Outlet Store Begins Charging Full Price, Remains Outlet

GRAPEVINE, Texas—Under Armour plans to add more full-price product to its outlet stores, Retail Dive reported, as part of a store revamp meant to strengthen the brand's premium positioning. At a fictional outlet mall off Interstate 35, shoppers who drove 40 minutes for a discount arrived Sunday to find a full-price cap displayed on a pedestal, lit from above, behind a velvet rope.

"I came to an outlet," said Rick Saldana, 58, a fictional HVAC estimator from Waco, standing outside the rope. "I've been coming to outlets since 1994. I know how an outlet works. You drive far, you find a bin, the bin is the deal. Nobody told me the bin had been promoted."

According to Retail Dive, Under Armour said second-quarter revenue fell 7% to $1.2 billion, with declines across apparel, accessories and footwear. The company plans to cut its SKU count by another 25%, open showrooms in major cities and sell fewer products, more of them at full price. It is also moving its youth sports category to a licensing deal with Centric Brands and plans to release one major product story each month.

said Rick Saldana, 58, a fictional HVAC estimator from Waco, standing outside the rope.

Marjorie Pell visited the store's clearance section (back wall, past the fitting rooms, beneath a sign that once said Final Sale and now says Featured). She counted eleven items, nine of them at full price, arranged with more space between them than she has seen in a clearance section since the week after Easter, which is to say the Monday the chocolate bunnies go to half off.

A fictional store associate, who asked to be identified only as the clearance lead, said the change took some adjustment. "I used to say, 'Everything on this wall is an additional 30% off,'" she said. "Now I say, 'Everything on this wall is.' And then I let it sit."

A fictional outlet-industry analyst, Corinne Haldane of Off-Price Futures, said the move redefines the category. "The outlet is no longer a place where products go to be discounted," she said. "It is a place where products go to be driven to."

Haldane said a fictional study by her firm found 72% of outlet shoppers measure a deal in miles rather than dollars. "If the drive was long enough, the price feels earned," she said. "We are now testing outlets farther away."

Saldana eventually bought the cap. He paid full price. He asked for a receipt that said outlet on it, for his records. It did.

Marjorie Pell has worked or covered American stores for 40 years and still knows where the paper towels are. More from Marjorie Pell ›

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Terms in this story: SKU