Zumiez Inc: Form 10-K for the period ended Feb 1, 2025

Zumiez Inc., including its wholly-owned subsidiaries, is a leading specialty retailer of apparel, footwear, accessories and hardgoods for young men and women who want to express their individuality through the fashion, music, art and culture of action sports, streetwear and other unique lifestyles. Zumiez Inc. was formed in August 1978 and is a Washington State corporation.

We operate under the names Zumiez, Blue Tomato and Fast Times. We operate ecommerce websites at zumiez.com, zumiez.ca, blue-tomato.com and fasttimes.com.au. At February 1, 2025, we operated 730 stores; 570 in the United States (“U.S.”), 46 in Canada, 87 in Europe and 27 in Australia.

We acquired Blue Tomato in fiscal 2012. Blue Tomato is one of the leading European specialty retailers of apparel, footwear, accessories and hardgoods. We acquired Fast Times Skateboarding (“Fast Times”) in fiscal 2016. Fast Times is an Australian leading specialty retailer of hardgoods, accessories, apparel and footwear.

We employ a sales strategy that integrates our stores with our ecommerce platform to serve our customers. There is significant interaction between our store sales and our ecommerce sales channels, and we believe that they are utilized in tandem by our customers. Our selling platforms bring the look and feel of an independent specialty shop through a distinctive store environment and high-energy sales personnel. We seek to staff our stores with store associates who are knowledgeable users of our products, which we believe provides our customers with enhanced customer service and supplements our ability to identify and react quickly to emerging trends and fashions. We design our selling platforms to appeal to teenagers and young adults and to serve as a destination for our customers. We believe that our distinctive selling platforms concepts and compelling economics will provide continued opportunities for growth in both new and existing markets.

We believe that our customers desire authentic merchandise and fashion that is rooted in the fashion, music, art and culture of action sports, streetwear and other unique lifestyles to express their individuality. We strive to keep our merchandising mix fresh by continuously introducing new brands, styles and categories of product. Our focus on a diverse collection of brands allows us to quickly adjust to changing fashion trends. We believe that our strategic mix of apparel, footwear, accessories and hardgoods, including skateboards, snowboards, bindings, components and other equipment, allows us to strengthen the potential of the brands we sell and helps to affirm our credibility with our customers. In addition, we supplement our merchandise mix with a select offering of private label apparel and products as a value proposition that we believe complements our overall merchandise selection.

Competitive Strengths

We believe that the following competitive strengths differentiate us from our competitors and are critical to our continuing success.

Attractive Lifestyle Retailing Concept. We target a large population of young men and women, many of whom we believe are attracted to action sports, streetwear and other unique lifestyles and desire to express their personal independence and style through the apparel, footwear and accessories they wear and the equipment they use. We believe we have developed a brand image that our customers view as consistent with their attitudes, fashion tastes and identity and differentiates us in our market.

Differentiated Merchandising Strategy. We have created a highly differentiated global retailing concept by offering an extensive selection of current and relevant lifestyle brands encompassing apparel, footwear, accessories and hardgoods. The breadth of merchandise offered through our sales channels exceeds that offered by many of our competitors and includes some brands and products that are available only from us. Many of our customers desire to update their wardrobes and equipment as fashion trends evolve or the season dictates, providing us the opportunity to shift our merchandise selection seasonally. We believe that our ability to quickly recognize changing brand and style preferences and transition our merchandise offerings allows us to continually provide a compelling offering to our customers.

Deep-rooted Culture. We believe our culture and brand image enable us to successfully attract and retain high quality employees who are passionate and knowledgeable about the products we sell. We place great emphasis on customer service and satisfaction, and we have made this a defining feature of our corporate culture. To preserve our culture, we strive to promote from within and we provide our employees with the knowledge and tools to succeed through our comprehensive training programs and the empowerment to manage their stores to meet localized customer demand.

Distinctive Customer Experience. We strive to provide a convenient shopping environment that is appealing and clearly communicates our distinct brand image. We seek to integrate our store and digital shopping experiences to serve our customers whenever, wherever and however they choose to engage with us. We seek to attract knowledgeable sale associates who identify with our brand and are able to offer superior customer service, advice and product expertise. We believe that our distinctive shopping experience enhances our image as a leading source for apparel and equipment for action sports, streetwear and other unique lifestyles.

Disciplined Operating Philosophy. We have an experienced senior management team. Our management team has built a strong operating foundation based on sound retail principles that underlie our unique culture. Our philosophy emphasizes an integrated combination of results measurement, training and incentive programs, all designed to drive sales productivity to the individual store associate level. Our comprehensive training programs are designed to provide our employees with the knowledge and tools to develop leadership, communication, sales, and operational expertise. We believe that our merchandising team immersion in the lifestyles we represent, supplemented with feedback from our customers, store associates, and omni-channel leadership, allows us to consistently identify and react to emerging fashion trends. We believe that this, combined with our inventory planning and allocation processes and systems, helps us better manage markdown and fashion risk.

High-Impact, Integrated Marketing Approach. We seek to build relationships with our customers through a multi-faceted marketing approach that is designed to integrate our brand images with the lifestyles we represent. Our marketing efforts focus on reaching our customers in their environment and feature extensive grassroots digital and physical marketing events, as well as the Zumiez STASH loyalty program. Our marketing efforts incorporate local sporting and music event promotions, interactive contest sponsorships that actively involve our customers with our brands and products and various social network channels. Events and activities such as these provide opportunities for our customers to develop a strong identity with our culture and brands. Our STASH loyalty program and Zumiez digital app allow us to learn more about our customer and serve their needs better. We believe that our ability to interact with our customer, and our immersion in the lifestyles we represent, allows us to build credibility with our customers and gather valuable feedback on evolving customer preferences.

Growth Strategy

We intend to expand our presence as a leading global specialty retailer of action sports, streetwear, and other unique lifestyles by:

Continuing to Generate Sales Growth through Existing Channels. We seek to maximize our comparable sales through our integrated store and online shopping experiences and offering our customers a broad and relevant selection of brands and products, including a unique customer experience through each interaction with our brand. We believe in driving to the optimum store count in each physical geography that we operate in and optimizing comparable sales within these markets between physical and digital to drive total trade area sales growth.

Enhancing our Brand Awareness through Continued Marketing and Promotion. We believe that a key component of our success is the brand exposure that we receive from our marketing events, promotions, and activities that embody the unique lifestyles of our customers. These are designed to assist us in increasing brand awareness in our existing markets and expanding into new markets by strengthening our connection with our target customer base. We also use our STASH loyalty program and Zumiez digital app to increase brand engagement and enhance brand creditability. We believe that our marketing efforts have also been successful in generating and promoting interest in our product offerings. In addition, we use our ecommerce presence to further increase our brand awareness. We focus on utilizing an integrated marketing approach by promoting events and activities in our existing and new markets. We also benefit from branded vendors’ marketing.

Opening or Acquiring New Store Locations. We believe our brand has appeal that provides select store expansion opportunities, particularly within our international markets. During the last three fiscal years, we have opened 58 new stores consisting of 7 stores in fiscal 2024, 19 stores in fiscal 2023 and 32 stores in fiscal 2022. We have successfully opened stores in diverse markets throughout the U.S. and internationally, which we believe demonstrates the portability and growth potential of our concepts. To take advantage of what we believe to be a compelling economic store model, we plan to open approximately 9 new stores in fiscal 2025, including stores in our existing markets and in new markets internationally. The number of anticipated store openings may increase or decrease due to market conditions and other factors. Our goal in opening stores is to not have one more store than needed to serve all our customers within a trade area.

Merchandising and Purchasing

Our goal is to be viewed by our customers as the definitive source of merchandise for their unique lifestyles across all channels in which we operate. We believe that the breadth of merchandise that we offer our customers, which includes apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods, exceeds that offered by many other specialty stores at a single location, and makes us a single-stop purchase destination for our target customers.

We seek to identify fashion trends as they develop and to respond in a timely manner with a relevant product assortment. We strive to keep our merchandising mix fresh by continuously introducing new brands or styles in response to the evolving desires of our customers. Our merchandise mix may vary by region, country and season, reflecting the preferences and seasons in each market.

We believe that offering an extensive selection of current and relevant brands in sports, fashion, music and art is integral to our overall success. No single third-party brand that we carry accounted for more than 5.4%, 5.9% and 6.3% of our net sales in fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. We believe that our strategic mix of apparel, footwear, accessories and hardgoods allows us to strengthen the potential of the brands we sell and affirms our credibility with our customers.

We believe that our ability to maintain an image consistent with the unique lifestyles of our customers is important to our key vendors. Given our scale and market position, we believe that many of our key vendors view us as an important retail partner. This position helps ensure our ability to procure a relevant product assortment and quickly respond to the changing fashion interests of our customers. Additionally, we believe we are presented with a greater variety of products and styles by some of our vendors, as well as certain specially designed items that we exclusively distribute. We supplement our merchandise assortment with a select offering of private label products across many of our product categories. Our private label products complement the branded products we sell, and some of our private label brands allow us to cater to the more value-oriented customer. For fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022, our private label merchandise represented 27.8%, 23.0%, and 18.4% of our net sales, respectively.

We have developed a disciplined approach to buying and a dynamic inventory planning and allocation process to support our merchandise strategy. We utilize a broad vendor base that allows us to shift our merchandise purchases as required to react quickly to changing consumer demands and market conditions. We manage the purchasing and allocation process by reviewing branded merchandise lines from new and existing vendors, identifying emerging fashion trends and selecting branded merchandise styles in quantities, colors and sizes to meet inventory levels established by management. We coordinate inventory levels in connection with individual stores’ sales strength, our promotions and seasonality. We utilize a localized fulfillment strategy to fulfill the vast majority of our ecommerce orders through our stores to enhance customer experience, maximize inventory productivity and reduce shipping time.

Our merchandising staff remains in tune with the fashion, music, art and culture of action sports, streetwear and other unique lifestyles by participating in lifestyles we support, traveling to select markets, attending relevant events and concerts, watching related programming and reading relevant publications, reviewing social network channels and connecting with our store associates who are connected locally with our customers. In order to identify evolving trends and fashion preferences, our staff spends considerable time analyzing sales data, gathering feedback from our stores and customers, shopping in key markets and soliciting input from our vendors. With a global footprint, we are able to identify trends that emerge all over the world.

We source our private label merchandise from primarily foreign manufacturers around the world. We have cultivated our private label sources with a view towards high quality merchandise, production reliability and consistency of fit. We believe that our knowledge of fabric and production costs combined with a flexible sourcing base enables us to source high-quality private label goods at favorable costs.

Stores

Store Locations. At February 1, 2025, we operated 730 stores in the following locations:

United States and Puerto Rico - 570 Stores

The following table shows the number of stores (excluding temporary stores that we operate from time to time for special or seasonal events) opened, acquired and permanently closed in each of our last three fiscal years:

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Store Design and Environment. We design our stores to create a distinctive and engaging shopping environment that we believe resonates with our customers. Our stores feature an industrial look, dense merchandise displays, lifestyle focused posters and signage and popular music, all of which are consistent with the look and feel of an independent specialty shop. Our stores are designed to encourage our customers to shop for longer periods of time, to interact with each other and our store associates and to visit our stores more frequently. Our stores are constructed and finished to allow us to efficiently shift merchandise displays throughout the year as the season dictates. At February 1, 2025, our stores averaged approximately 2,921 square feet. All references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to square footage of our stores refers to gross square footage, including retail selling, storage and back-office space.

Expansion Opportunities and Site Selection. In selecting a location for a new store, we target high-traffic locations with suitable demographics and favorable lease terms. We generally locate our stores in areas in which other teen and young adult-oriented retailers have performed well. We focus on evaluating the market specific competitive environment for potential new store locations. We seek to diversify our store locations regionally and by caliber of mall or shopping area. For mall locations, we seek locations near busy areas of the mall such as food courts, movie theaters, game stores and other popular teen and young adult retailers.

Store Management, Operations and Training. We believe that our success is dependent in part on our ability to attract, train, retain and motivate qualified employees at all levels of our organization. We have developed a corporate culture that we believe empowers the individual store managers to make store-level business decisions and consistently rewards their success. We are committed to improving the skills and careers of our workforce and providing advancement opportunities for employees.

We believe we provide our managers with the knowledge and tools to succeed through our comprehensive training programs and the flexibility to manage their stores to meet customer demands. While general guidelines for our merchandise assortments, store layouts and in-store visuals are provided by our home offices, we give our managers substantial discretion to tailor their stores to the individual market and empower them to make store-level business decisions. We design group training programs for our managers to improve both operational expertise and supervisory skills.

Our store associates generally have an interest in the fashion, music, art and culture of the lifestyle we support and are knowledgeable about our products. Through our training, evaluation and incentive programs, we seek to enhance the productivity of our store associates. These programs are designed to promote a competitive, yet fun, culture that is consistent with the unique lifestyles we seek to promote.

Marketing and Advertising

We seek to reach our target customer audience through a multi-faceted marketing approach that is designed to integrate our brand image with the lifestyles we represent. Our marketing efforts focus on reaching our customers in their environment, and feature extensive physical and digital grassroots marketing events, which give our customers an opportunity to experience and participate in the lifestyles we offer. Our grassroots marketing events are built around the demographics of our customer base and offer an opportunity for our customers to develop a strong identity with our brands and culture.

We have a customer loyalty program, the Zumiez STASH, which allows members to earn points for purchases or performance of certain activities. The points can be redeemed for a broad range of rewards, including product and experiential rewards. Our marketing efforts also incorporate local sporting and music event promotions, advertising in magazines popular with our target market, interactive contest sponsorships that actively involve our customers with our brands and products, the Zumiez STASH, catalogs and various social network channels. We believe that our immersion in action sports, streetwear and other unique lifestyles allows us to build credibility with our target audience and gather valuable feedback on evolving customer preferences.

Distribution and Fulfillment

Timely and efficient distribution of merchandise to our stores is an important component of our overall business strategy. Domestically, our distribution center is located in Corona, California. At this facility, merchandise is inspected, allocated to stores and distributed to our stores and customers. Each store is typically shipped merchandise five times a week, providing our stores with a steady flow of new merchandise. We utilize a localized fulfillment strategy in which we use our domestic store network to provide fulfillment services for the vast majority of online customer purchases.

Internationally, we operate distribution centers located in Delta, Canada, Graz, Austria, and Melbourne, Australia to support our operations in Canada, Europe and Australia, respectively. Each of our international entities are progressing toward full localized fulfillment and are in various states of implementation.

Management Information Systems

Our management information systems provide integration of store, online, merchandising, distribution, financial and human resources functions. The systems include applications related to point-of-sale, inventory management, supply chain, planning, sourcing, merchandising and financial reporting. We continue to invest in technology to align these systems with our business requirements and to support our continuing growth.

Competition

The teenage and young adult retail apparel, hardgoods, footwear and accessories industry is highly competitive. We compete with other retailers for vendors, customers, suitable store locations and qualified store associates, management personnel, online marketing content, social media engagement and ecommerce traffic. In the softgoods market, which includes apparel, footwear and accessories, we currently compete with other teenage and young adult focused retailers. In addition, in the softgoods market we compete with independent specialty shops, department stores, vendors that sell their products directly to the retail market, non-mall retailers and ecommerce retailers. In the hardgoods market, which includes skateboards, snowboards, bindings, components and other equipment, we compete directly or indirectly with the following categories of companies: other specialty retailers, such as local snowboard and skate shops, large-format sporting goods stores and chains, vendors who sell their products directly to the retail market and ecommerce retailers.

Competition in our sector is based on, among other things, merchandise offerings, store location, price, and the ability to identify with the customer. We believe that our ability to compete favorably with our competitors is due to our differentiated merchandising strategy, compelling store environment and deep-rooted culture.

Seasonality

Historically, our operations have been seasonal, with the largest portion of net sales and net income occurring in the third and fourth fiscal quarters, reflecting increased demand during the back-to-school and winter holiday selling seasons. During fiscal 2024, approximately 56% of our net sales occurred in the third and fourth quarters combined. As a result of this seasonality, any factors negatively affecting us during the last half of the year, including unfavorable economic conditions, adverse weather or our ability to acquire seasonal merchandise inventory, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations for the entire year. Our quarterly results of operations may also fluctuate based upon such factors as the timing of certain holiday seasons, the popularity of seasonal merchandise offered, the timing and amount of markdowns, competitive influences and the number and timing of new store openings, remodels and closings.

Trademarks

The “Zumiez”, “Blue Tomato” and “Fast Times” trademarks and certain other trademarks, including those associated with our private label brands, have been registered, or are the subject of pending trademark applications, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and with the registries of certain foreign countries. We regard our trademarks as valuable and intend to maintain such marks and any related registrations and vigorously protect our trademarks. We also own numerous domain names, which have been registered with the Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Employees

On February 1, 2025, we employed approximately 2,400 full-time and approximately 6,300 part-time employees globally. However, the number of part-time employees fluctuates depending on our seasonal needs and generally increases during peak selling seasons, particularly the back-to-school and the winter holiday seasons. None of our employees in North America and Australia are represented by labor unions and we believe that our relationship with our employees is positive.

We believe in delivering quality employment experiences at all levels within the Company. In that regard, every year we create thousands of career opportunities in our stores for individuals who are just beginning their professional careers and who are driven to develop new skills in an environment centered around teaching and learning. Many of these opportunities are provided to our part-time sales associates, who on average are approximately 20 years of age, and are often furthering their career through concurrent education and/or additional employment opportunities.

The Zumiez culture is built on a set of shared values that have been in place since the inception of the business. These shared values include empowered managers, teaching and learning, competition, recognition, and fairness and honesty. Our culture strives to integrate quality teaching and learning experiences throughout the organization. We do this through a comprehensive training program, which primarily focuses on sales, management and customer service training in our stores and is more focused on professional development in our home office. Our training programs have been developed internally and are almost exclusively taught internally by Zumiez employees to Zumiez employees. The training programs have been developed to empower our employees to make good business decisions.

We believe Zumiez is a place where people have a voice, will be heard, and have bias-free opportunities. Accordingly, our workplace is built upon the foundation of inclusion and equity where its people are diverse in their backgrounds, communities, and points of view, yet all share the same core cultural values of working hard, giving back and empowering others. In this regard, we strive for our employees within a trade area to be reflective of the communities they serve. Pay equity, meaning pay parity between employees performing similar job duties, without regard for race or gender, is a base line component of this focus on inclusion and equity and something we evaluate as part of our pay practice procedures.

Financial Information about Segments

See Note 18, “Segment Reporting,” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements found in Part IV Item 15 of this Form 10-K, for information regarding our segments, product categories and certain geographical information.

Available Information

Our principal website address is www.zumiez.com (http://www.zumiez.com). We make available, free of charge, our proxy statement, annual report to shareholders, annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) at http://ir.zumiez.com. Information available on our website is not incorporated by reference in, and is not deemed a part of, this Form 10-K. The SEC maintains a website that contains electronic filings by Zumiez and other issuers at www.sec.gov (http://www.sec.gov). In addition, the SEC maintains an internet site (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.

Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. The following risk factors, issues and uncertainties should be considered in evaluating our future prospects. In particular, keep these risk factors in mind when you read “forward-looking” statements elsewhere in this report. Forward-looking statements relate to our expectations for future events and time periods. Generally, the words “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “may,” “should,” “plans,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and future events and circumstances could differ significantly from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Any of the following risks could harm our business, operating results or financial condition and could result in a complete loss of your investment. Additional risks and uncertainties that are not yet identified or that we currently think are immaterial may also harm our business and financial condition in the future.

U.S. and global economic and political uncertainty, coupled with cyclical economic trends in retailing, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Our retail market historically has been subject to substantial cyclicality. As the U.S. and global economic and political conditions change, the trends in discretionary consumer spending become unpredictable and discretionary consumer spending could be reduced due to uncertainties about the future. This includes rising geopolitical tensions and U.S. policies related to global trade and tariffs. The deterioration of economic relations between countries, such as changes in or terminations of existing trade agreements, or the imposition of tariffs (including recent U.S. tariffs imposed or threatened to be imposed on Canada, Mexico, and other countries, and any retaliatory actions taken by such countries) or otherwise, could impact our profitability or otherwise have an adverse effect on our business. Economic and consumer confidence can also be affected by a variety of factors, including housing prices, unemployment rates and inflation. When disposable income decreases or discretionary consumer spending is reduced due to a decline in consumer confidence, purchases of apparel and related products may decline. A deterioration in macroeconomic conditions or consumer confidence or uncertainty in the U.S. and global economies and political environment could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial position. In addition, government shutdowns or the risk of government shutdowns as well as the impact or expected impact of elections, both in the U.S. and in other markets where we operate could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial position.

In times when there is a decline in disposable income and consumer confidence, there could be a trend to consumers seeking more inexpensive or value-oriented merchandise. As a retailer that sells a substantial majority of branded merchandise, this could disproportionately impact us more than vertically integrated private label retailers or we may be forced to rely on promotional sales to compete in our market which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position.

Failure to anticipate, identify and respond to changing fashion trends, customer preferences and other fashion-related factors could have a material adverse effect on us.

Customer tastes and fashion trends in our market are volatile and tend to change rapidly. Our success depends on our ability to effectively anticipate, identify and respond to changing fashion tastes and consumer preferences, and to translate market trends into appropriate, saleable product offerings in a timely manner. If we are unable to successfully anticipate, identify or respond to changing styles or trends and misjudge the market for our products or any new product lines, including adequately anticipating the correct mix and trends of our private label merchandise, our sales may be lower than predicted and we may be faced with a substantial amount of unsold inventory or missed opportunities. In response to such a situation, we may be forced to rely on markdowns or promotional sales to dispose of excess or slow-moving inventory, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We may be unable to compete favorably in the highly competitive retail industry, and if we lose customers to our competitors, our sales could decrease.

The teenage and young adult retail apparel, footwear, accessories and hardgoods industry is highly competitive. We compete with other retailers for vendors, teenage and young adult customers, suitable store locations, qualified store associates, management personnel, online marketing content, social media engagement and ecommerce traffic. Some of our competitors are larger than we are and have substantially greater financial and marketing resources, including advanced ecommerce market capabilities. Additionally, some of our competitors may offer more options for free and/or expedited shipping for ecommerce sales. Direct competition with these and other retailers may increase significantly in the future, which could require us, among other things, to lower our prices and could result in the loss of our customers. Current and increased competition could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

A decrease in consumer traffic could cause our sales to be less than expected.

We depend heavily on generating customer traffic to our stores and websites. This includes locating many of our stores in prominent locations within successful shopping malls. Sales at these stores are derived, in part, from the volume of traffic in those malls. Our stores benefit from the ability of a mall’s “anchor” tenants, generally large department stores and other area attractions, to generate consumer traffic in the vicinity of our stores and the continuing popularity of malls as shopping destinations. In addition, some malls that were in prominent locations when we opened our stores may cease to be viewed as prominent. If this trend continues or if the popularity of mall shopping continues to decline generally among our customers, our sales may decline, which would impact our results of operations. These risks may include circumstances that are not within our control, such as changes in fair market rent. Furthermore, we depend on generating increased traffic to our ecommerce business and converting that traffic into sales. This requires us to achieve expected results from our marketing and social media campaigns, accuracy of data analytics, reliability of our website, network, and transaction processing and a high-quality online customer experience. Our sales volume and customer traffic in our stores and on our websites generally could be adversely affected by, among other things, economic downturns, competition from other ecommerce retailers, non-mall retailers and other malls, increases in gasoline prices, fluctuations in exchange rates in border or tourism-oriented locations and the closing or decline in popularity of other stores in the malls in which we are located. Also, geopolitical events, including the threat of terrorism, or widespread health emergencies, such as COVID-19 and other communicable diseases, viruses, or pandemics, could cause people to avoid our stores in shopping malls and alter consumer trends. An uncertain economic outlook or continued bankruptcies of mall-based retailers could curtail new shopping mall development, decrease shopping mall and ecommerce traffic, reduce the number of hours that shopping mall operators keep their shopping malls open or force them to cease operations entirely. A reduction in consumer traffic to our stores or websites could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Most of our merchandise is produced by foreign manufacturers; therefore, the availability, quality and costs of our merchandise may be negatively affected by risks associated with international trade and other international conditions, including the implementation of increased tariffs or other restrictions placed on foreign imports.

Most of our merchandise is produced by manufacturers around the world, including China. Some of these facilities are located in regions that may be affected by natural disasters, public health concerns, or emergencies, such as COVID-19 and other communicable diseases or viruses, political instability or other conditions that could cause a disruption in trade. Also, our business could be adversely affected by disruptions in the supply chain, such as strikes, work stoppages, or port closures.

Most of our merchandise is imported and is subject to duties, indirect taxes, quotas and non-tariff trade barriers, any of which may limit the quantity of products that we may import into the U.S. and other countries or may impact the cost of such products. The current U.S. presidential administration has implemented tariffs and has signaled that it may implement additional or increased tariffs, other trade restrictions, or may alter trade agreements between the U.S. and Canada, China, the European Union and Mexico, among others. Such actions include limiting trade and/or imposing tariffs on imports from such countries. Tariffs have the potential to significantly raise the cost of our merchandise. In such a case, there can be no assurance that we will be able to shift manufacturing and supply agreements to non-impacted countries to reduce the effects of tariffs. As a result, we may suffer margin erosion or be required to raise our prices, which may result in the loss of customers, negatively impact our results of operations, or otherwise harm our business.

Our North America growth strategy depends on our ability to grow customer engagement in our current markets, which could strain our resources and cause the performance of our existing business to suffer.

Our North America growth largely depends on our ability to optimize our customer engagement. We intend to continue to open new stores in future years, while remodeling a portion of our existing store base such that we have the optimum number of stores in any given trade area. The growth strategy may present competitive, merchandising, hiring and distribution challenges that are different from those currently encountered. In addition, it will place increased demands on our operational, managerial and administrative resources. These increased demands could cause us to operate our business less effectively, which in turn could cause deterioration in the financial performance of our individual stores and our overall business. In addition, successful execution of our growth strategy may require that we obtain additional financing, and we may not be able to obtain that financing on acceptable terms or at all.

Our plans for international expansion include risks that could have a negative impact on our results of operations.

We plan to continue to open new stores in the European and Australian markets. We may continue to expand internationally into other markets, either organically or through additional acquisitions. International markets may have different competitive conditions, consumer tastes and discretionary spending patterns than our existing North America market. The expansion strategy may present competitive, merchandising, hiring and distribution challenges that are different from those currently encountered. In addition, it will place increased demands on our operational, managerial and administrative resources. As a result, operations in international markets may be less successful than our operations in the North America. Additionally, consumers in international markets may not be familiar with us or the brands we sell, and we may need to build brand awareness in the markets. Furthermore, we have limited experience with the legal and regulatory environments and market practices in new international markets and cannot guarantee that we will be able to penetrate or successfully operate in these new international markets. We also expect to incur additional costs in complying with applicable foreign laws and regulations as they pertain to both our products and our operations. Accordingly, for the reasons noted above, our plans for international expansion include risks that could have a negative impact on our results of operations.

Failure to successfully integrate any businesses that we acquire could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and financial performance.

We may, from time to time, acquire businesses, such as our acquisition of Blue Tomato and Fast Times. We may experience difficulties in integrating any businesses we may acquire, including their stores, websites, facilities, personnel, financial systems, distribution, operations and general operating procedures, and any such acquisitions may also result in the diversion of our capital and our management’s attention from other business issues and opportunities. If we experience difficulties in integrating acquisitions or if such acquisitions do not provide the benefits that we expect to receive, we could experience increased costs and other operating inefficiencies, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and overall financial performance.

Our sales and inventory levels fluctuate on a seasonal basis. Accordingly, our quarterly results of operations are volatile and may fluctuate significantly.

Our quarterly results of operations have fluctuated significantly in the past and can be expected to continue to fluctuate significantly in the future. Our sales and profitability are typically disproportionately higher in the third and fourth fiscal quarters of each fiscal year due to increased sales during the back-to-school and winter holiday shopping seasons. Sales during these periods cannot be used as an accurate indicator of annual results. As a result of this seasonality, any factors negatively affecting us during the last half of the year, including unfavorable economic conditions, adverse weather or our ability to acquire seasonal merchandise inventory, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations for the entire year. In addition, in order to prepare for the back-to-school and winter holiday shopping seasons, we must order and keep in stock significantly more merchandise than we carry during other times of the year. Any unanticipated decrease in demand for our products during these peak shopping seasons could require us to sell excess inventory at a substantial markdown, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our quarterly results of operations are affected by a variety of other factors, including calendar shifts of holiday or seasonal periods, timing of promotional events, general economic conditions, and numerous other items set forth on these risk factors.

Pandemics and other health crises, including COVID-19, could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in many respects.

The emergence, severity, magnitude and duration of global or regional health crises are uncertain and difficult to predict. A pandemic, such as COVID-19, could affect certain business operations, demand for our products and services, in-stock positions, costs of doing business, availability of labor, access to inventory, supply chain operations, our ability to predict future performance, exposure to litigation, and our financial performance, among other things. Other factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to:

• the severity and duration of pandemics;
• evolving macroeconomic factors, including general economic uncertainty, unemployment rates, and recessionary pressures;
• changes in labor markets affecting us and our suppliers;
• unknown consequences on our business performance and initiatives stemming from the substantial investment of time and other resources to the pandemic response;
• the pace of post-pandemic recovery;
• the long-term impact of the pandemic on our business, including consumer behaviors; and
• disruption and volatility within the financial and credit markets.

We rely on information systems and technology in our operations and our growth plans and any material failure, inadequacy interruption, or security failure of that technology could adversely affect our ability to effectively operate and grow our business and could adversely affect our financial results.

If our information technology systems, including hardware and software, do not work effectively, this could adversely impact our ability to operate and manage our business, including the promptness and accuracy of our transaction processing, financial accounting and reporting and our ability to properly forecast operating results and cash requirements. Additionally, we rely on third-party service providers for certain information systems functions. If a service provider fails to provide the data quality, communications, capacity or services we require, the failure could interrupt our services and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any failure, inadequacy, or interruption of our technology systems could harm our ability to effectively operate and grow our business and could adversely affect our financial results. In addition, the technologies and artificial intelligence tools that we incorporate into certain aspects of our operations may not generate the intended efficiencies and may impact our business results. Specifically artificial intelligence tools could have the potential to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased and if we fail to adopt and oversee the use of artificial intelligence in a thoughtful and strategic manner, it could harm our financial performance. To better manage, operate and grow our business, we may need to continue to invest in and improve our information technology systems, and in doing so could incur substantial additional expenses that could impact our financial results. In addition, remediation of any problems with our information technology systems could result in significant, unplanned expenses.

If we fail to meet the requirements to adequately maintain the privacy and security of personal data and business information, we may be subjected to adverse publicity, litigation, and significant expenses.

Information systems are susceptible to an increasing threat of continually evolving cybersecurity risks. Similar to many other retail companies, we expect to continue to experience cyber attacks, including phishing, social engineering, and other attempts to breach, or gain unauthorized access to our systems and databases. To date, these attacks have not had a material impact on our operations, but we cannot provide assurance that they will not have an impact in the future. Unauthorized access, theft, use, destruction, or other compromises are becoming increasingly sophisticated and may occur through a variety of methods. The rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies by attackers may intensify our cybersecurity risks. If we fail to maintain or adequately maintain security systems, devices, and activity monitoring to prevent unauthorized access to our network, systems and databases containing confidential, proprietary and personally identifiable information, we may be subject to additional risk of adverse publicity, litigation or significant expense. Nevertheless, if unauthorized parties gain access to our networks, systems, or databases, they may be able to steal, publish, delete or modify confidential information. In such circumstances, we could be held liable to our customers or other parties or be subject to regulatory or other actions for breaching privacy rules and we may be exposed to reputation damage and loss of customers’ trust and business. This could result in costly investigations and litigation, civil or criminal penalties and adverse publicity that could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and reputation. Actual or anticipated attacks may cause us to incur increasing costs, including costs to deploy additional resources, train employees and engage third parties. Further, the regulatory environment surrounding information security, cybersecurity and privacy is increasingly demanding. If we are unable to comply with the new and changing security standards, we may be subject to fines, restrictions, and financial exposure, which could adversely affect our retail operations.

Significant fluctuations and volatility in the cost of raw materials, global labor, shipping and other costs related to the production of our merchandise may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial conditions.

Increases in the cost of raw materials, global labor costs, freight costs and other shipping costs in the production and transportation of our merchandise can result in higher costs for this merchandise. The costs for these products are affected by weather, consumer demand, government regulation, speculation on the commodities market and other factors that are generally unpredictable and beyond our control. Our gross profit and results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that the selling prices of our products do not increase proportionately with the increases in the costs of raw materials. Increasing labor costs and oil-related product costs, such as manufacturing and transportation costs, could also adversely impact gross profit. Additionally, significant changes in the relationship between carrier capacity and shipper demand could increase transportation costs, which could also adversely impact gross profit.

Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could impact our financial condition and results of operations.

We are exposed to foreign currency exchange rate risk with respect to our sales, profits, assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. As a result, the fluctuation in the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. Upon translation, operating results may differ materially from expectations. As we continue to expand our international operations, our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations will increase. Tourism spending may be affected by changes in currency exchange rates, and as a result, sales at stores with higher tourism traffic may be adversely impacted by fluctuations in currency exchange rates. Further, although the prices charged by vendors for the merchandise we purchase are primarily denominated in U.S. dollars, a decline in the relative value of the U.S. dollar to foreign currencies could lead to increased merchandise costs, which could negatively affect our competitive position and our results of operations.

Our business could be adversely affected by increased labor costs, including costs related to an increase in minimum wage and health care.

Labor is one of the primary components in the cost of operating our business. Increased labor costs, whether due to competition, unionization, increased minimum wage, state unemployment rates, health care, mandated safety protocols, or other employee benefits costs may adversely impact our operating profit. A considerable amount of our store team members are paid at rates related to the federal or state minimum wage and any changes to the minimum wage rate may increase our operating expenses. Furthermore, inconsistent increases in state and or city minimum wage requirements limit our ability to increase prices across all markets and channels. Additionally, we are self-insured with respect to our health care coverage in the U.S. and do not purchase third party insurance for the health insurance benefits provided to employees with the exception of pre-defined stop loss coverage, which helps limit the cost of large claims. There is no assurance that future health care legislation will not adversely impact our results or operations.

Although none of our North America and Australia employees are currently covered by collective bargaining agreements, we cannot guarantee that they will not elect to be represented by labor unions in the future, which could increase our labor costs and could subject us to the risk of work stoppages and strikes. Any such failure to meet our staffing needs, any material increases in employee turnover rates, any increases in labor costs or any work stoppages, interruptions or strikes could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.

Our business could suffer if a manufacturer fails to use acceptable labor and environmental practices.

We do not control our vendors or the manufacturers that produce the products we buy from them, nor do we control the labor and environmental practices of our vendors and these manufacturers. The violation of labor, safety, environmental and/or other laws and standards by any of our vendors or these manufacturers, or the divergence of the labor and environmental practices followed by any of our vendors or these manufacturers from those generally accepted as ethical in the U.S., could interrupt, or otherwise disrupt, the shipment of finished products to us or damage our reputation. Any of these, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, financial condition and results of operations. In that regard, most of the products we sell are manufactured internationally, primarily in Asia, Mexico and Central America, which may increase the risk that the labor and environmental practices followed by the manufacturers of these products may differ from those considered acceptable in the U.S.

Additionally, our products are subject to regulation of, and regulatory standards set by various governmental authorities with respect to quality and safety. These regulations and standards may change from time to time. Our inability to comply on a timely basis with regulatory requirements could result in significant fines or penalties, which could adversely affect our reputation and sales. Issues with the quality and safety of merchandise we sell, regardless of our culpability, or customer concerns about such issues, could result in damage to our reputation, lost sales, uninsured product liability claims or losses, merchandise recalls and increased costs.

If we fail to develop and maintain good relationships with vendors, or if a vendor is otherwise unable or unwilling to supply us with adequate quantities of their products at acceptable prices, our business and financial performance could suffer.

Our business is dependent on developing and maintaining good relationships with a large number of vendors to provide our customers with an extensive selection of current and relevant brands. In addition to maintaining our large number of current vendor relationships, each year we are identifying, attracting and launching new vendors to provide a diverse and unique product assortment. We believe that we generally are able to obtain attractive pricing and terms from vendors because we are perceived as a desirable customer, and deterioration in our relationship with our vendors could have a material adverse effect on our business.

However, there can be no assurance that our current vendors or new vendors will provide us with an adequate supply or quality of products or acceptable pricing. Our vendors could discontinue selling to us, raise the prices they charge, sell through direct channels or allow their merchandise to be discounted by other retailers. There can be no assurance that we will be able to acquire desired merchandise in sufficient quantities on terms acceptable to us in the future. In addition, certain vendors sell their products directly to the retail market and therefore compete with us directly and other vendors may decide to do so in the future. There can be no assurance that such vendors will not decide to discontinue supplying their products to us, supply us only less popular or lower quality items, raise the prices they charge us or focus on selling their products directly.

In addition, a number of our vendors are smaller, less capitalized companies and are more likely to be impacted by unfavorable general economic and market conditions than larger and better capitalized companies. These smaller vendors may not have sufficient liquidity during economic downturns to properly fund their businesses and their ability to supply their products to us could be negatively impacted. Any inability to acquire suitable merchandise at acceptable prices, or the loss of one or more key vendors, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our business is susceptible to weather conditions that are out of our control, including the potential risks of unpredictable weather patterns and any weather patterns associated with naturally occurring global climate change, and the resultant unseasonable weather could have a negative impact on our results of operations.

Our business is susceptible to unseasonable weather conditions. For example, extended periods of unseasonably warm temperatures during the winter season or cool weather during the summer season (including any weather patterns associated with global warming and cooling) could render a portion of our inventory incompatible with those unseasonable conditions. These prolonged unseasonable weather conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

If we lose key executives or are unable to attract and retain the talent required for our business, our financial performance could suffer.

Our performance depends largely on the efforts and abilities of our key executives. If we lose the services of one or more of our key executives, we may not be able to successfully manage our business or achieve our growth objectives. Furthermore, as our business grows, we will need to attract and retain additional qualified personnel in a timely manner and we may not be able to do so.

Failure to meet our staffing needs could adversely affect our ability to implement our growth strategy and could have a material impact on our results of operations.

Our success depends in part upon our ability to attract, motivate and retain a sufficient number of qualified employees who understand and appreciate our culture and brand and are able to adequately represent this culture. Qualified individuals of the requisite caliber, skills and number needed to fill these positions may be in short supply in some areas and the employee turnover rate in the retail industry is high. Our business depends on the ability to hire and retain qualified technical and support roles for procurement, distribution, ecommerce and back office functions. Competition for qualified employees in these areas could require us to pay higher wages to attract a sufficient number of suitable employees.

If we are unable to hire and retain store managers and store associates capable of consistently providing a high level of customer service, as demonstrated by their enthusiasm for our culture and knowledge of our merchandise, our ability to open new stores may be impaired and the performance of our existing and new stores could be materially adversely affected. We are also dependent upon temporary personnel to adequately staff our operations particularly during busy periods such as the back-to-school and winter holiday seasons. There can be no assurance that we will receive adequate assistance from our temporary personnel, or that there will be sufficient sources of temporary personnel. If we are unable to hire qualified temporary personnel, our results of operations could be adversely impacted.

A decline in cash flows from operations could have a material adverse effect on our business and growth plans.

We depend on cash flow from operations to fund our current operations and our growth strategy, including the payment of our operating leases, wages, store operation costs and other cash needs. If our business does not generate sufficient cash flow from operating activities, and sufficient funds are not otherwise available to us from borrowings under a credit facility or from other sources, we may not be able to pay our operating lease expenses, grow our business, respond to competitive challenges or fund our other liquidity and capital needs, which could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our business could suffer with the closure or disruption of our home office or our distribution centers.

In the U.S., we rely on a single distribution center located in Corona, California to receive, store and distribute the vast majority of our merchandise to our domestic stores. Internationally, we operate a combined distribution and ecommerce fulfillment center located in Graz, Austria that supports our Blue Tomato ecommerce and store operations in Europe. We operate a distribution center located in Delta, British Columbia, Canada to distribute our merchandise to our Canadian stores. We operate a distribution and ecommerce fulfillment center located in Melbourne, Australia to distribute our merchandise to our Australian stores. Additionally, we are headquartered in Lynnwood, Washington. As a result, unforeseen events, including war, terrorism, other political instability or conflicts, riots, public health issues (including widespread/pandemic illnesses such as coronavirus and other communicable diseases or viruses), a natural disaster or other catastrophic event that affects one of the regions where we operate these centers or our home office could significantly disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The effects of war, acts of terrorism, threat of terrorism, or other types of mall violence, could adversely affect our business.

Most of our stores are located in shopping malls. Any threat of terrorist attacks or actual terrorist events, or other types of mall violence, such as shootings or riots, could lead to lower consumer traffic in shopping malls. In addition, local authorities or mall management could close shopping malls in response to security concerns. Mall closures, as well as lower consumer traffic due to security concerns, could result in decreased sales. Additionally, the threat, escalation or commencement of war or other armed conflict elsewhere, could significantly diminish consumer spending, and result in decreased sales. Decreased sales could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our inability or failure to protect our intellectual property or our infringement of other’s intellectual property could have a negative impact on our operating results.

We believe that our trademarks and domain names are valuable assets that are critical to our success. The unauthorized use or other misappropriation of our trademarks or domain names could diminish the value of the Zumiez, Blue Tomato, or Fast Times brands, our store concepts, our private label brands or our goodwill and cause a decline in our net sales. Although we have secured or are in the process of securing protection for our trademarks and domain names in a number of countries outside of the U.S., there are certain countries where we do not currently have or where we do not currently intend to apply for protection for certain trademarks. Also, the efforts we have taken to protect our trademarks may not be sufficient or effective. Therefore, we may not be able to prevent other persons from using our trademarks or domain names outside of the U.S., which also could adversely affect our business. We are also subject to the risk that we may infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties. Any infringement or other intellectual property claim made against us, whether or not it has merit, could be time-consuming, result in costly litigation, cause product delays or require us to pay royalties or license fees. As a result, any such claim could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

Our operations expose us to the risk of litigation, which could lead to significant potential liability and costs that could harm our business, financial condition or results of operations.

We employ a substantial number of full-time and part-time employees, a majority of whom are employed at our store locations. As a result, we are subject to a large number of federal, state and foreign laws and regulations relating to employment. This creates a risk of potential claims that we have violated laws related to discrimination and harassment, health and safety, wage and hour laws, criminal activity, personal injury and other claims. We are also subject to other types of claims in the ordinary course of our business. Some or all of these claims may give rise to litigation, which could be time-consuming for our management team, costly and harmful to our business.

In addition, we are exposed to the risk of class action litigation. The costs of defense and the risk of loss in connection with class action suits are greater than in single-party litigation claims. Due to the costs of defending against such litigation, the size of judgments that may be awarded against us, and the loss of significant management time devoted to such litigation, we cannot provide assurance that such litigation will not disrupt our business or impact our financial results.

We are involved, from time to time, in litigation incidental to our business including complaints filed by investors. This litigation could result in substantial costs, and could divert management's attention and resources, which could harm our business. Risks associated with legal liability are often difficult to assess or quantify, and their existence and magnitude can remain unknown for significant periods of time.

Failure to comply with federal, state, local or foreign laws and regulations, or changes in these laws and regulations, could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and financial performance.

Our business is subject to a wide array of laws and regulations including those related to employment, trade, consumer protection, transportation, occupancy laws, health care, wage laws, employee health and safety, taxes, privacy, health information privacy, identify theft, customs, truth-in-advertising, securities laws, unsolicited commercial communication and environmental issues. Our policies, procedures and internal controls are designed to comply with foreign and domestic laws and regulations, such as those required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Although we have policies and procedures aimed at ensuring legal and regulatory compliance, our employees or vendors could take actions that violate these laws and regulations. Any violations of such laws or regulations could have an adverse effect on our reputation, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. Furthermore, changes in the regulations, the imposition of additional regulations, or the enactment of any new legislation, particularly in the North America and International businesses, could adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.

Fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate may result in volatility in our operating results.

We are subject to income taxes in many domestic and foreign jurisdictions. In addition, our products are subject to import and excise duties and/or sales, consumption or value-added taxes in many jurisdictions. We record tax expense based on our estimates of future payments, which include reserves for estimates of probable settlements of domestic and foreign tax audits. At any one time, many tax years are subject to audit by various taxing jurisdictions. There can be no assurance as to the outcome of these audits which may have an adverse effect to our business. In addition, our effective tax rate may be materially impacted by changes in tax rates and duties, the mix and level of earnings or losses by taxing jurisdictions, or by changes to existing accounting rules or regulations. Changes to foreign or domestic tax laws could have a material impact on our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

We may fail to meet analyst and investor expectations, which could cause the price of our stock to decline.

Our common stock is traded publicly and various securities analysts and investors follow our financial results and issue reports on us. These reports include information about our historical financial results as well as the analysts' and investors' estimates of our future performance. The analysts' and investors' estimates are based upon their own independent opinions and can be different from our estimates or expectations. If our operating results are below the estimates or expectations of public market analysts and investors, our stock price could decline.

The reduction of total outstanding shares through the execution of a share repurchase program of common stock may increase the risk that a group of shareholders could form a group to become a controlling shareholder.

A share repurchase program may be conducted from time to time under authorization made by our Board of Directors. We do not have a controlling shareholder, nor are we aware of any shareholders that have formed a “group” (defined as when two or more persons agree to act together for the purposes of acquiring, holding, voting or otherwise disposing of the equity securities of an issuer). The reduction of total outstanding shares through the execution of a share repurchase program of common stock may increase the risk that a group of shareholders could form a group to become a controlling shareholder.

A controlling shareholder would have significant influence over, and may have the ability to control, matters requiring approval by our shareholders, including the election of directors and approval of mergers, consolidations, sales of assets, recapitalizations and amendments to our articles of incorporation. Furthermore, a controlling shareholder may take actions with which other shareholders do not agree, including actions that delay, defer or prevent a change of control of the company and that could cause the price that investors are willing to pay for the company’s stock to decline.

Increased scrutiny and changing expectations from stakeholders with respect to ESG matters may result in additional costs or risks.

Companies across many industries are facing increasing scrutiny related to their environmental, social and governance practices. Our employees, customers, various types of investors, and other stakeholders are also increasingly focused on ESG practices and in recent years have placed increasing importance on the non-financial impacts. If our ESG practices do not meet stakeholder expectations, which continue to evolve, we may incur additional costs and our brand may be harmed.

Globally, a lack of harmonization and the rapid evolution in relation to ESG legal and regulatory reform across the jurisdictions in which we may operate may affect our future implementation of, and compliance with, ESG standards and requirements. Standards for tracking and reporting ESG matters are relatively new, have not been formalized and continue to evolve. Collecting, measuring, and reporting ESG information and metrics can be difficult and time consuming. In addition, our processes and controls may not comply with evolving standards for identifying, measuring and reporting ESG metrics, including ESG-related disclosures that may be required of public companies by the SEC and other regulators, and such standards may change over time, which could result in significant revisions to our current goals, reported progress in achieving such goals, or ability to achieve such goals in the future, and could cause us to undertake costly initiatives to satisfy such new criteria.

We could incur charges due to impairment of goodwill, intangible assets and other long-term assets.

We have recorded goodwill, which is the premium paid over the fair market value of the acquired tangible and intangible assets paid in an acquisition, as part of our prior year acquisitions. Goodwill and intangible assets, which consist of tradenames and trademarks, are tested for impairment annually or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the asset might be impaired. Any event that impacts our results negatively could lead to impairment of these assets which could have negative impacts on our earnings. Long-term assets, primarily fixed assets and operating lease right-of-use assets, are also subject to testing for impairment if events or changes in circumstances indicate that the asset might be impaired. A significant amount of judgment is involved in our impairment assessment. If actual results fall short of our estimates and assumptions used in estimating revenue growth, future cash flows and asset fair values, we could incur further impairment charges for goodwill, intangible assets, or long-term assets, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

Risk Management and Strategy

Overview

At its core, our cybersecurity program is the collection of people, processes and technologies that are designed to protect our networks, computers and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access. The cybersecurity program is also part of a broader cybersecurity framework, which involves how we assess and manage cybersecurity threat risks and how this integrates into our overall risk management framework. While the foregoing summary is specific to our North America business operations we believe that the cybersecurity programs of our International business operations are consistent with the approach and framework outlined below and are appropriate for the scope and scale of their operations.

The Security and Compliance Team, within our IT department, takes the lead role in helping to ensure that we maintain comprehensive technologies and programs to ensure our systems are effective and prepared for cybersecurity risks. The Security and Compliance Team is led by the Security and Compliance Program Manager and consists of a Lead Security Engineer and a Security Analyst. The Security and Compliance Team works very closely with our team across the IT department and with several different third parties who provide expertise in different areas such as threat hunting and penetration testing.

Objectives and Key Principles and Priorities

The objective of the Security and Compliance Team is to build practices within the company to define, implement, enforce, and measure our security, compliance and disaster recovery readiness. In doing so, it utilizes some of the following key guiding principles and priorities:

• Alignment. Working within the organization to clearly define the need for secure computing practices, gaining buy-in on this need and the development of a mindset across the organization around secure computing.
• Measurement and Visibility. Developing measurement and reporting methods which inform our stakeholders both in the business as well as external audit and other outside entities as to compliance with various security frameworks and regulatory obligations.
• Protection. Using a commonly accepted industry framework to build and ensure the enforcement of policies and procedures which secure the data and systems of all our stakeholders.
• Response. Ensuring that that if a security incident occurs there is a clear and well understood response plan which is followed by all response participants.
• Resources and Tools. Identifying the resources needed to run the cybersecurity program commensurate with the size and complexity of our company, including identifying and implementing appropriate tools and systems to help strengthen our security posture.

On a day-to-day basis and from a project perspective, the Security and Compliance Team undertakes the following activities:

• Builds and reviews reports on newly identified security threats.
• Monitors various internal security toolsets including EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), email security and logging from company firewalls and other security related systems and takes action to prevent or resolve incidents identified by monitoring.
• Ensures that appropriate vendor patches/configurations are applied to the various internal systems that operate to maintain a secure environment.
• Works with various teams with the IT department to ensure that company servers and data are properly backed up and that compliance requirements and security best practices are following during new system implementations.
• Deploys and tunes various security and monitoring platforms.
• Manages the North America Annual PCI (Payment Card Industry) review and consults with Zumiez international entities regarding PCI.
• Provides evidence gathering for, and conducts walk throughs with, internal and external audit teams for internal control over financial reporting related to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX Controls).
• Maintains a system of security policies and procedures within the IT department related to cybersecurity and compliance requirements, primarily related to PCI compliance and SOX Controls.

Framework for Cybersecurity Controls

We have implemented risk-based controls to protect our networks, computers and data. To this end, we utilize the Center for Internet Security (CIS) version 8.0 framework, which is comprised of eighteen critical security controls. The CIS framework is based on the COSO (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations on the Treadway Commission) and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) frameworks and provides a highly actionable way to implement those frameworks and maps directly to other compliance requirements relevant to us, including PCI compliance and SOX controls (briefly discussed above).

Use of Third Parties

We work with a third party that provides us with threat hunting services via an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform. This team proactively searches for newly uncovered threats based on up-to-the-minute intelligence on the cybersecurity threat landscape and their knowledge of the Zumiez environment. Upon discovery of a potential threat, the threat hunting team provides initial remediation guidance.

We also conduct periodic penetration testing of our systems. This testing is performed by a qualified third-party testing company and is in alignment with our CIS controls. Penetration testing is meant to provide us with information on the security of a particular system or application. These findings then can be used by us to inform remediation work on a go-forward basis.

Cybersecurity Insurance.

We maintain what we believe are appropriate levels of cybersecurity insurance that covers settlements, judgments and defense costs arising out of a failure of network security, a privacy breach, media liability, business income loss resulting from a cyber event and for cyber extortion coverage. This cybersecurity insurance coverage also provides for the following breach response services in connection with incidents involving the theft, loss or unauthorized disclosure of third-party information and computer system security breaches:

• Computer expert services (such as a cybersecurity firm to determine the existence and cause of an actual or suspected electronic data breach or a PCI forensic investigator in connection with investigations dealing with credit card data);
• Legal services;
• Notification services to provide notification to impacted individuals;
• Call center services;
• Breach resolution and mitigation services, including credit monitoring and identity theft monitoring; and
• Public Relations and crisis management expenses.

Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan

We have a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan which is maintained by the Security and Compliance Team. The Incident Response Plan establishes what people and organizations need to be engaged in the event of a significant incident. The Incident Response Plan also provides templates for technical resolution, documentation and communication to internal stakeholders as well as insurers and governmental and other regulatory agencies.

Risk Mitigation

We also manage cybersecurity risk by limiting our threat landscape. For example, as an omni-channel retailer, we accept credit and debit cards via all sales channels and protecting cardholder data is a critical component of our security practices. Accordingly, PCI compliance (discussed briefly above) is very important and we engage an external qualified assessor to audit our compliance and to provide us with a report on compliance that is also shared with various payment providers. To help reduce our exposure to unauthorized access of cardholder data, we have utilized a strategy of minimizing or eliminating the storage of, and unencrypted transmission of, cardholder information across our various systems.

Moreover, our businesses do not involve or represent national infrastructure, the likes of which are common targets of cyber attackers (e.g., energy, oil & gas, transportation, communications, banking and financial systems, etc.). We recognize that cyber threats are a permanent part of the risk landscape and that new threats are constantly evolving. For these and other reasons, cybersecurity is a top risk management priority at Zumiez.

Like many companies, we face a number of cybersecurity risks in the day-to-day operation of our business. Although to date these risks have not materialized into any instances or series of instances that have had a material adverse effect on our business or otherwise caused material harm to the company, we have, on occasion, experienced cybersecurity threats to our data and information systems, including phishing attacks. For more information about the cybersecurity risks we face, see the risk factor entitled "If we fail to meet the requirements to adequately maintain the privacy and security of personal data and business information, we may be subject to adverse publicity, litigation and significant expenses” in Item 1A Risk Factors.

Governance

As discussed above, the Security and Compliance team takes a lead role in helping to ensure that we maintain comprehensive technologies and programs to ensure our systems are effective and prepared for cybersecurity risks. This team is supported by our Zumiez North America Cybersecurity Team, which consists of the Security and Compliance Program Manager, the Director of Infrastructure IT, the Vice President of IT, the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Legal Officer. Additional support and guidance are provided by the Zumiez North America IT Steering Committee, which consists of the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Legal Officer, the Executive Vice President of North American Consumer Teams, the Vice President of IT, the Director of Infrastructure IT and the Senior Program Manager of Digital Commerce. Together, the Zumiez North America Cybersecurity Team and the Zumiez North America IT Steering Committee provide guidance and oversight to the Security and Compliance Team in alignment with the company’s overall risk management and oversight framework.

Members of management, including our Chief Legal Officer, regularly report on the company’s cybersecurity matters to our board’s Audit Committee. The Audit Committee has been assigned the responsibility for reviewing and discussing with management the company’s major operational, legal and regulatory risks, including data security and privacy and the company’s policies to identify and manage cybersecurity risks.

In order to inform the Audit Committee of the planning and execution of our cybersecurity program, several different reports are provided from management.

Annual Cybersecurity Plan. This plan is provided for the first quarter Audit Committee meeting and outlines the cybersecurity related strategic initiatives for the fiscal year. It outlines any new investments and projects and their alignment with the cybersecurity framework, as well as the expected timelines for the implementation of these activities.

Quarterly Cybersecurity Memos. At the 2nd, 3rd and 4thquarter Audit Committee meetings, an update memo is provided to the Audit Committee that details the progress against the Annual Cybersecurity Plan, any updates on PCI compliance and SOX compliance activities and any emerging threats. The memo also contains a summary of significant cybersecurity threats over the past quarter both within our ecosystem and outside our ecosystem and any impact (if any) they may have had upon the company.

Internal Audit Reports. Our internal audit function’s reviews of our information security programs and controls are included in quarterly reports to the Audit Committee.

The cybersecurity program and related risks are also discussed with the full Board of Directors as part of the review and discussions around the topic of risk management and the risk oversight framework that generally take place at the 3rd quarter Board of Directors meeting.

Any potentially significant information security issues that arise during the year are discussed with management and captured in our disclosure controls and procedures and are discussed with our Audit Committee chair between board meetings as appropriate.

All of our stores are occupied under operating leases and encompassed approximately 2.2 million total square feet at February 1, 2025.

We own approximately 356,000 square feet of land in Lynnwood, Washington on which we own a 63,071 square foot home office. Additionally, we lease 14,208 square feet of office space in Schladming, Austria for our European home office.

We own a 168,450 square foot building in Corona, California that serves as our domestic warehouse and distribution center.

We lease 17,168 square feet of a distribution facility in Delta, British Columbia, Canada that supports our store operations in Canada. We lease 114,571 square feet to serve as a distribution and ecommerce fulfillment center and office space in Graz, Austria that supports our Blue Tomato ecommerce and store operations in Europe. We lease a 21,754 square feet building that serves as a distribution and ecommerce fulfillment center and office space in Melbourne, Australia that supports our Fast Times ecommerce and store operations in Australia.

We are involved from time to time in litigation incidental to our business. We believe that the outcome of current litigation is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

See Note 11, “Commitments and Contingencies,” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements found in Part IV Item 15 of this Form 10-K, for additional information related to legal proceedings.

The following discussion and analysis compares the change in the consolidated financial statements for years ended and February 1, 2025 and February 3, 2024 and should be read together with our consolidated financial statements, the accompanying notes, and other information included in this Annual Report. In particular, the risk factors contained in Item 1A may reflect trends, demands, commitments, events, or uncertainties that could materially impact our results of operations and liquidity and capital resources. For comparisons of years ended February 3, 2024 and January 28, 2023, see our Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Item 2 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended February 3, 2024, filed with the SEC on March 13, 2025 and incorporated herein by reference.

This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those discussed in the section titled” Risk Factors” and in other parts of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. See also the section titled “Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in this report.

For Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) related to the year ended January 28, 2023, refer to this same section in our 2023 annual report on Form 10-K as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 13, 2025.

Fiscal 2024—A Review of This Past Year

After stimulus driven, record breaking results in fiscal 2021, the absence of stimulus, trend shifts and the compounding multi-year inflationary impact on consumers were significant detriments throughout fiscal year 2022.While negative sales trends continued into fiscal 2023, they lessened in intensity each quarter with fourth quarter comparable sales down 3.9% from the prior year. The improving sales trends throughout fiscal 2023 reflected positive momentum in emerging brands on the men’s side of the business as the men’s category turned positive in the fourth quarter. In 2024, sales trends turned positive after the first quarter and we posted positive comparable sales growth in each of the final eight months of the year with comparable sales up 4.0% for the full year (and total sales up 1.6% despite the negative impacts on growth of both the 53rd week in the prior year worth $12.0 million and closed stores worth $9.0 million). The turn of our business continues to be driven by the apparel categories across both men's and women's with the men’s business being our largest growth category followed by women’s and footwear.

In fiscal year 2024, product margin increased 54 basis points from the prior year driven by strong private label performance and less discounting with better sales performance. Fiscal 2024 was the highest product margin in our history excluding fiscal 2021 which was positively impacted by significant stimulus spending. Gross Margin improved 200 basis points to 34.1% in 2024 driven by leverage on increased sales, strong management of our lease portfolio, negotiated reductions in shipping costs and well-managed distribution operations. Our Selling General and Administrative expenses were down $44.6 million from the prior year driven by a $41.1 million goodwill impairment charge in fiscal 2023. Excluding that charge, Selling General and Administrative expenses were reduced by $3.5 million from fiscal 2023 with continued management of expenses that was slightly offset by higher levels of incentive compensation for current year performance. Our sales growth, combined with increases in product margins and reductions of expense across multiple areas drove a positive $1.9 million in operating profit for the year, an improvement of $66.7 million from 2023, or an improvement of $25.6 million excluding the goodwill impairment charges in 2023. Due to an effective tax rate of 142.0% related to the distribution of our income across the jurisdictions in which we operate, we had a $0.09 loss per share in fiscal 2024. This was an improvement from a loss of $3.25 per share in fiscal 2023, or a $1.12 loss per share excluding goodwill impairment charges.

As a leading global lifestyle retailer, we continue to differentiate ourselves through our distinctive brand offering and diverse product selection, as well as the unique customer experience across all of our platforms. We remained committed to serving our customer launching well over 120 new brands in 2024. We made investments over several years to integrate the digital and physical channels creating a seamless shopping experience for our customer. We are continuing to deliver our online orders in North America from our stores, which has provided substantial improvements in the speed of delivery to our customers, eliminated the need to manage two pools of inventory separately for digital and physical demand, and created one cost structure for execution of both physical and digital sales. Internationally we continue to see deeper penetration of localized fulfillment and are in various stages of roll-out in different countries. In-store fulfillment is a key part of strategy that we believe will drive long term market share by leveraging the strengths of our store sales team, providing better and faster service to customers, improving product margins, maximizing the productivity of inventory, providing additional selling opportunities, and utilizing one cost structure to serve the customer.

The following table shows net sales, operating profit (loss), operating margin and diluted (loss) earnings per share for fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023:

(1) The increase in net sales was primarily driven by an increase in dollars per transaction, partially offset by a decrease in transactions. The increase in dollars per transaction was driven by an increase in average unit retail, and an increase in units per transaction. For the year, our largest growth in comparable sales was in our men’s category, followed by women’s and footwear. Our largest comparable sales decrease was in our accessories category, followed by hardgoods.

Fiscal 2025—A Look At the Upcoming Year

In fiscal 2025, our focus will continue to be serving the customer by bringing differentiated product in a unique sales experience along with strategic investments focused on enhancing the customer experience while increasing market share and creating operational efficiencies to drive long-term operating margin expansion. After two difficult years the business returned to growth and positive free cash flow. The balance sheet remains strong with $147.6 million in cash and marketable securities at the end of fiscal 2024 with no debt. We are in a solid financial position providing the security to manage through potential difficulties, while also investing strategically in important long-term initiatives and returning value to our shareholders.

While our growth and return to positive operating profit in fiscal 2024 have us optimistic, the macro-economic environment in 2025 remains unclear. Inflation has moderated, but it is not yet at desired levels. The impact of multiple years of compounding growth in the cost of consumer goods continues to put pressure on the discretionary income of our customer base as consumer savings balances decrease and consumer debt grows. The impact of global events and regulation change could also continue to make things less clear on the consumer and potentially result in a pullback of spending. However, with sales momentum as we exit fiscal 2024, our focus will be to further capitalize on the positive trends in the business and provide the newness that our customers expect from Zumiez. Trend cycles continue to move quickly, and we will invest in our ability to better understand our customers, communicate with them and serve their needs to drive market share gains.

General

Net sales constitute gross sales, net of actual and estimated returns and deductions for promotions, and shipping revenue. Net sales include our store sales and our ecommerce sales. We record the sale of gift cards as a current liability and recognize revenue when a customer redeems a gift card. Additionally, the portion of gift cards that will not be redeemed (“gift card breakage”) is recognized based on our historical redemption rate in proportion to the pattern of rights exercised by the customer.

We report “comparable sales” based on net sales beginning on the first anniversary of the first day of operation of a new store or ecommerce business. We operate a sales strategy that integrates our stores with our ecommerce platform. There is significant interaction between our store sales and our ecommerce sales channels and we believe that they are utilized in tandem to serve our customers. Therefore, our comparable sales also include our ecommerce sales. Changes in our comparable sales between two periods are based on net sales of store or ecommerce business which were in operation during both of the two periods being compared and, if a store or ecommerce business is included in the calculation of comparable sales for only a portion of one of the two periods being compared, then that store or ecommerce business is included in the calculation for only the comparable portion of the other period. Any increase or decrease less than 25% in square footage of an existing comparable store, including remodels and relocations within the same mall, or temporary closures less than seven days does not eliminate that store from inclusion in the calculation of comparable sales. Any store or ecommerce business that we acquire will be included in the calculation of comparable sales after the first anniversary of the acquisition date. Current year foreign exchange rates are applied to both current year and prior year comparable sales to achieve a consistent basis for comparison. There may be variations in the way in which some of our competitors and other apparel retailers calculate comparable sales. As a result, data herein regarding our comparable sales may not be comparable to similar data made available by our competitors or other retailers.

Cost of goods sold ("COGS") consists of branded merchandise costs and our private label merchandise costs including design, sourcing, importing and inbound freight costs. Our cost of goods sold also includes shrinkage, buying, occupancy, ecommerce fulfillment, distribution and warehousing costs (including associated depreciation) and freight costs for store merchandise transfers. This may not be comparable to the way in which our competitors or other retailers compute their cost of goods sold. Cash consideration received from vendors is reported as a reduction of cost of goods sold if the inventory has sold, a reduction of the carrying value of the inventory if the inventory is still on hand, or a reduction of selling, general and administrative expense if the amounts are reimbursements of specific, incremental and identifiable costs of selling the vendors’ products.

With respect to the freight component of our ecommerce sales, amounts billed to our customers are included in net sales and the related freight cost is charged to cost of goods sold.

Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of store personnel wages and benefits, administrative staff and information technology expenses, freight costs for merchandise shipments from the distribution centers to the stores, store supplies, depreciation on fixed assets at our home office and stores, facility expenses, training expenses and advertising and marketing costs. Credit card fees, insurance, public company expenses, legal expenses, amortization of intangibles, and other miscellaneous operating costs are also included in selling, general and administrative expenses. This may not be comparable to the way in which our competitors or other retailers compute their selling, general and administrative expenses.

Key Performance Indicators

Our management evaluates the following items, which we consider key performance indicators, in assessing our performance:

Net sales. Net sales constitute gross sales, net of sales returns and deductions for promotions, and shipping revenue. Net sales includes comparable sales and new store sales for all our store and ecommerce businesses. We consider net sales to be an important indicator of our current performance. Net sales results are important to achieve leveraging of our costs, including store payroll and store occupancy. Net sales also have a direct impact on our operating profit, cash and working capital.

Gross profit. Gross profit measures whether we are optimizing the price and inventory levels of our merchandise. Gross profit is the difference between net sales and cost of goods sold. Any inability to obtain acceptable levels of initial markups or any significant increase in our use of markdowns could have an adverse effect on our gross profit and results of operations.

Operating profit. We view operating profit as a key indicator of our success. Operating profit is the difference between gross profit and selling, general and administrative expenses. The key drivers of operating profit are net sales, gross profit, our ability to control selling, general and administrative expenses and our level of capital expenditures affecting depreciation expense.

Diluted earnings per share. Diluted earnings per share is based on the weighted average number of common shares and common share equivalents outstanding during the period. We view diluted earnings per share as a key indicator of our success in increasing shareholder value.

Results of Operations

The following table presents selected items on the consolidated statements of (loss) income as a percent of net sales:

Fiscal 2024 Results Compared With Fiscal 2023

Net Sales

Net sales were $889.2 million for fiscal 2024 compared to $875.5 million for fiscal 2023, an increase of $13.7 million or 1.6%. The increase in sales was primarily driven by key brands and fashion trends in the market partially offset by a decrease of $12.0 million related to the additional week in the 53-week period, and the impact of closed stores worth $9.0 million.

Comparable sales increased 4.0% driven by an increase in dollars per transaction and partially offset by a decrease in transactions. The increase in dollars per transaction was driven by an increase in both average unit retail, and units per transaction. For the year, our largest growth in comparable sales was in our men’s category, followed by women’s and footwear. Our largest comparable sales decrease was in our accessories category, followed by hardgoods.

By region, North America sales increased $22.3 million or 3.2% and other international sales decreased $8.6 million or 4.8% during fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023. Net sales for the year ended February 1, 2025 included a $3.1 million decrease due to the change in foreign exchange rates, which consisted of a $1.7 million decrease in Europe, a decrease of $1.1 million in Canada, and a decrease of $0.3 million in Australia. Excluding the impact of changes in foreign exchange rates, North America sales increased $23.5 million or 3.4% and other international sales decreased $6.7 million or 3.8% during fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023.

Gross Profit

Gross profit was $303.0 million for fiscal 2024 compared to $280.9 million for fiscal 2023, an increase of $22.1 million, or 7.9%. As a percentage of net sales, gross profit increased 200 basis points in fiscal 2024 to 34.1%. The increase was primarily driven by 80 basis point benefit in web shipping costs, 70 basis point increase in product margin (defined as net sales minus cost of goods sold excluding shrinkage, buying, occupancy, distribution and warehousing costs and freight costs for store merchandise transfers) due to reduced discounting and continued strength of our private label that carries higher product margin, 50 basis point leverage in store occupancy costs, and

30 basis point efficiencies in distribution center cost. These benefits were partially offset by 20 basis point of negative impact related to increased inventory shrinkage.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expenses were $301.1 million for fiscal 2024 compared to $345.7 million for fiscal 2023, a decrease of $44.6 million, or 12.9%. SG&A expenses as a percent of net sales decreased 560 basis points in fiscal 2024 to 33.9%. The benefit was primarily driven by 480 basis point benefit due to impairment of prior year goodwill worth $41.1 million, 30 basis point benefit due to lower corporate costs, 30 basis point benefit in store wages driven by efficiencies in hours and leverage in higher sales and 30 basis points from store costs not tied to wages primarily impacted by leverage on higher sales. These decreases were partially offset by a 20 basis point increase in annual incentive compensation.

Net Loss

Net loss for fiscal 2024 was $1.7 million, or $0.09 per diluted share, compared with net loss of $62.6 million, or $3.25 per diluted share, for fiscal 2023. Our effective income tax rate for fiscal 2024 was 142.0% compared to -1.2% for fiscal 2023. The change in effective income tax rate for fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023 was primarily related to foreign losses in Austria, which are subject to a valuation allowance. Due to cumulative and ongoing foreign losses in such jurisdictions, the realization of such deferred tax assets is uncertain and thus subject to a valuation allowance. The increase in the valuation allowance in fiscal 2024 resulted in $5.1 million of income tax expense when compared to fiscal 2023 of $12.3 million.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our cash requirements are subject to change as business conditions warrant and opportunities arise. Our primary uses of cash are for operational expenditures, inventory purchases, common stock repurchases and capital investments, including new stores, store remodels, store relocations, store fixtures and ongoing infrastructure improvements. Historically, our main source of liquidity has been cash flows from operations.

The significant components of our working capital are inventories and liquid assets such as cash, cash equivalents, current marketable securities and receivables, reduced by accounts payable and accrued expenses. Our working capital position benefits from the fact that we generally collect cash from sales to customers the same day or within several days of the related sale, while we typically have longer payment terms with our vendors.

At February 1, 2025 and February 3, 2024, cash, cash equivalents and current marketable securities were $147.6 million and $171.6 million. Working capital, the excess of current assets over current liabilities, was $166.9 million at the end of fiscal 2024, a decrease of 9% from $182.5 million at the end of fiscal 2023. The increase in cash, cash equivalents and current marketable securities in fiscal 2024 was due primarily to cash provided by operating activities of $20.7 million, sale of marketable securities net of purchases amounting to $47.6 million, partially offset by the $25.2 million repurchase of common stock, and capital expenditures of $15.0 million primarily related to the opening of 7 new stores and 6 remodels and relocations.

The following table summarizes our cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities (in thousands):

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Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities increased by $5.9 million in fiscal 2024 to $20.7 million cash provided by operating activities from $14.8 million cash provided by operating activities in fiscal 2023. Net cash provided by operating activities increased by $15.1 million in fiscal 2023 to $14.8 million cash provided by operating activities from $0.4 million cash used in operating activities in fiscal 2022. Our operating cash flows result primarily from cash received from our customers, offset by cash payments we make for inventory, employee compensation, store occupancy expenses and other operational expenditures. Cash received from our customers generally corresponds to our net sales. Because our customers primarily use credit and debit cards or cash to buy from us, our receivables from customers settle quickly. Changes to our operating cash flows have historically been driven primarily by changes in operating income, which is impacted by changes to non-cash items such as depreciation, impairment, amortization and accretion, deferred taxes, and changes to the components of working capital.

Investing Activities

Net cash provided by investing activities was $32.6 million in fiscal 2024 related to $15.0 million of capital expenditures primarily for and existing store remodels or relocations primarily offset by $47.6 million in sales of marketable securities, net of purchases. Net cash used in investing activities was $8.5 million in fiscal 2023 related to $20.4 million of capital expenditures primarily for new store openings and existing store remodels or relocations primarily offset by $11.7 million in net sales of marketable securities. Net cash provided by investing activities was $54.2 million in fiscal 2022 related to $79.8 million in net sales of marketable securities and $25.6 million of capital expenditures primarily for new store openings and existing store remodels or relocations.

Financing Activities

Net cash used in financing activities in fiscal 2024 was $24.6 million, related $25.2 million used in the repurchase of common stock partially offset by $0.6 million in proceeds from the issuance and exercise of stock-based awards. Net cash provided by financing activities in fiscal 2023 was $0.7 million related to proceeds from the issuance and exercise of stock-based awards. Net cash used in financing activities in fiscal 2022 was $87.3 million related to $87.9 million used in the repurchase of common stock and $0.5 million in payments for tax withholding obligations upon vesting of restricted stock partially offset by $1.1 million in proceeds from the issuance and exercise of stock-based awards

Capital Expenditures

Our capital requirements include construction and fixture costs related to the opening of new stores and remodel and relocation expenditures for existing stores. Future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including the pace of new store openings, the availability of suitable locations for new stores and the nature of arrangements negotiated with landlords. In that regard, our net investment to open a new store has varied significantly in the past due to a number of factors, including the geographic location and size of the new store, and is likely to vary significantly in the future.

During fiscal 2024, we spent $15.0 million on capital expenditures which consisted of $8.2 million of costs related to investment in 7 new stores and 6 remodeled or relocated stores, $2.8 million associated with improvements to our websites and $4.0 million in other improvements.

During fiscal 2023, we spent $20.4 million on capital expenditures which consisted of $8.1 million of costs related to investment in 19 new stores and 4 remodeled or relocated stores, $6.3 million associated with improvements to our websites and $6.0 million in other improvements.

During fiscal 2022, we spent $25.6 million on capital expenditures which consisted of $13.8 million of costs related to investment in 32 new stores and 2 remodeled or relocated stores, $4.9 million associated with improvements to our websites and $6.9 million in other improvements.

In fiscal 2025, we expect to spend approximately $13.0 million to $15.0 million on capital expenditures, a majority of which will relate to leasehold improvements and fixtures for the approximately 9 new stores we plan to open in fiscal 2025 and 6 remodels or relocations of existing stores. There can be no assurance that the number of stores that we actually open in fiscal 2025 will not be different from the number of stores we plan to open, or that actual fiscal 2025 capital expenditures will not differ from this expected amount.

Other Material Cash Requirements

Our material cash requirements include the following contractual and other obligations: (1) purchase obligations (for additional information, see Note 11 to the Consolidated Financial Statements); (2) supply and service arrangements entered in the normal course of business; (3) operating lease payments (for additional information, see Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements); and (4) employee wages, benefits, and incentives; (5) commitments for capital expenditures; and (6) tax payables. Moreover, we may be subject to additional material cash requirements that are contingent upon the occurrence of certain events, e.g., legal contingencies, uncertain tax positions, and other matters.

At February 1, 2025, we did not have any “off-balance sheet arrangements,” as defined in relevant SEC regulations that are reasonably likely to have a current or future effect on our financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capital expenditures or capital resources.

Sources of Liquidity

Our most significant sources of liquidity continue to be funds generated by operating activities and available cash, cash equivalents and current marketable securities. We expect these sources of liquidity and available borrowings under our revolving credit facility will be sufficient to meet our foreseeable cash requirements for operations and planned capital expenditures for at least the next twelve months. Beyond this time frame, if cash flows from operations are not sufficient to meet our capital requirements, then we will be required to obtain additional equity or debt financing in the future. However, there can be no assurance that equity or debt financing will be available to us when we need it or, if available, that the terms will be satisfactory to us and not dilutive to our then-current shareholders.

On December 20, 2024, we entered into a credit agreement with PNC Bank, National Association (the “bank”). The Credit Agreement provides for a revolving credit facility of up to $25 million (the “credit facility”) and is available for general corporate purpose. This Credit Facility also provides for the issuances of standby letters of credit in an amount not to exceed $17.5 million, commercial letters of credit in an amount not to exceed $10 million and borrowings in foreign currency with a borrowing sublimit not to exceed $15 million in equivalent U.S. dollars. The amount of borrowing available at any time under the Credit Facility is reduced by the amount of standby and commercial letters of credit outstanding at that time. This credit facility replaced our previously maintained agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. which we terminated on May 3, 2024.

The new Credit Facility is secured by cash and marketable securities that are in an account held and monitored by the Bank. The value of this collateral must always be greater than or equal to the new Credit Facility commitment amount of $25 million. Amounts borrowed under the new Credit Facility bear interest at the rate of SOFR plus 1.00% per annum. The Credit Agreement does not provide for any financial covenants but does include standard and customary covenants consistent with credit facilities of this nature. The new Credit Facility does not carry any ongoing or unused balance fees. The Credit Facility will mature on December 20, 2025.

There were no borrowings or open commercial letters of credit outstanding under the secured credit facility at February 1, 2025 and February 3, 2024. We had $2.7 million and $3.5 million in issued, but undrawn, standby letters of credit at February 1, 2025 and February 3, 2024, respectively

Critical Accounting Estimates

Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In connection with the preparation of our consolidated financial statements, we are required to make assumptions and estimates about future events, and apply judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and the related disclosures. We base our assumptions, estimates and judgments on historical experience, current trends and other factors that we believe to be relevant at the time our consolidated financial statements are prepared. On a regular basis, we review the accounting policies, assumptions, estimates and judgments to ensure that our consolidated financial statements are presented fairly and in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, because future events and their effects cannot be determined with certainty, actual results could differ from our assumptions and estimates, and such differences could be material.

Our significant accounting policies are discussed in Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements found in Part IV Item 15 of this Form 10-K. We believe that the following accounting estimates involve a significant level of estimation uncertainty and have had or are reasonably likely to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

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Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies,” in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements found in Part IV Item 15 of this Form 10-K.

Interest Rate Risk

Our earnings are affected by changes in market interest rates as a result of our short-term and long-term marketable securities, which are primarily invested in state and local municipal securities and variable-rate demand notes, which have long-term nominal maturity dates but feature variable interest rates that reset at short-term intervals. If our current portfolio average yield rate decreased by 10% in fiscal 2024, our net income would have decreased by $0.4 million. This amount is determined by considering the impact of the hypothetical yield rates on our cash, cash equivalents, short-term marketable securities and assumes no changes in our investment structure.

During different times of the year, due to the seasonality of our business, we may borrow under our revolving credit facility. To the extent we borrow under this revolving credit facility, we are exposed to the market risk related to changes in interest rates.

Effective as of May 3, 2024, we terminated our Credit Agreement with Wells Fargo Bank and standby letters of credit were transitioned to restricted deposits. On December 20, 2024, we entered a new Credit Agreement with PNC Bank, National Association. See Note 9 Revolving Credit Facilities and Debt for more details of termination and new credit agreement. At February 1, 2025, we had no borrowings outstanding under the secured revolving credit facility.

Foreign Exchange Rate Risk

Our international subsidiaries operate with functional currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, including the Canadian Dollar, Euro, Australian Dollar, Norwegian Krone, Swedish Krona, and Swiss Franc. Therefore, we must translate revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities from functional currencies into U.S. dollars at exchange rates in effect during, or at the end of, the reporting period. As a result, the fluctuation in the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies affects the reported amounts of revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities. Assuming a 10% change in foreign exchange rates in fiscal 2024 our net income would have decreased or increased by $1.3 million. As we expand our international operations, our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations will continue to increase. To date, we have not used derivatives to manage foreign currency exchange risk.

We import merchandise from foreign countries. As a result, any significant or sudden change in the financial, banking or currency policies and practices of these countries could have a material adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures. We carried out an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”), of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Securities Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(e)). Based on this evaluation, our CEO and CFO concluded that, as of February 1, 2025, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. There has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Securities Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f)) during the quarter ended February 1,

2025 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. The management of the Company is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

This process includes policies and procedures that: (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions of the Company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the Company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the Company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the Company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements. Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements, and can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Furthermore, because of changes in conditions, the effectiveness of internal control may vary over time.

The Company’s management, with the participation of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, assessed the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of February 1, 2025. Management’s assessment was based on criteria described in the Internal Control—Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this assessment, management concluded that the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective as of February 1, 2025.

The effectiveness of the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of February 1, 2025 has been audited by Moss Adams LLP, the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report, appearing herein under the heading “Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm.”