The retailer Dick’s Sporting Goods says 2026 isn’t shaping up the way it expected. The company said on its quarterly earnings call this week that it’s revising its outlook downward for the year. That includes lowering its expectations for sales at Foot Locker, which Dick’s acquired last September. The company blamed “challenging conditions in the athletic footwear marketplace.”Sure, you’ve got sneakers you wear to actually be athletic in — run, lift weights, play tennis. But you’ve also got lifestyle sneakers — those you wear to watch other people play tennis. That’s the kind of shoe consumers are cutting back on right now.“Buying yet another color or version of a shoe that they already have in their closet is not something they are willing to add to the basket these days,” said Bryan Eshelman, retail partner and managing director at Alix Partners.People stocked up on these athleisure brands during the pandemic. They even got fancy office-ready sneakers when they returned to work. And now, with footwear (and pretty much everything) rising in price, consumers are hitting pause. “There's no real kind of big picture trend that's driving people toward purchasing more of the same,” Eshelman said.Instead, people are buying fewer pairs, or maybe opting for a neutral pair of white sneakers that go with a lot of outfits. This is true even for high-income consumers, per Katie Thomas, who studies consumer behavior at the consulting firm Kearney.“No matter who you are, there eventually does hit a point where you have enough stuff — physical goods in particular,” she said.This lull won’t last forever, though. Bryan Eshelman of Alix Partners said there is constant innovation in footwear, and eventually, a new kind of sneaker will come around that’ll make people want to buy a few new pairs for their closet.