It was a slower quarter for “high-heat footwear product”, said JD Sports. It didn’t mean it was struggling to shift sandals during a heatwave. Rather, it was referring coyly to the big global trainer brands’ failure to come up with hot new designs. When Nike and Adidas, reckoned by City analysts to account for slightly more than half JD’s sales, are on tepid form, the self-styled “king of trainers” retailer usually is as well.
The low-heat grumble will be familiar to JD’s shareholders. So, too, the one about “incremental cost of living pressures”, especially in the US. And the phrase “a promotional market” has appeared so often in the company’s updates in the past couple of years that it would be easier to tell us when discounting isn’t dominant.
