The branded casual footwear market grew by 3.2% in terms of invoiced dollars to an estimated level of $14.4 billion in 2019, according to a study conducted by SGI in collaboration with Shoe Intelligence, in spite of strong competition from the athletic footwear brands in the disputed territory of lifestyle sneakers.

Brooks Sports, which was wrangling with Brooks Brothers over its forays into athletic footwear before the venerable retailer’s bankruptcy filing, fired a preemptive shot at new owner SPARC Group over the Brooks brand.

Retail imports grew 8.0% in Aug. to hit an all-time record for the month of 2.10 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units, and were also up 9.7% sequentially from July, easily exceeding the forecast from NRF’s Port Tracker.

Under Armour uniforms will continue to be worn by UCLA teams this year, despite the ongoing lawsuit over the $200 million remaining on its cancelled sponsorship deal, the LA Times reported.

Currently president of the family-owned knifemaker, deAsis adds the CEO title and responsibilities, succeeding his father, Les de Asis, who died in Feb.