13. SEGMENT INFORMATION

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Segment Reporting Disclosure [Text Block]

13. SEGMENT INFORMATION

Operating Segments - We operate our business through three business segments: wholesale, retail and military.

Wholesale. In our wholesale segment, our products are offered in over ten thousand retail locations representing a wide range of distribution channels in the U.S. and Canada. These distribution channels vary by product line and target market and include sporting goods stores, outdoor retailers, independent shoe retailers, hardware stores, catalogs, mass merchants, uniform stores, farm store chains, specialty safety stores and other specialty retailers.

Retail. In our retail segment, we primarily sell our products directly to consumers through our consumer and business direct websites and our Rocky outlet store. We also operate four mobile trucks to service the New York Transit Authority’s employees. Through our outlet store, we generally sell first quality or discontinued products in addition to a limited amount of factory damaged goods, which typically carry lower gross margins.

Military. While we are focused on continuing to build our wholesale and retail business, we also actively bid, from time to time, on footwear contracts with the U.S. military. Our sales under such contracts are dependent on us winning the bids for these contracts.

We are currently fulfilling several multiyear contracts for the U.S. military. Total sales to the U.S. military represented 14.4%, 6.5% and 2.8% of total net sales for the years ending December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The following is a summary of segment results for the Wholesale, Retail, and Military segments. Certain amounts from prior year have been reclassified to conform to current year presentation.

	Years Ended December 31,
	2016		2015		2014
NET SALES:
Wholesale	$	176,937,595	$	206,072,657	$	233,898,250
Retail		45,933,811		45,808,705		44,347,775
Military		37,387,178		17,420,661		7,996,144
Total Net Sales	$	260,258,584	$	269,302,023	$	286,242,169
GROSS MARGIN:
Wholesale	$	53,497,843	$	65,979,792	$	75,840,977
Retail		21,077,597		20,621,884		19,449,609
Military		2,154,650		2,290,163		1,070,139
Total Gross Margin	$	76,730,090	$	88,891,839	$	96,360,725

Segment asset information is not prepared or used to assess segment performance.

Product Group Information - The following is supplemental information on net sales by product group:

	2016		% of Sales			2015		% of Sales			2014		% of Sales
Work footwear	$	111,156,688		42.7	%	$	120,422,188		44.7	%	$	131,510,217		45.9	%
Western footwear		38,970,631		15.0	%		43,435,734		16.1	%		45,475,880		15.9	%
Duty and commercial military footwear		37,081,857		14.2	%		33,341,424		12.4	%		38,174,738		13.3	%
Lifestyle footwear		15,571,965		6.0	%		23,370,822		8.7	%		25,823,220		9.0	%
Outdoor footwear		13,318,525		5.1	%		20,688,005		7.7	%		24,606,151		8.6	%
Military footwear		37,387,178		14.4	%		17,420,661		6.5	%		7,996,144		2.8	%
Apparel		2,861,071		1.1	%		5,662,277		2.1	%		7,471,005		2.6	%
Other		3,464,667		1.3	%		4,155,137		1.5	%		4,100,128		1.4	%
Royalty income		446,002		0.2	%		805,775		0.3	%		1,084,686		0.4	%
	$	260,258,584		100	%	$	269,302,023		100	%	$	286,242,169		100	%

Net sales to foreign countries, primarily Canada, represented approximately 2.8% of net sales in 2016, 4.8% of net sales in 2015 and 6.3% of net sales in 2014.