Apparel

Baltimore - Under Armour has opened its first-ever digital headquarters, in downtown Austin, Texas. The 35,000-plus-sq.-ft. “Connected Fitness” center employs more than 100 engineers, data scientists, designers, and product innovators in digital health, fitness, and sports, and is expected to grow substantially by the end of the year. It is the sporting goods company’s facility solely dedicated to digital innovation.

Toronto - Sears Canada Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement with Concord Pacific Group of Companies to sell and lease back three of its properties for $140 million. The after-tax proceeds, including adjustments, will be approximately $130 million.  

The locations include store space and adjacent property located at the Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby, British Columbia, Cottonwood Mall in Chilliwack, British Columbia and North Hill Shopping Centre in Calgary, Alberta. The transaction is scheduled to close on or about June 8, 2015.

Dublin, Calif. -- Ross Stores recently opened 32 Ross Dress for Less stores and five dd’s Discounts locations across 15 different states. The openings are part of the off-price retailer’s 2015 expansion plans to open a total of approximately 90 stores in 2015 (70 Ross and 20 dd’s Discounts).

New York -- Bonobos, the online-driven men’s clothing brand, keeps expanding its physical presence. The company announced plans to opens its largest location to date, in Manhattan’s Flatiron District. The 4,000-sq.-ft. “Guideshop (which is how Bonbos refers to its brick-and-mortar spaces) is slated to open in June. It will be the brand’s seventeenth location nationwide and fourth in New York City, following the expected openings of Guideshops in Newport Beach, California, and Brookfield Place, New York City, in March.

Increased marketing costs failed to deliver fourth quarter same store sales growth at Express and also took a toll on the specialty retailer’s profitability.

Express reported net income of $41.8 million, down 16% from $49.7 million last year. Net sales increased 1% to $725.8 million from $715.9 million. Same-store sales, including e-commerce, dropped 2%. E-commerce sales climbed 4% to $144.3 million.

Increased sales at Famous Footwear and the divestiture of its Shoes.com website helped Brown Shoe increase profits in the fourth quarter.

Brown Shoe Company reported that same store sales increased 4%, while profit was $16.2 million, or 37 cents a share, for the fourth quarter that ended Jan. 31, up from $6.2 million a year earlier. Adjusted earnings totaled $9 million in the quarter, or 20 cents a share, up from $6.2 million a share, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier. Net sales rose 2.6 percent in the quarter to $615.4 million.

Retailing Today's sister publication Chain Store Age reported this week that new concepts remain the lifeblood of retail.

Online consignment marketplace Swap.com is expanding into women’s clothing, shoes and accessories.

Executives with Swap.com said the new women’s collection will launch with more than 25,000 items.

“The expansion into women’s apparel is not just about making it easier for our customers to buy and sell their gently loved clothes and handbags,” said Jesse Gonzalez, merchandising manager at Swap.com. “It’s also about offering the fashionable looks that our customers love, at a better deal than you can find in-stores.”

New York -- Old Navy is promoting its spring fashions with a new marketing campaign running across Tumblr and Yahoo.  Designed to engage Millennial women, the campaign will use Old Navy’s Tumblr page as the content hub and combine native, video and display advertising across Yahoo properties and its extended network.

Dallas -- Neiman Marcus Group swung to a profit in the second quarter, helped by a 15% increase in online sales and its acquisition of Germany luxury online retailer MyTheresa.

The upscale retailer reported a profit of $27.8 million in the quarter ended Jan. 31, compared with a loss of $84.0 million in the year-ago period. (Neiman’s loss last year was partially credited to expenses related to

Revenue grew to $1.52 billion from $1.43 billion in the prior-year period. Same-store sales and online sales rose 5.6%.