Excess Inventory Before Year-End? Here's How to Move It Fast

Apparel as a whole has mostly worked through the inventory glut that built up during the pandemic years. Golf and outdoor haven't fully caught up — and if you're a brand heading into year-end still sitting on more stock than you want on the books, that gap matters. The longer excess inventory sits, the less it's worth, and the more it costs you to hold it. Here's what the current data actually says, and what to do about it before your books close.

Apparel Overall: The Industry Corrected, But Not Everyone Did

The broad apparel trend is genuinely encouraging. Telsey Advisory Group's analysis, reported by Retail Dive, found the inventory-to-sales spread across apparel retail flipped from +3,320 basis points in Q3 2022 — sales growing far slower than inventory — to −730 basis points by Q3 2023, with sales finally outpacing inventory for the first time since the pandemic. Specialty apparel inventories were down 7.8% year over year by that point, a sharp reversal from 38.2% growth the year before. Abercrombie & Fitch, one of the more aggressive correctors, cut inventory more than 30% year over year by Q2 2023 and saw operating margin climb roughly 10 points as a result.

That's the encouraging headline. The less encouraging one, from McKinsey and Business of Fashion's "State of Fashion 2025" report, is that excess inventory and overstock remain named as a persistent structural challenge for the industry heading into 2025 — the correction wasn't universal, and not every brand or category worked through its backlog at the same pace apparel overall did.

Golf's Inventory Picture Right Now

Golf's numbers look strong on the surface and murkier underneath. MyGolfSpy's reporting on 2025 specialty retail sales found dollar sales up 7% year over year through August, but flagged that the increase may reflect tariff-driven price hikes more than actual unit or volume growth — one specialty retailer described equipment sell-through as "dead," with a fitting staffer noting foot traffic was down even as dollar totals held up. The National Golf Foundation's mid-year update told a related story: club and ball shipments were up 3% year over year, but metalwoods and full iron sets showed real softness, which the NGF attributed partly to normal post-pandemic replacement-cycle timing rather than a healthy demand curve.

Read together, that's a category where the topline number can mask a real overstock problem sitting underneath it — the kind of gap that shows up on your books well before it shows up in industry-wide reporting.

Outdoor's Glut Is Fading, But Hasn't Fully Cleared

Outdoor brands lived through the most visible version of this problem, and the people closest to it say it's improving, not solved. In SGB Media's roundup of outdoor market leaders looking ahead to 2025, Eoin Comerford of Outsize Consulting put it directly: "The major inventory glut of the last few years is fading and open-to-buy is returning." Gabe Maier of Grassroots Outdoor Alliance added, "For the first time in a couple of years, inventory levels are moving in the right direction," and Sean Smith, also with Outdoor Retailer, said the issue of retailers being over-inventoried "has improved greatly."

Improved isn't the same as resolved. SGB Media's 2024 year-in-review noted Fox Factory's stock falling more than 55% over the year, driven in part by heavy discounting to clear excess bike-dealer-channel inventory left over from pandemic-era bottlenecks. And reporting from Shop Eat Surf Outdoor on the 2025 outdoor retail outlook found inventory still running higher than usual in places, with new PFAS-reformulation requirements now forcing some brands to actively dump older, non-compliant stock through discount channels rather than hold it any longer. If you're an outdoor brand still carrying pandemic-era product, or product built to a formulation you're phasing out, year-end is the moment to stop carrying it and start moving it.

Why Sitting on Excess Costs More the Longer You Wait

Excess inventory isn't a static cost — it compounds. Analysis from AlixPartners on the hidden costs of excess inventory found that since 2021, retailers' interest costs on carried inventory are up roughly 40%, warehouse labor costs are up about 13%, and average days-on-hand are up around 12% — with slow-moving SKUs often sitting on the books for 52 weeks or more once they stall. The same analysis found that better forecasting and faster clearance decisions can free up 10 to 20% of the working capital tied up in that stock, along with a real lift to EBIT. None of that math gets better by waiting for January.

Where Excess Actually Moves Fast

The off-price channel remains the clearest evidence that excess inventory has somewhere to go, and fast. Retail Dive's coverage of the off-price sector found TJX, Ross, and Burlington posting comp sales gains of 4 to 5% in a recent quarter, gaining share as traditional department stores like Macy's closed roughly 150 locations — proof that a large and growing channel exists specifically to absorb the inventory other parts of retail can't move at full price. But off-price isn't the only lever, and it isn't always the best margin outcome. Before routing product to a liquidator, most brands get more value moving excess directly to existing retail accounts who can sell it at a smaller markdown than an off-price buyer will pay, especially accounts already carrying the brand who can move product through a channel their customers already trust.

How RepSpark Helps You Move It Fast

This is where having real-time visibility into your own inventory and your own accounts pays off. RepSpark's B2B management and operations tools give you a live view of what's actually sitting unsold by account and by style, so you're not guessing which retailers can absorb which excess SKUs — you're working from the same sell-through data that should have flagged the overstock in the first place. Event Microsites let you stand up a dedicated, self-service clearance or closeout buying experience in days, not weeks, so retailers can shop your excess inventory directly instead of waiting on a rep to call with a special-buy list. And because RepSpark's ERP integrations sync inventory in seconds rather than overnight, a clearance push doesn't risk overselling the same shrinking pool of stock across multiple channels at once — a real risk once you're moving fast on a limited quantity of aging inventory.

If this is a recurring problem rather than a one-time year-end scramble, it's worth pairing the fix with prevention: we've covered how shifting from gut feel to sell-through data catches overstock before it becomes a markdown problem, and how AI-assisted assortment planning helps brands build initial buys that create less excess to clear in the first place.

The Bottom Line

Apparel broadly corrected its inventory glut faster than golf and outdoor did, and the data in both of those categories suggests real excess is still sitting on brands' books heading into year-end — golf behind a deceptively strong topline number, outdoor behind a glut that's fading but not gone. Every week that inventory sits, it's worth less and it's costing you more to hold. Get it in front of the accounts who can actually move it, at the smallest markdown that clears it, before your books close.

See how RepSpark helps brands see and move excess inventory fast, or browse customer case studies to see how brands are managing inventory at scale.

Sources:

• Retail Dive: Retail Apparel Inventory Normalization
• Business of Fashion: The State of Fashion 2025
• Retail Dive: Off-Price Retailers Take Market Share
• MyGolfSpy: Just How Strong Are Golf Retail Sales, Really?
• National Golf Foundation: Mid-Year Update on Retail Equipment
• SGB Media: SGB 2025 Outdoor Market Leaders Look Ahead
• SGB Media: 2024 Year in Review — Active Lifestyle Stocks
• Shop Eat Surf Outdoor: The Outdoor Retail Outlook for 2025
• AlixPartners: The Hidden Costs of Excess Inventory

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Has the apparel industry's excess inventory problem actually been resolved? A: Mostly, at the aggregate level. Telsey Advisory Group's analysis found the industry's inventory-to-sales spread flipped from deeply negative to positive between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023, with specialty apparel inventories down nearly 8% year over year. But McKinsey and Business of Fashion's "State of Fashion 2025" report still names excess inventory as a persistent structural challenge heading into 2025 — the correction wasn't even across every brand or category.

Q: Is golf's inventory situation actually healthy right now? A: The topline numbers look fine, but reporting suggests real softness underneath. MyGolfSpy's 2025 coverage found specialty retail dollar sales up 7% year over year, but flagged that tariff-driven price increases, not stronger unit demand, may explain much of that growth, with one retailer describing equipment sell-through as "dead."

Q: Has the outdoor industry's inventory glut cleared up? A: It's improving but not fully resolved. Industry leaders quoted by SGB Media described inventory levels "moving in the right direction" for the first time in a couple of years, but reporting also found some brands, like Fox Factory, still discounting heavily to clear pandemic-era bike-dealer-channel stock, and new PFAS-reformulation rules forcing some brands to dump older, non-compliant inventory.

Q: Why does it cost more to hold excess inventory the longer you wait to move it? A: Carrying costs compound. AlixPartners' analysis found retailers' interest costs on inventory up roughly 40% and warehouse labor costs up about 13% since 2021, with slow-moving SKUs often sitting 52 weeks or more once they stall — all costs that keep accruing the longer a brand delays a clearance decision.

Q: Is selling excess inventory to off-price retailers the best option? A: It's a reliable option, not necessarily the best-margin one. Off-price retailers like TJX, Ross, and Burlington have posted strong comp sales growth and clearly have room to absorb excess apparel inventory, but most brands recover more value moving excess directly to existing retail accounts at a smaller markdown before routing it to a liquidation channel.

Q: What's the fastest way to get excess inventory in front of retailers who can actually sell it? A: A self-service clearance channel, rather than a rep-driven special-buy list, tends to move fastest, since retailers can shop available excess immediately instead of waiting for outreach. Real-time inventory visibility also matters, so a brand isn't offering the same limited pool of aging stock across multiple channels and risking an oversell.

Q: How can a brand avoid ending up with this much excess inventory next year? A: The clearance decision itself is reactive, but the fix for next year is upstream: tracking sell-through data by account, category, and style catches overstock building before it becomes a year-end markdown problem, and better assortment planning at the buy stage reduces how much excess gets created in the first place.