式。

Yes, it's Michael. Just a really quick one to add. A lot of that strength in private label has been driven by newness in the private label with Freely, Right of Way, Magellan Pro and some others. So we're certainly happy with the way that we're managing that business.

是的，是邁克爾。只是一個非常快速的添加。自有品牌的許多優勢是由 Freely、Right of Way、Magellan Pro 和其他一些自有品牌的新穎性推動的。因此，我們當然對我們管理該業務的方式感到滿意。

Got it. And then my follow-up is for you, Michael. As you think about -- how are you thinking about working capital this year and free cash flow generation? And how do we -- should we think about a minimum cash balance as we think about the potential for additional share repurchase later this year? Obviously, at this point, you're probably full of inventory so you got maybe a seasonally low point from a cash balance perspective. But one would expect -- one would think that cash becomes a source of funds into the back half of the year. And so just trying to think about the potential for additional share repurchases.

知道了。然後我的後續行動是為你準備的，邁克爾。正如您所想 - 您如何看待今年的營運資金和自由現金流的產生？在我們考慮今年晚些時候進行額外股票回購的可能性時，我們應該如何考慮最低現金餘額？顯然，此時您的庫存可能已滿，因此從現金餘額的角度來看，您可能處於季節性低點。但人們會期望——人們會認為現金成為下半年的資金來源。所以只是試圖考慮額外股票回購的可能性。

Yes, a couple of things. Look, I think others are full of inventory. We have the right amount of inventory at a good level. We've managed that well when we compare it to 2019. I think one of the many positive that this quarter illustrated is our tremendous earning potential in a tough environment and against some really tough comparisons. In addition to having the most profitable quarter we've ever had from an earnings per share standpoint, we were able to post EBIT and net income rates that led the sector.

是的，有幾件事。看，我認為其他人都充滿了庫存。我們有適量的庫存，處於良好的水平。當我們將其與 2019 年進行比較時，我們已經做到了這一點。我認為本季度所展示的眾多積極因素之一是我們在艱難的環境中擁有巨大的盈利潛力，並且與一些非常艱難的比較相比。除了從每股收益的角度來看，我們擁有有史以來最賺錢的季度外，我們還能夠公佈引領該行業的息稅前利潤和淨利潤率。

In fact, I think, in specialty retailer there, at the tip top of the heap. We have a double-digit free cash flow yield, which makes these discussions on capital allocation possible. We certainly have the cash to invest. With that in mind, our approach hasn't changed. We are generating enough cash to do -- to take a do-everything approach to capital allocation. The first thing that we consider is the point that you mentioned around stability. We want to maintain a cash flow that allows us to be nimble in a variety of environments. I think we've done that. We're there and we plan to manage that way. We've got $1 billion less debt than we had a few years ago.

事實上，我認為，在專業零售商那裡，處於最頂端。我們有兩位數的自由現金流收益率，這使得這些關於資本配置的討論成為可能。我們當然有現金投資。考慮到這一點，我們的方法沒有改變。我們正在產生足夠的現金來做——採取無所不能的方法來進行資本配置。我們首先考慮的是你提到的穩定性問題。我們希望保持現金流，使我們能夠在各種環境中保持靈活。我想我們已經做到了。我們在那裡，我們計劃以這種方式進行管理。我們的債務比幾年前少了 10 億美元。

Secondly, we want to make sure we can fund our growth initiatives. And conservatively, we have the ability to add hundreds of more stores. We've announced plans to add 100 within the next 5 years. We mentioned last quarter that Conyers was the best store that we've had that we could go back and find. Panama City opened in the second quarter, that topped Conyers. So we certainly feel like we've got the store opening program figured out and want to make sure that we're hitting our targets there for 100 the next 5 years.

其次，我們要確保我們能夠為我們的增長計劃提供資金。保守地說，我們有能力再增加數百家商店。我們已宣布計劃在未來 5 年內增加 100 個。我們在上個季度提到，Conyers 是我們擁有的最好的商店，我們可以回去尋找。巴拿馬城在第二季度開張，超過了科尼爾斯。因此，我們當然覺得我們已經確定了開店計劃，並希望確保我們在未來 5 年內達到 100 家的目標。

Academy.com has grown 250% since 2019, posted its fourth quarter in a row of double-digit growth. We're going to continue to fund academy.com. We can do all of those things and still have cash left over to return to shareholders, which we did in the second quarter. The Board announced an additional $600 million repurchase authorization. And we've, in the past few years, bought back 3x what we raised in the IPO. We're going to evaluate it, be opportunistic. We certainly think the stock is a good value, which is why we purchased a fair amount last quarter and we'll continue to look at that. The punchline is we can do all 3.

Academy.com 自 2019 年以來增長了 250%，連續第四季度實現兩位數增長。我們將繼續資助 academy.com。我們可以做所有這些事情，並且仍然有剩餘的現金返還給股東，這是我們在第二季度所做的。董事會宣布追加 6 億美元的回購授權。在過去的幾年裡，我們回購了 3 倍於我們在 IPO 中籌集的資金。我們將對其進行評估，投機取巧。我們當然認為這隻股票很有價值，這就是為什麼我們上個季度購買了相當數量的股票，我們將繼續關注這一點。關鍵是我們可以做到所有 3。

Best of luck.

祝你好運。

Our next questions come from the line of Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Simeon Gutman。

I wanted to ask about the promotional environment. You mentioned that you still did well despite the uptick. Can maybe we talk about if there's anything structural that you could point to that's changed pre-COVID and then dig in a little bit to it? Is it because the mix is helping? Is it the magnitude in each category? Are initial markups higher? So just a way to think about why this backdrop can continue.

我想問一下促銷環境。你提到儘管有所上升，但你仍然做得很好。也許我們可以談談是否有什麼結構性的東西可以指出在 COVID 之前發生了變化，然後再深入研究一下？是因為混合有幫助嗎？是每個類別的量級嗎？初始加價是否更高？所以只是一種思考為什麼這種背景可以繼續的方式。

Yes, this is Steve. I'll take the first stab and answer the question. So we've talked a lot about in previous calls. Structurally, we've done a lot of work beneath the surface to be better managers of our business, which I think has given us the lion's share of the increases. We've had multiple initiatives across merchandising, planning and allocation in terms of better inventory management, better flow, better localization efforts.

是的，這是史蒂夫。我將採取第一次嘗試並回答問題。所以我們在之前的電話會議中談了很多。從結構上講，我們在表面下做了很多工作，以便更好地管理我們的業務，我認為這給了我們最大的增長份額。在更好的庫存管理、更好的流程、更好的本地化工作方面，我們在銷售、規劃和分配方面採取了多項舉措。

We've really dramatically improved our markdown, process, timing and cadence to get much more current with our inventory. So I would say a lot of those things are structural and are kind of stick to the ribs, and we think are going to help us sustain the margins. I'd also say that another thing that I think helped us within the quarter is we don't have an inventory overhang to deal with. We've been very, I think, smart about how we've managed the inventory, up 17%, certainly versus last year. I think it's up 8% versus where we were in '19 in dollars but down about 8% in units -- actually, no, 12%. That's 12% in units.

我們確實極大地改進了我們的降價、流程、時間和節奏，以使我們的庫存更加最新。所以我想說很多這些東西都是結構性的，有點粘在肋骨上，我們認為這將幫助我們維持利潤率。我還要說，我認為在本季度幫助我們的另一件事是我們沒有庫存過剩需要處理。我認為，我們在管理庫存方面非常聰明，與去年相比增長了 17%。我認為它與 19 年的美元相比上漲了 8%，但單位下降了約 8%——實際上，不，是 12%。這是單位的 12%。

So we've really been thoughtful about as the supply chain is starting to get a little more normal, although not quite back to normal, making sure we control those inventories. So I think that's allowed us to be very thoughtful about putting promotions back in as we've needed to, to be competitive. We certainly think that the back half of the year is going to be more promotional than it was last year, certainly around holiday. We've got that baked into our guidance as we think about it.

因此，隨著供應鏈開始變得更加正常，儘管還沒有完全恢復正常，我們確實已經深思熟慮，以確保我們控制這些庫存。所以我認為這讓我們能夠非常周到地考慮按照我們的需要重新進行促銷活動，以保持競爭力。我們當然認為今年下半年的促銷活動將比去年更多，當然是在假期前後。當我們考慮它時，我們已經將它納入我們的指導。

And then the offsets we have are the structure improvements I mentioned. You mentioned mix. Mix helps out a little bit as the soft goods side of the business becomes a bigger percentage of the total. But we feel really good about where we're positioned and our ability to deal with the promotional environment that we see ahead of us.

然後我們擁有的偏移量是我提到的結構改進。你提到了混合。隨著業務的軟商品方面佔總數的更大比例，混合會有所幫助。但我們對自己所處的位置以及處理我們看到的促銷環境的能力感到非常滿意。

There are a couple of other things, I think, that have helped us. One is our suppliers, in some cases, have cut back from some of the promotional -- people who were more promotional and they're no longer in the business. And therefore, promotions have become more rational. We will continue to utilize our value proposition and have promotions at key times and react to promotions that are out there competitively.

我認為還有其他幾件事對我們有所幫助。一個是我們的供應商，在某些情況下，已經削減了一些促銷活動——那些促銷活動更多的人，他們不再從事這項業務。因此，促銷變得更加理性。我們將繼續利用我們的價值主張，在關鍵時刻進行促銷活動，並對有競爭力的促銷活動做出反應。

But we have not seen the level that there was and prior to the pandemic and that's been beneficial. But I think the most important thing is what Steve said, that the actions that we've taken to improve our operations and planning allocation, pricing are a bigger factor. And those are stick to your ribs, as Steve said, but also those use AI to continue to improve over time so they will last. We will continue to get improvements from them for some time to come.

但我們還沒有看到大流行之前和之前的水平，這是有益的。但我認為最重要的是史蒂夫所說的，我們為改善運營和計劃分配而採取的行動，定價是一個更大的因素。正如史蒂夫所說，那些固守你的肋骨，但那些使用人工智能隨著時間的推移繼續改進，所以它們會持續下去。在未來一段時間內，我們將繼續從他們那裡得到改進。

And then maybe a follow-up, thinking about the backdrop for demand in the category, either rebasing or digesting. The consensus models in that it's basically rebasing this year and then grows next year. You mentioned fitness as a category that you're starting to see units, I think, flatten out. Can we look at that as an example that you're seeing stabilization in some of the big COVID winners? And then is it fair to say that all clear that as a category, we can start to see that grow again?

然後可能是後續行動，考慮該類別需求的背景，要么重新定位，要么消化。共識模型基本上是在今年重新定位，然後在明年增長。你提到健身是一個你開始看到單位的類別，我認為，扁平化。我們是否可以將其視為您在一些 COVID 大贏家中看到穩定的一個例子？然後公平地說，作為一個類別，我們可以開始看到它再次增長嗎？

Yes, Simeon, I think it's important to realize, it is -- people talk about normalization. It's really not normalization, it's stabilization. You used the exact right word. And so it's stabilizing at a higher level. And we do anticipate those starting to pick up and grow again. People didn't buy a treadmill in 2020 because they thought they were going to buy one in 2023. That has stabilized at a higher level. And we believe that we'll pick up those -- categories like that will pick up as we go forward.

是的，Simeon，我認為認識到這一點很重要——人們談論正常化。這真的不是正常化，而是穩定化。你用了完全正確的詞。所以它穩定在一個更高的水平。我們確實預計那些開始回升並再次增長。人們在 2020 年沒有購買跑步機，因為他們認為他們會在 2023 年購買一台。這已經穩定在更高的水平。我們相信我們會選擇這些——隨著我們的前進，這樣的類別將會增加。

One additional piece of color to that. So to Ken's point, take categories like fishing and firearms and ammo and fitness and bikes and trampolines and all those categories that were COVID winners, they certainly surged during the pandemic. They're dropping versus (inaudible) stabilizing kind of at that level, but the point, I think, to make is, on average, we're up about 36% versus '19. In aggregate, all of those categories are well above that number.

一種額外的顏色。因此，就肯而言，以釣魚、槍支、彈藥、健身、自行車和蹦床等類別為例，所有這些都是 COVID 贏家的類別，它們在大流行期間肯定激增。他們在那個水平上正在下降而不是（聽不清）穩定，但我認為要說明的是，平均而言，我們與 19 年相比上漲了約 36%。總的來說，所有這些類別都遠高於這個數字。

Yes. Ken has used (inaudible) of going from Denver between Galveston and Denver. They've kind of rebaselined somewhere on the Colorado plateau, substantially higher than 2019 and at much higher levels.

是的。 Ken 曾經（聽不清）從丹佛往返加爾維斯頓和丹佛之間。他們在科羅拉多高原的某個地方重新設定了基線，大大高於 2019 年，而且水平要高得多。

Yes, he won't let me use (inaudible) anymore because it says not everybody knows where that is. The Colorado Plateau is, I think, relevant.

是的，他不再讓我使用（聽不清），因為它說不是每個人都知道那在哪裡。我認為科羅拉多高原是相關的。

Our next questions come from the line of Michael Lasser with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀的 Michael Lasser。

In light of the gross margin performance this quarter, does that change how you think about the long-term sustainable run rate gross margin for the business? You previously sized that 32% to 33%. Is it higher now?

鑑於本季度的毛利率表現，這是否會改變您對業務長期可持續運行毛利率的看法？您之前將 32% 調整為 33%。現在是不是更高了？

It certainly can be. But I think right now, we'll stick with what we've said in the past. I mean, that's -- we feel very good about the 32.5% to 33%. And certainly where this year is playing out, we could be stronger than that. But I don't think there's any long-term change in our perspective. It depends, frankly, on the level of promotion that comes into the marketplace. We feel very comfortable with the things that we can control around managing our inventory and our merchandise mix.

當然可以。但我認為現在，我們將堅持我們過去所說的話。我的意思是，我們對 32.5% 到 33% 感覺非常好。當然，今年在哪裡發揮，我們可能會比這更強大。但我認為我們的觀點不會有任何長期變化。坦率地說，這取決於進入市場的促銷水平。我們對圍繞管理庫存和商品組合可以控制的事情感到非常滿意。

And then my follow-up question is, if we trended out the 3-year geometric stacks, it would suggest that Academy is going to have a flat comp by the fourth quarter. Is that the right way for us to be modeling and projecting the business over the next few quarters?

然後我的後續問題是，如果我們將 3 年的幾何籌碼趨勢化，這表明學院將在第四季度有一個平坦的組合。這是我們在未來幾個季度建模和預測業務的正確方式嗎？

Yes. I mean, we'll stand by the guidance that we provided and you can kind of sort through that. But certainly, we would expect to see some sequential improvement throughout the year.

是的。我的意思是，我們將堅持我們提供的指導，您可以通過它進行排序。但可以肯定的是，我們預計全年都會看到一些連續的改善。

Good luck.

祝你好運。

Our next questions come from the line of Daniel Imbro with Stephens.

我們的下一個問題來自 Daniel Imbro 和 Stephens 的對話。

I wanted to ask a different one on inventory. You mentioned inventory is up 8% versus '19. I think sales are up 36%. I guess, Michael, how much of that is reflective of strategically, you guys running just more efficient stores? And how much of that is maybe inventory you'd want or maybe sales you left on the table due to a lack of inventory? Just where should or where would you like inventory to be maybe versus that time period?

我想問另一個關於庫存的問題。你提到庫存比 19 年增加了 8%。我認為銷售額增長了 36%。我想，邁克爾，這在多大程度上反映了戰略上，你們經營的商店效率更高？其中有多少可能是您想要的庫存，或者由於庫存不足而留在桌子上的銷售額？與那個時間段相比，您希望庫存可能在哪里或在哪裡？

Look, I'll let Steve take this because his team has been the one that's been -- that's managed it. But I'll just say very quickly, we're very comfortable with the inventory that we have. Yes, it is strategic. I mean, we have the opportunity to be more efficient with our inventory and we've been speaking about that for several years. But I'll let Steve kind of take it from here and talk about some of the stuff they're working on.

聽著，我會讓史蒂夫接受這個，因為他的團隊一直是 - 管理它。但我會很快說，我們對我們擁有的庫存感到非常滿意。是的，這是戰略性的。我的意思是，我們有機會提高庫存效率，我們已經討論了好幾年了。但我會讓史蒂夫從這裡開始，談談他們正在做的一些事情。

Yes. So I think we feel actually very comfortable with where we're sitting today. It's up 8% in dollars. I think it's down 12% in units. If you went back to our stores back in '18, '19, what you would have seen was what we call top stock. There was a lot of inventory brown corrugated boxes stacked on top of the gondola runs. It was -- we were carrying too much inventory. It was very inefficient. The goods would come in, they'd go into the top stock.

是的。所以我認為我們對今天的坐姿感到非常自在。美元上漲了 8%。我認為它的單位下降了 12%。如果您在 18 和 19 年回到我們的商店，您會看到我們所說的頂級庫存。吊艙頂部堆放著大量庫存的棕色瓦楞紙箱。那是——我們攜帶了太多的庫存。這是非常低效的。貨物會進來，他們會進入頂級庫存。

We didn't know where all the inventory was because it was hidden in cardboard boxes. So that 12% reduction in units really came out of that top stock. And so what you're seeing now, I think, is a much more efficient flow of goods through the distribution center, to the store. It hits the back stock. It goes out onto the sales floor versus going into some sort of top stock or back stock situation. So we feel really good with the unit inventory that we're carrying. We feel it's appropriate for where we are right now.

我們不知道所有庫存在哪裡，因為它隱藏在紙板箱中。因此，12% 的單位減少確實來自頂級庫存。因此，我認為您現在看到的是通過配送中心到商店的更有效的貨物流動。它擊中了後備庫存。它進入銷售大廳而不是進入某種頂級庫存或庫存情況。所以我們對我們攜帶的單位庫存感覺非常好。我們覺得它適合我們現在所處的位置。

Look, you can always jam the stores and squeeze a couple of basis points of comp out of the equation, but that's not how we're going to play the game. We're comfortable with the way we're managing it. We're going to drive a profitable business and flow inventory and operate more efficiently.

看，你總是可以擠滿商店並從等式中擠出幾個基點，但這不是我們玩遊戲的方式。我們對我們管理它的方式感到滿意。我們將推動盈利的業務和流動庫存，並更有效地運營。

And just one last thing. We're not perfect in terms of where our inventory is. I mean, there's still a couple of calibers and ammo and firearms here and there that we're a little light on. We still probably could use a little more cleated inventory. But in general, we're back in stock in most of the categories where we'd like to be.

最後一件事。我們的庫存在哪裡並不完美。我的意思是，這里和那裡仍然有一些口徑、彈藥和槍支，我們對此有點了解。我們可能仍然可以使用更多的庫存。但總的來說，我們在大多數我們想要的類別中都有庫存。

Okay, great. That's helpful. And then as my follow-up, I wanted to ask on the new stores. I think you guys mentioned Panama City is even outperforming the one in Atlanta. Are you seeing outperformance in certain categories? And I guess, curious on, what are you learning in terms of marketing spend? Are you able to be more strategic than you thought? Just trying to think of as we move forward, how -- what kind of room for efficiencies on the cost to build, marketing can you improve upon on the store opening cadence as we think about accelerating it over the next few years.

好，太棒了。這很有幫助。然後作為我的後續行動，我想詢問新商店。我想你們提到巴拿馬城的表現甚至超過了亞特蘭大。您是否看到某些類別的表現出色？我想，很好奇，你在營銷支出方面學到了什麼？你能比你想像的更有戰略性嗎？只是想在我們前進的過程中，如何——在我們考慮在未來幾年加速開店節奏時，如何提高成本、營銷效率的空間。

Yes. I'll start and then let Michael pick up. But we are learning. One of the reasons why we opened the fewer number of stores this year, and we started with 1, 2 and we'll open more this fall, was -- we are getting a better understanding of what to do on all of the aspects that you had. When we open a new store, the mix, quite frankly, usually starts out on the hard lines of the store as people learn about us, and then the soft lines catch up. So we are seeing that trend continue in most of the stores. Although in some of the stores, soft lines have been the better portion.

是的。我先開始，然後讓邁克爾接電話。但我們正在學習。我們今年開設的商店數量較少，我們從 1 家、2 家開始，今年秋天將開設更多商店的原因之一是——我們正在更好地了解如何在所有方面做你有過。當我們開一家新店時，坦率地說，當人們了解我們時，通常會在商店的硬線開始，然後軟線迎頭趕上。因此，我們看到大多數商店都在繼續這種趨勢。儘管在某些商店中，軟線是更好的部分。

We are getting smarter about the marketing that we do. And because of the way we're opening stores, our marketing is going to vary, and it's one of the reasons why we mentioned we opened a store in Short Bank, which is -- I mean, Short Pump, which is an area where we had not been in before to understand how we go into a new area versus an area like Atlanta where we had a presence and people knew what Academy was. And those are helping us, and we're going to evolve and improve the marketing.

我們對我們所做的營銷越來越聰明。由於我們開店的方式，我們的營銷方式會有所不同，這也是我們提到我們在 Short Bank 開店的原因之一，那就是——我的意思是，Short Pump，這是一個我們之前沒有去過了解我們如何進入一個新領域，而不是像亞特蘭大這樣的地區，在那裡我們有存在，人們知道學院是什麼。這些都在幫助我們，我們將發展和改進營銷。

The good news is that, as we said, overall, they're performing ahead of expectations. And another good thing is we are not having issues getting people to work in the stores. We appear to be a place where people look forward to working and want to work in the stores. So I think that we are seeing a good result, but there's still a lot of things that we can learn from them. And one of the things that Steve and Michael are doing is after each of the openings, we've had pretty intensive after-action reviews even though they were good openings to really take the lessons learned so we can improve.

好消息是，正如我們所說，總體而言，它們的表現超出預期。另一件好事是我們沒有遇到讓人們在商店工作的問題。我們似乎是一個人們期待工作並希望在商店工作的地方。所以我認為我們看到了一個很好的結果，但我們仍然可以從他們身上學到很多東西。史蒂夫和邁克爾正在做的一件事是在每次開場後，我們都進行了非常密集的事後審查，儘管它們是很好的開場白，可以真正吸取教訓，以便我們改進。

Not a lot to add there other than, keep in mind, we haven't done this since 2019, and most of the team that's working on it is new. So everything we knew, we're going to learn from it. This is very much a test-and-learn year. We've got new markets, we've got existing markets, we've got adjacent markets. We're going into takeover spaces for the first time really in about a decade. Panama City was a takeover space in a good area of town.

除了請記住，我們自 2019 年以來還沒有這樣做過，而且大多數致力於此的團隊都是新人，沒有太多可添加的內容。所以我們所知道的一切，我們都會從中學習。這是非常考驗和學習的一年。我們有新市場，我們有現有市場，我們有相鄰市場。大約十年來，我們第一次進入收購領域。巴拿馬城是一個很好的城鎮地區的收購空間。

We've got stores in more urban environments. And we've got a team that's got an appetite to learn. So we're using this year as a learning year as we ramp. And all the things that Ken said, we're focused on marketing, merchandising and across the board. We've got a team that gets together after every one of these and goes to the key learnings so we can maximize our success going forward.

我們在更多的城市環境中開設了商店。我們有一個有學習慾望的團隊。因此，我們將今年用作學習年，因為我們正在增加。肯所說的所有事情，我們都專注於營銷、銷售和全面。我們有一個團隊，在完成每一項任務後聚在一起，學習關鍵的知識，這樣我們就可以最大限度地取得未來的成功。

I'd say the biggest change between store openings this year versus what we opened in '19 would be 2 things: first, localized assortments. I think we're better at localizing assortments than we were 3 or 4 years ago. And so the question you asked is, do we see certain categories outperform others? Yes, I mean, when you go into Panama City, fishing is doing a heck of a lot better there than it did at Conyers, right? And that's because we went in, had a good sister store process, really studied the market and built a bigger fishing assortment for that store versus we would for Conyers.

我想說今年開店與我們在 19 年開店之間的最大變化是兩件事：第一，本地化的分類。我認為我們比 3 或 4 年前更擅長本地化分類。所以你問的問題是，我們是否看到某些類別的表現優於其他類別？是的，我的意思是，當你進入巴拿馬城時，那裡的釣魚比在科尼爾斯做得好很多，對吧？那是因為我們進去了，有一個很好的姊妹店流程，真正研究了市場，並為那家商店建立了一個更大的捕魚品種，而不是我們為 Conyers 做的。

I'd say the second piece is if you go back, our marketing spend and our focus 3 or 4 years ago was broad blasted broadcast, newsprint. And we're a heck of a lot more efficient in our targeted marketing and seeding the market with look alike customers. And so I think both of those things are really different in our playbook currently than what we were doing a couple of years ago.

我想說的是，如果你回頭看，我們的營銷支出和 3 或 4 年前的重點是廣泛的廣播、新聞紙。而且我們在有針對性的營銷和用相似的客戶播種市場方面效率要高得多。所以我認為這兩件事在我們目前的劇本中與我們幾年前所做的確實不同。

Our next questions come from the line of Greg Melich with Evercore.

我們的下一個問題來自與 Evercore 的 Greg Melich。

My first question was about supply chain. Could you just quantify how much of a headwind that was in the quarter? I realized it drove the gross margin decline, but give a number?

我的第一個問題是關於供應鏈的。您能否量化一下本季度的逆風有多大？我意識到它導致毛利率下降，但給出一個數字？

Yes, I'll call it between 10 and 20 basis points. The headwind was really related to the increase in private label penetration, which is a good thing. So that was really the cause of the headwind. It wasn't due to the container cost or anything like that. It's the penetration of private label, which grew.

是的，我將其稱為 10 到 20 個基點之間。逆風確實與自有品牌滲透率的增加有關，這是一件好事。所以這確實是逆風的原因。這不是由於容器成本或類似的原因。這是自有品牌的滲透，增長。

Got it. So there's sort of a net offset there in terms of mix, but...

知道了。所以在混合方面有一種淨抵消，但是......

Exactly, yes.

沒錯，是的。

You take ownership of it.

你擁有它。

Helping margins with that.

幫助利潤。

Yes.

是的。

And I guess, supply chain, that will -- that could continue as long as the private label mix is improving. Is there anything else on container costs or diesel costs...

而且我猜，供應鏈，只要自有品牌組合正在改善，這種情況就會持續下去。集裝箱成本或柴油成本還有其他什麼...

No. The punchline there is it's better than we planned it. It's worse than last year, worse than last year but better than we planned it, getting better. But certainly, I don't think we're going back to last -- the way last year looked anytime soon. Again, we contracted some rates so we feel like we've got pretty good visibility to the cost. We're not in the spot market at all really anymore so we feel like we've got better line of sight to it.

不。那裡的妙語比我們計劃的要好。它比去年更糟，比去年更糟，但比我們計劃的要好，越來越好。但可以肯定的是，我不認為我們會回到過去——就像去年那樣很快。同樣，我們簽訂了一些費率協議，因此我們覺得我們對成本有了很好的了解。我們根本不在現貨市場上，所以我們覺得我們已經有了更好的視野。

Got it. And then you talked a bit about planning for more promotions. I guess I'd love to know a little more color on which categories you think the market is most at risk for that increased promotionality.

知道了。然後你談到了計劃更多的促銷活動。我想我很想知道更多關於您認為市場最有可能增加促銷活動的類別的顏色。

I don't know if I could narrow it down to a specific category. What I will tell you is, obviously, the fourth quarter every year is the most promotional quarter of them all. We've seen a lot of pullback in promotions over the past 2 years versus where we were in 2019 and prior. Our anticipation as supply chain starts to get a little better in stocks or in a better place. We saw last year -- last 2 years, candidly, a pull forward of demand in early November and in December when people saw something, they bought it and they didn't have to be incentivized by promotion to buy it because they were afraid it wasn't going to be there closer in the holiday.

我不知道我是否可以將其縮小到特定類別。我要告訴你的是，顯然，每年的第四季度是所有季度中促銷最多的季度。與 2019 年及之前的情況相比，過去 2 年的促銷活動出現了很多回落。我們對供應鏈的預期開始在庫存或更好的地方變得更好。我們去年看到——坦率地說，過去 2 年，11 月初和 12 月的需求拉動，當人們看到某些東西時，他們購買了它，他們不必因為害怕而受到促銷的激勵而購買它假期裡不會再靠近了。

I think people are starting to get back into the place where they're used to seeing the shelves full, people in stock. So I think that's going to probably incentivize people to be a little more promotional earlier on. We've accounted for that in our forecast and how we're thinking about it. It's not isolated to one category. It's where promotions lie. We have an underlying base of our business with everyday value that we don't promote off of. That's kind of our underlying value proposition. But we do have seasonal categories that come in and go out that tend to lend themselves to be a little more promotional and we bake that in.

我認為人們開始回到他們習慣看到貨架滿員、庫存充足的地方。所以我認為這可能會激勵人們更早地進行更多宣傳。我們已經在我們的預測和我們的思考方式中考慮了這一點。它並不孤立於一類。這就是促銷活動所在。我們的業務基礎具有日常價值，我們不會以此為基礎進行宣傳。這就是我們潛在的價值主張。但是我們確實有進出的季節性類別，這些類別往往會使自己更具促銷性，我們將其納入。

Our next questions come from the line of Robby Ohmes with Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Robby Ohmes。

I wanted to follow up on the commentary about the unit prices are driving the ticket. Could you give any color on how much price increases are supporting ticket? And is that sort of price increases on a lot of categories and like items or is it reflecting significant mix changes versus last year? And also, like how do we think about sustaining the unit price increases as we start to anniversary them?

我想跟進有關單價推動門票的評論。您能否就支持票的漲價幅度提供任何顏色？是很多類別和類似商品的價格上漲，還是反映了與去年相比的重大組合變化？還有，當我們開始紀念它們時，我們如何考慮維持單價上漲？

I'd say a couple of things to that. If you look at the -- we cited our inventory in dollars is up 8% versus '19, down 12% units, which obviously implies a higher average unit cost. When we break that down, the biggest chunk of that is mix change, having more inventory in the higher-ticket things, outdoor Sports and Rec. The second one we called out is also an investment in building a better and best layer to some of our assortments. You take a category like baseball, where in the past, we didn't really sell bats and gloves north of $100. That now makes up a bigger chunk of our business, and it's, by the way, a very productive piece of our business.

對此我想說幾句。如果你看一下——我們引用的美元庫存比 19 年增加了 8%，單位下降了 12%，這顯然意味著更高的平均單位成本。當我們將其分解時，其中最大的一部分是組合變化，在高價物品、戶外運動和休閒方面擁有更多庫存。我們呼籲的第二個項目也是一項投資，旨在為我們的一些分類建立一個更好、最好的層。你拿棒球這樣的類別來說，在過去，我們並沒有真正出售 100 美元以上的球拍和手套。現在，這構成了我們業務的更大一部分，順便說一句，它是我們業務中非常有成效的一部分。

And I'd say probably the smallest contributor to that delta would be cost price increases that have been reflected in retail changes on our side. So we certainly have taken those cost increases just like everybody else in the marketplace has. We've been very thoughtful about how we price the goods. And so far, we really haven't seen resistance to that. Our AURs are up in the mid-single digits and we feel like we counted for those price increases.

我想說，對這個增量的最小貢獻可能是成本價格上漲，這已經反映在我們這邊的零售變化中。所以我們當然像市場上的其他人一樣承擔了這些成本增加。我們對商品定價的方式非常周到。到目前為止，我們真的沒有看到對此的抵制。我們的 AUR 達到中個位數，我們覺得我們計算了這些價格上漲。

I'll point out also, being the value leader in our space is really important to us, and we spend a lot of time making sure that our prices are as good, if not better, than our competition in a day in, day out basis. We have price scraping tools. We monitor this all the time, constantly looking at this. And we're committed to make sure that the cost increases we're seeing, we'll pass along thoughtfully, but we're not going to let ourselves lose that value proposition or leadership that we have in our space.

我還要指出，成為我們領域的價值領導者對我們來說真的很重要，我們花了很多時間確保我們的價格與我們的競爭對手一樣好，如果不是更好，日復一日基礎。我們有價格抓取工具。我們一直在監控它，不斷地觀察它。我們致力於確保我們看到的成本增加，我們會深思熟慮地傳遞，但我們不會讓自己失去我們在我們領域擁有的價值主張或領導力。

That's really helpful. And just a quick follow-up. A lot of other retailers have kind of called out that there was a shift in back-to-school in -- that's benefiting the third quarter. Are you guys seeing the same thing?

這真的很有幫助。只是一個快速的跟進。許多其他零售商都在呼籲，開學時間有所轉變——這有利於第三季度。你們看到的是一樣的嗎？

I would say that we certainly have seen the back-to-school categories do very well at the tail end of July, heading into the back-to-school time period. We try not to give inter-quarter guidance. But one of the things we keep anchoring back on is that trend versus '19 being in kind of that 30s range. We've seen that continue through.

我想說的是，我們當然已經看到返校類別在 7 月底的表現非常好，即將進入返校時間段。我們盡量不提供季度間指導。但我們一直堅持的一件事是，與 19 世紀相比，這種趨勢處於 30 年代的範圍內。我們已經看到這種情況繼續存在。

One of the things, Robby, that you have to keep in mind, in most of our markets, our back-to-school is earlier than what it is on the East Coast. We had kids going back to school literally the end of July, and almost all of them were back-to-school by the middle of August. And I don't think any of them are like you may have in the East and West Coast, where they're after Labor Day.

羅比，您必須記住的一件事是，在我們的大多數市場中，我們的返校時間都比東海岸的要早。我們讓孩子們在 7 月底返校，幾乎所有人都在 8 月中旬返校。而且我認為他們中的任何一個都不像您在東海岸和西海岸可能遇到的那樣，他們在勞動節之後。

Our next questions come from the line of Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer.

我們的下一個問題來自奧本海默的 Brian Nagel 的台詞。

Congratulations on a nice quarter. The question I have, just stepping back, and I know a lot of us has been focused on this demand environment. But as you step back and look at your business and how -- and what -- basically, there's stabilization now at a higher level -- higher than pre-pandemic level. Do you think is it more a function of just changes in consumer behavior? Or is it more a function of the substantial alterations that you've made in your company and the merchandising?

祝賀你度過了一個美好的季度。我的問題，只是退後一步，我知道我們很多人一直專注於這種需求環境。但是，當您退後一步，看看您的業務以及如何 - 以及什麼 - 基本上，現在穩定在一個更高的水平 - 高於大流行前的水平。你認為它更多的是消費者行為變化的功能嗎？還是您在公司和商品銷售方面所做的重大改變更多的是功能？

And then the follow-up question I have, some other -- and this is a follow-up to other people's questions. But with regard to private label, as you're seeing stronger demand for private label, is that -- should we think about in the case of Academy, is that the consumer trading down? Or is that just the consumer reacting to now a much better built-out private label offering from your company?

然後是我的後續問題，還有一些其他問題——這是對其他人問題的後續問題。但是關於自有品牌，當您看到對自有品牌的需求越來越大時，我們是否應該考慮一下 Academy 的情況，是不是消費者的交易量下降了？或者這只是消費者對貴公司提供的更好的內置自有品牌產品的反應？

Well, I think with regard to the consumer, and I'll let Steve talk about the -- what we've done with private label. It's actually both of the situations that you put forward are there. There is definitely a shift in the consumer behavior. And I don't -- this is a long-term trend and it has to do with health and the people's desire for experience. And we are in both of those areas and the consumer is more interested in their health and wellness. So they're being more active and they are interested in experience, and that is what we sell. And that's important.

好吧，我認為關於消費者，我會讓史蒂夫談談 - 我們對自有品牌所做的事情。實際上你提出的兩種情況都存在。消費者行為肯定發生了轉變。我不——這是一個長期趨勢，它與健康和人們對體驗的渴望有關。我們在這兩個領域都涉足，消費者對他們的健康更感興趣。所以他們更加活躍，他們對經驗感興趣，這就是我們賣的。這很重要。

That said, at the same time that trend was going on, we made fundamental changes to the business and became a much better business. I've said many times, we're a different company than we were 4 years ago in that how we operate the business, all of the systems and things that we've done to improve that, the merchandise we offer, as Steve said earlier, about good, better, best and making sure that we keep that consumer with us. And with regard to the categories that we sell, we got out of (inaudible) categories to be able to focus on that sports and outdoors that the people are interested in that go with the trends. So you put those 2 things together, I guess, the term people use is the perfect storm, we're benefiting from that.

也就是說，在這種趨勢持續的同時，我們對業務進行了根本性的改變，並成為了一個更好的業務。我已經說過很多次了，正如史蒂夫所說，我們是一家與 4 年前不同的公司，因為我們經營業務的方式、我們為改進業務所做的所有系統和事情、我們提供的商品早些時候，關於好、更好、最好的，並確保我們把那個消費者留在我們身邊。關於我們銷售的類別，我們擺脫了（聽不清）類別，以便能夠專注於人們感興趣的運動和戶外活動，以適應趨勢。所以你把這兩件事放在一起，我猜，人們使用的術語是完美風暴，我們從中受益。

I would add a third one. The competitive environment is different. You look at some of the brands we carry, there's more controlled distribution than there was 2 or 3 years ago. You look at some of the categories we carry, competitors have pulled out of some of those categories or really downplayed those categories. And so I think it's probably the combination of those 3 things that allows us to believe that we're going to hold on to this and that it's structural and long term.

我會添加第三個。競爭環境不同。你看看我們擁有的一些品牌，與 2 或 3 年前相比，分銷受到更多控制。你看看我們經營的一些類別，競爭對手已經退出了其中一些類別，或者真的淡化了這些類別。所以我認為這可能是這三件事的結合，讓我們相信我們將堅持這一點，並且它是結構性的和長期的。

In terms of the health of the customer and trade down, I mean, we spend a lot of time talking about that. I mean, certainly, the strength in the private label could indicate there was some trade to value in our assortment. But we also saw strength in a lot of our international brands. And what we do believe is that our position as the value provider in the space and having a good range of good, better, best, well positions us to capture trade-down customers as we'll hold under existing customers because they can trade up and trade down.

就客戶的健康和降價而言，我的意思是，我們花了很多時間談論這個問題。我的意思是，當然，自有品牌的實力可能表明我們的分類中有一些價值交易。但我們也看到了我們許多國際品牌的實力。我們確實相信，我們作為該領域價值提供者的地位，以及擁有一系列良好、更好、最好、良好的產品，使我們能夠抓住降價客戶，因為我們將持有現有客戶，因為他們可以升值並向下交易。

But to the questions you asked, what we've done with the private label, we have continued to offer terrific value in things like our BCG brand and the Academy Chair and Wagon, which are terrific values for our customers. But the addition of Freely and R.O.W. and Magellan Pro have added to the strength of our private brand and continue to fill niches that really we didn't have in our assortment. And that has also been a big support of what we've done in the private brand. And things like what we did with Whataburger and what we're doing with Shiner, that's not chopped liver. That's some nice volume with some of the exciting ideas that we've added.

但是對於您提出的問題，我們對自有品牌所做的工作，我們繼續為我們的 BCG 品牌以及 Academy Chair 和 Wagon 等產品提供極好的價值，這對我們的客戶來說是極好的價值。但是加入了 Freely 和 R.O.W.和 Magellan Pro 增強了我們自有品牌的實力，並繼續填補我們產品系列中真正沒有的利基市場。這也是對我們在自有品牌中所做工作的大力支持。像我們對 Whataburger 所做的事情以及我們對 Shiner 所做的事情，這不是切碎的肝臟。這是一本不錯的書，其中包含我們添加的一些令人興奮的想法。

Our next questions come from the line of John Heinbockel with Guggenheim.

我們的下一個問題來自古根海姆的約翰·海因博克爾。

So guys, let me start with what work have you done with regard to wallet share by different cohort, maybe looking at enthusiast, casual customer? I'm curious, even with some of your better customers, how big do you think the opportunity is with their wallet? Is that still pretty significant?

所以伙計們，讓我先談談你在不同群體的錢包份額方面做了哪些工作，也許是看發燒友、休閒客戶？我很好奇，即使你有一些更好的客戶，你認為他們的錢包有多大的機會？這仍然很重要嗎？

I think we know that within our existing customer base, relative to our competitors, we capture a higher share of wallet and we think that goes back to our value. So I think there's always opportunity. One of the things that we strive to do is that broad and complete assortment, offer a one-stop convenient shopping experience. And we think as we continue to deliver on that, that opens up the opportunity for more cross-shops across the store, to get a higher share of the customer's wallet and at the same time, pick up other customers who are trading into our stores.

我認為我們知道，在我們現有的客戶群中，相對於我們的競爭對手，我們獲得了更高的錢包份額，我們認為這可以追溯到我們的價值。所以我認為機會總是存在的。我們努力做的一件事是廣泛而完整的分類，提供一站式便捷的購物體驗。我們認為，隨著我們繼續實現這一目標，這將為整個商店的更多跨店提供機會，從而獲得客戶錢包的更高份額，同時吸引其他在我們商店進行交易的客戶.

Yes, we are seeing both new customers. We continue to have about the same number of new customers this year as we did last year. But with our existing customers, our core customer's spending more with us and continues to spend more with us...

是的，我們看到了這兩個新客戶。今年我們繼續擁有與去年相同數量的新客戶。但是對於我們現有的客戶，我們的核心客戶在我們身上花費更多，並且繼續在我們身上花費更多......

And shops more frequently.

並且購物更頻繁。

And shops more frequently. And we are able to retain them because in the past, okay, the kid starts out in T-ball, but as they move up, it used to be, we didn't have a product for them. But now, as Steve said, we're selling much better gloves, Marucci bats. Same thing in camping. I was in a store the other day and a couple was looking at the North Face tents. And I said, "Are you campers?" Well, we bought the Magellan tent and now we want something that's better. So we're able to offer more to that customer with our assortment.

並且購物更頻繁。我們之所以能夠留住他們，是因為過去，好吧，孩子一開始是 T 球，但隨著他們向上發展，過去我們沒有適合他們的產品。但現在，正如史蒂夫所說，我們正在銷售更好的手套，馬魯奇蝙蝠。露營也是一樣。前幾天我在一家商店裡，一對夫婦正在看 North Face 的帳篷。我說：“你們是露營者嗎？”好吧，我們買了麥哲倫帳篷，現在我們想要更好的東西。因此，我們能夠通過我們的分類為該客戶提供更多。

One other key thing I'll pile on here because I don't want to lose it, we are more popular with families than our peers. And so not only can we trade individuals into different categories across the floor because of our diverse assortment, we can trade the whole family into different categories across the store. So we think that's a big advantage for us.

另一件關鍵的事情我會在這裡堆積，因為我不想失去它，我們比同齡人更受家庭歡迎。因此，由於我們的產品種類繁多，我們不僅可以將個人交易到整個樓層的不同類別，我們還可以將整個家庭交易到整個商店的不同類別中。所以我們認為這對我們來說是一個很大的優勢。

And then maybe secondly, right, I know AUV is up over 30% since '19. I'm curious what's happening to the 4-wall store model, right? Imagine right, the new stores are opening up at higher levels than you might have imagined 2 or 3 years ago. Is that changing the economics significantly, right, in a favorable direction? Well, what I was going to add, when you think about gating factors on growth, right, because if that's true, right, you've got the capital. What is the gating factor, just people at this point that would limit whether you can do 20 or 25 a year?

然後也許其次，對，我知道自 19 年以來 AUV 上漲了 30% 以上。我很好奇 4-wall store 模型發生了什麼，對吧？想像一下，新店開張的水平比你 2 或 3 年前想像的要高。這是否會顯著改變經濟，對，朝著有利的方向發展？好吧，我要補充的是，當你考慮增長的門控因素時，對，因為如果這是真的，對，你有資本。什麼是門控因素，只是在這一點上會限制你一年能做 20 次還是 25 次的人？

Yes. We certainly had the most productive and profitable model in the business before we've had the run of success. And it's -- now it's just, of course, amplified, best sales per square foot in the category, most 4-wall profit in the category. We want to accelerate our growth. We've got the capital, to your point, we have the appetite to do it.

是的。在我們取得成功之前，我們當然擁有業務中最俱生產力和盈利能力的模式。而且它 - 當然，現在它只是放大了，該類別中每平方英尺的最佳銷售額，該類別中最多的 4 壁利潤。我們想加速我們的成長。我們有資本，就你而言，我們有興趣去做。

We want to do it well and that's how we're taking a very measured approach. Again, I'll go back to an earlier question. This is a test and learn year, and we're taking the time to do that before we step on the gas. But certainly, all the studies that we've put together, there is the ability to add up to 800 stores in the country at some point. And we're certainly going to do it in a responsible manner.

我們想把它做好，這就是我們採取非常謹慎的方法的方式。再次，我將回到之前的問題。這是一個測試和學習的一年，我們正在花時間做這件事，然後再踩油門。但可以肯定的是，根據我們匯總的所有研究，有能力在某個時候在該國增加多達 800 家商店。我們肯定會以負責任的方式來做這件事。

If you do the math on the 80 to 100 stores, as we progress through the 5-year period, we're going to continue to increase the number of stores that we'll open each year.

如果您對 80 到 100 家商店進行數學計算，隨著我們在 5 年期間的進展，我們將繼續增加每年開設的商店數量。

To be able to grow like we're growing and still deliver the free cash flow yield that we have, that will tell you that we can certainly do more. We just want to make sure we're doing it well.

為了能夠像我們一樣增長並且仍然提供我們擁有的自由現金流收益，這將告訴您我們當然可以做得更多。我們只是想確保我們做得很好。

That's the key, do it well.

這是關鍵，做好。

Our next questions come from the line of Anthony Chukumba with Loop Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自 Loop Capital Markets 的 Anthony Chukumba。

Congrats on the strong quarter. I guess I was just -- I just had a question in terms of, how are you thinking about your holiday marketing strategy, particularly given the fact that, like you said you do expect it to be more promotional? I mean, are you going to continue to shift your marketing spend more to digital? Are you going to lean more into your Academy credit card? Like how are you thinking about that?

祝賀強勁的季度。我想我只是 - 我只是有一個問題，您如何考慮您的假期營銷策略，特別是考慮到您說您確實希望它更具促銷性這一事實？我的意思是，您是否會繼續將營銷支出更多地轉向數字化？你打算更多地使用你的學院信用卡嗎？比如你是怎麼想的？

I'd say yes, all of the above. I mean, our marketing spend and approach has been evolving a lot over the past 3 to 4 years. We were, as I mentioned earlier, very print-centric, very broadcast-centric going back to 2018, 2019. And when you look at where we are today, I think at the time we looked at it, maybe like 2% to 3% of our marketing at that time was targeted. And when you look at where we are today, it's the preponderance of the marketing is targeted. It's digital. So that shift in spend has been ongoing and continues as we move forward. And I think you'll see us really lean into that as we go into holiday.

我會說是的，以上所有。我的意思是，在過去的 3 到 4 年裡，我們的營銷支出和方法發生了很大變化。正如我之前提到的，我們非常以印刷為中心，非常以廣播為中心，可以追溯到 2018 年和 2019 年。當你看看我們今天的情況時，我認為在我們觀察它的時候，可能是 2% 到 3我們當時有 % 的營銷是有針對性的。當你看看我們今天所處的位置時，就會發現營銷的優勢是有針對性的。是數字的。因此，支出的這種轉變一直在持續，並隨著我們的前進而繼續。我想當我們進入假期時，你會看到我們真的傾向於這樣做。

One of the things that, that does that's actually good is when you used to do print, you had to have your pricing and everything done literally a couple of months in advance. But we can now respond and react to what's going on in the market down to a category to specific items and make sure that we aren't giving things away we don't have to, and at the same time, maintain that value proposition that we have.

這樣做實際上很好的一件事是，當您過去進行印刷時，您必須提前幾個月完成定價和所有事情。但我們現在可以對市場上發生的事情做出反應，小到特定項目的類別，並確保我們不會放棄我們不需要的東西，同時保持這種價值主張我們有。

It makes us more nimble and just more efficient overall.

它使我們更靈活，整體上更高效。

Got it. Very helpful. Keep up the good work, guys.

知道了。非常有幫助。繼續努力，伙計們。

Our next questions come from the line of Seth Basham with Wedbush Securities.

我們的下一個問題來自 Wedbush Securities 的 Seth Basham。

When you guys think about merchandise margin gains versus 2019 and clearance gains, well, think about merchandising margin gains and the components of improvement because of lower promotions in the industry and less clearance in your business. Which of those has been a bigger driver of improvement?

當你們考慮與 2019 年相比的商品利潤率增長和清倉收益時，請考慮商品利潤率收益和改進的組成部分，因為行業促銷活動較少且您的業務清倉較少。其中哪一個是改進的更大推動力？

I would say it's the structural improvement in terms of the better management of inventory, better management of clearance. That is the biggest share of it. I'd say a smaller piece of it would be lower promotions in the marketplace. That being said, it's kind of hard sometimes to disentangle the 2. But when we do the work and try to go through it, it is definitely structural improvements are the lion's share of the gains.

我想說這是在更好地管理庫存、更好地管理清關方面的結構性改進。這是其中最大的一部分。我會說其中一小部分是市場上較低的促銷活動。話雖如此，有時很難解開 2。但是當我們做這項工作並嘗試完成它時，結構性改進絕對是收益的最大份額。

Got it, okay. And when you think about the go forward then in terms of the negative potential impact to your merchandise margins going forward, do you think it would be potentially bigger from normalization of inventory levels impacting clearance? Or would it be promotional normalization in the marketplace?

明白了，好吧。當您考慮未來對您的商品利潤率的潛在負面影響時，您認為庫存水平正常化對清倉的影響可能更大嗎？還是市場上的促銷常態化？

Yes. I think the way that we look at it, we have the structural improvements that we've quantified. We believe there could potentially, of the 500 basis points roughly gain that we've had, we think depending on what the environment looks like, what our competition does and how we have to respond, there could be 100 to 200 basis points of give-back for greater promotion. That's how we look at it internally.

是的。我認為我們看待它的方式，我們已經量化了結構性改進。我們認為，在我們已經獲得的 500 個基點的大致收益中，我們認為，根據環境的情況、我們的競爭行為以及我們必須如何應對，我們認為可能會有 100 到 200 個基點的收益-返回以獲得更大的推廣。這就是我們內部看待它的方式。

Got it. As it relates to a give-back from normalization of clearance levels?

知道了。因為它與清除水平正常化的回饋有關？

Yes. Exactly, yes. competitive. Again, where you've got a counterpunch to maintain share to keep up with others. The other thing that I'd add, Seth, is we still haven't gotten the full impact from a normalized merchandise mix as hard goods is still outperforming to where it has performed historically in '18 and '19. So if apparel becomes a greater piece of the mix, we should get some margin benefit from that.

是的。沒錯，是的。競爭的。再一次，你有一個反擊來保持份額以跟上他人的步伐。我要補充的另一件事，賽斯，我們仍然沒有從正常化的商品組合中獲得全面的影響，因為硬商品的表現仍然優於它在 18 和 19 年的歷史表現。因此，如果服裝成為更大的組成部分，我們應該從中獲得一些利潤。

And private label.

和自有品牌。

And private label, exactly.

和私人標籤，確切地說。

And I think that, that will be our last question. We ran a little bit over. I appreciate everybody's time and appreciate the interest. We feel we have a very strong story and excited about the future and hopefully, you all are, too. And as we head into the fall season, we're working hard and moving forward. And you all have some fun out there.

我認為，這將是我們的最後一個問題。我們跑了一點。我感謝每個人的時間並感謝他們的興趣。我們覺得我們有一個非常強大的故事並對未來感到興奮，希望你們也是。隨著我們進入秋季，我們正在努力工作並繼續前進。你們都玩得很開心。

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. We appreciate your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Enjoy the rest of your day.

謝謝你。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。此時您可以斷開線路。享受你一天的剩餘時間。