Australian school uniform requirements have shifted in 2023 following a casualisation during the pandemic, according to The Athlete’s Foot GM Ian Taunton.
Taunton said more schools added joggers and soft leather shoes to the requirements in recent years as student attendance was shaken up due to intermittent lockdowns.
“What we're seeing already this year in the first couple of weeks has been a shift back into formal, and the school requirements are much clearer around defining specific shoes,” Taunton said.
“We have those relationships with schools. We understand what the uniform requirements are, and we can make sure that the kids are going back to school wearing the right fitting shoes, but also the right shoes that fit the school uniform requirements.”
Taunton said The Athlete's Foot was one of the retailers that the NSW state government reached out to with trialling and understanding its current Back to School voucher program.
"We've been at the forefront of that," Taunton said. "We offered up our stores for the state government to shoot some of their TV ads and promotional materials, which they accepted.
"So we've been partnering with the state government in New South Wales on that for probably three months or so."
As part of The Athlete's Foot back to school initiatives, the brand launched a game called Fitopia through gaming platform Roblox. Taunton shared his views on what made the brand's Roblox venture viable, which you can read here.