You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: On a per share basis, first quarter earnings were $1.93 compared to a loss per share of $1.06 last year and earnings per share of $1.52 for the first quarter of 2019.
This year's quarter includes pre-tax charges of $2 million related to the impairment of one of the company's minority investments, and $2 million primarily related to severance costs in connection with the reorganization of certain support functions.
Excluding these items, first quarter non-GAAP earnings were $1.96 per share, a significant reversal to the loss per share of $0.67 for the first quarter of last year and up 28.1% compared to earnings per share of $1.53 for the first quarter of 2019.
We're excited to have him on board.
Last quarter, I talked about entering our fiscal 2021 momentum.
That was certainly the case in our first quarter.
And the momentum gained strength as the quarter progressed, enabling us to deliver exceptional top line and bottom line results, even against the ongoing challenges of store closures in Europe and Canada and congestion at the U.S. ports, leading to abnormally lean inventory levels.
On a sequential basis, comps dramatically accelerated through the quarter, led by our stores.
A mid-teens decline in February due mainly to launch calendar shifts and tax refund delays gave way to strong triple-digit gains in March and April as we lapped the onset of the COVID pandemic last year and the disruption caused by the shutdown of our store fleet.
But our stores weren't the only highlight.
Our digital business also remained quite strong, up 43% on a comp basis and landing at a penetration rate of 25% of our total sales, which was higher than our expectations coming into the quarter.
Perhaps more impressively, even with the challenges I mentioned, our sales performance was not only strong relative to last year's unprecedented first quarter, but also versus Q1 2019, where we saw low single-digit growth versus a strong result that year.
Athleisure and fitness consumer trends continued to drive strong demand across genders and families of business.
Although our inventory levels were lower than we would have liked, the composition and quality of goods was fresh, and our consumers responded very well to our merchandise assortments.
This resulted in higher inventory productivity and significantly less promotional activity, enabling us to deliver healthier margins and a truly impressive bottom-line performance.
Finally, we believe U.S. government stimulus and tax refunds provided incremental positives in the quarter.
This stellar performance would not have been possible without all of the associates whose dedication to the success of our company and whose passion for creating incredible experiences for our customers drives our business every day.
I often say we have the best team in retail, and our performance in Q1 serves as a testament to the strength of our team.
As we expected, COVID-related restrictions pressured our business in Europe throughout Q1, as the EMEA fleet was opened only 39% of possible operating days in the quarter.
But omnichannel growth was positive, nonetheless.
And in pockets where lockdowns began to ease, such as the U.K., we saw pent-up demand drive growth at the store level as well, leaving us optimistic that the trend will continue as the region opens back up.
To that end, we continue to break exciting new ground in Europe, including today's opening of our first high-profile store in Barcelona.
The store features dedicated women's and kids' spaces, local artwork and curation and enhanced connectivity, including a digital interactive zone and BOPIS lockers.
Additionally, we refreshed several stores across EMEA during Q1, with upgrades to fixtures, layouts and light touch improvements as we anticipate the broader reopening of the economy in EMEA.
Looking ahead, we continue to have strong product tailwinds, led by the culture of basketball and footwear, comfort trends in apparel and new and exciting strategic brands in our portfolio, which Andy will talk to in more detail.
While we continue to manage against the remaining port delays and gradual reopening's in Europe and Canada, these are transient issues, and we remain optimistic about our prospects as we move through the year.
As it relates to the West Coast ports, there's some good news to share.
Inventory flow and receipt velocity did improve as delays began to ease through the first quarter, and we expect further improvement in Q2, which should reflect positively on our inventory levels.
In the meantime, we have been working with our vendor partners to utilize ultimate ports and expedited rail and truck services to accelerate the flow of goods.
Now let me provide an update on our strategic initiatives and technology milestones.
We continue to see enrollment increase with over 20 million members now enrolled in the countries where the program is active.
We also continue to refine the KPIs that will define success for FLX moving forward, including customer retention and satisfaction.
In addition to growing membership in 2021, we will also focus on expanding into additional countries, driving engagement and incremental spend by connecting in more relevant ways with our customers and integrating FLX deeper into the customer experience at Foot Locker, Inc., adding value to programs like BOPIS and Launch Reservation.
Now for some highlights on our key technology initiatives.
First, we continued to build on our new payments platform, adding Adyen, Giropay, and Clearpay to our selection of payment options in Europe.
Providing increased convenience and flexibility for our consumer remains an imperative for us, and these new options will complement the successful rollout of Apple Pay and Google Pay last quarter.
Second, as part of our digital commerce transformation, we deployed new websites in four additional European countries: the U.K., Netherlands, Germany and France, that build off the modernized platform we launched in North America last year.
The new sites are easier to personalize to local markets, less costly to maintain and better leverage data analytics.
Finally, we expanded the SKUs we offer on Eastbay as part of the Nike dropship program we announced in February, and we're working toward getting additional banners up on the program in the coming months.
Having the right product at the right time is fundamental to our business.
This program is one step toward providing more flexibility to meet customer demand.
Now I'd like to discuss an important update on our organizational evolution.
We've talked a lot about how the accelerated shift to digital throughout pandemic pushed us to more quickly adapt to our consumers' changing preferences and to create stronger connections with them.
It's also led us to proactively accelerate our initiatives to optimize our real estate portfolio in our best-performing banners and across the most valuable locations to competitively position our store fleet for the future.
The decision to shutter Runners Point in Europe during 2020 is an example of this ongoing effort, as was the decision in the U.S. to more closely align Champs Sports and Eastbay.
With that in mind, during the second quarter, we have made the strategic decision to wind down our Footaction banner over the next two years and focus our resources on our iconic concepts: Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports and Eastbay.
We are currently in the process of assessing the Footaction fleet to determine the best decision for each location.
First, as we've discussed on prior calls, the flexibility we have with respect to our portfolio management will allow us to take advantage of a number of lease expirations over the next two years.
Second, we plan to convert approximately one-third of the top-performing Footaction locations into new Foot Locker stores, establishing a bolder women's and kids presence as well as new Champs Sports and Kids Foot Locker stores.
We are excited about the opportunities to expand our women's and kids presence within our Foot Locker and Champs Sports banners.
But a decision like this is never easy.
Through their contributions, we've gained valuable learnings and consumer insights.
As we look ahead, we see this as an opportunity to strengthen our global portfolio of brands, increase our value to our shareholders and vendor partners and ultimately position Foot Locker, Inc. to better serve our consumers in a post-COVID marketplace.
As part of our broader brick-and-mortar strategy, we will also continue to flex our powerful and expansive real estate portfolio to our advantage to accelerate our pivot off-mall, while continuing to invest in our community and Power Store assets.
We also intend to grow the Champs Sports homefield concept, with extended assortment for men's, women's and kids that will expand to include lifestyle and performance categories.
It truly speaks to the power of this category and our consumers' appetite for cool, premium product.
For over a year now, we have been tested by the COVID pandemic and have prevailed as a leader in our industry.
Most importantly, COVID has taught us to innovate, to move faster and to go above and beyond for our consumers as we strive to inspire and empower youth culture.
Many parts of the world are still dealing with lockdowns due to emerging COVID variants and the uneven vaccine distribution.
We continue to feel that impact on our business in Europe and Canada, where roughly 230 stores are temporarily closed.
That said, there's a lot to be excited about right now in our business and industry.
Trends and momentum are strong.
Our strategic direction and focus have never been sharper.
Our financial position is in excellent shape and our bench of talent is deep.
I'm confident in our team's ability to take advantage of the many opportunities we see as the year progresses and the world continues to recover.
With that, let me pass it over to Andy.
I'm looking forward to the partnership ahead.
Throughout the quarter, we remain focused on our strategies to strengthen our competitive advantages, while reinforcing our existing relationships and bringing new consumers into our business.
We did that by building on three key areas of strength: Our product leadership and diversity; continuing to create a pipeline of new products, new brands, new categories and new ideas to excite our consumers; our omni experiences, utilizing our global scale and investments to enhance and further connect the digital and physical journey for our consumers; and our commitments to our communities, being of the community and in the community, and personalizing our relationships to make a meaningful impact on our consumers' lives.
All of that was evident in the first quarter as we delivered new products, new content and new experiences to delight our consumers.
In total, all our families of business were strong.
Our footwear business increased over 70%, while our apparel and accessory businesses were both up triple digits.
Both families of business also increased as compared to 2019.
The strength in footwear was broad-based with gains across all regions, led by North America and Asia Pacific.
Similarly, we saw strong double-digit increases across men's, women's and kids' footwear, with our women's business driving the largest gain.
By category, men's basketball continued to see healthy momentum, delivering a high double-digit increase led by the Jordan brand, key Nike icons and some compelling new initiatives by Puma and Reebok.
Additionally, we brought new consumers into the business with an increased focus on our seasonal category.
This helped to drive a triple-digit increase with gains in UGG, BIRKENSTOCK and new brand introductions, including Crocs.
Meanwhile, men's running increased strong double digits, led by the key franchises of Max Air, Adidas Nomad, Puma RS-X and strong momentum in our partnership with New Balance.
It was also a strong quarter for our apparel business, which was up triple digits compared to the first quarter of last year and up double digits versus the first quarter of 2019.
Men's and kids led the way up triple digits, while women's increased strong double digits.
The casualization of society remained the catalyst for our business, and we saw all major categories increase, with shorts driving the largest gain with momentum across many brands, including our own.
And across all product areas, our customers continue to respond well to elevated storytelling, with our consumer concept offense delivering exciting exclusive programs.
These included, City to the World from Nike, and All Day I Dream About Sneakers with Adidas, which both feature unique versions of their respective iconic silhouettes.
We also partnered with We Need Leaders and New Balance to pay homage to the leaders of the street running movement, and we created some fun with our Sesame Street and Champion collaboration.
Looking ahead, there's a lot coming to market to keep our consumers engaged.
The culture of basketball remains strong with new launches from Adidas, Puma and New Balance bringing further dimension to the category.
We are continuing our seasonal expansion with UGG, Crocs, Converse and Vans, and we have a very strong pipeline of ideas and inventory in apparel to maximize the ongoing momentum in the category.
And we will continue to enhance our storytelling in Q2 through our celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Griffey 1 with our Nike concept and our second installment of All Day I Dream About Sneakers with Adidas.
We also have exciting collaborations in the pipeline with the likes of Kids of Immigrants and Vans, Louis de Guzman and New Balance, and Puma and White Castle, to name a few.
Beyond product, I also remain enthusiastic about our community initiatives and how we continue to lead with purpose and extend our community stores across the globe and expand our local geo teams to ensure that we are more deeply rooted in the neighborhoods we serve.
That includes local experiences, local products and local give back.
And we continue to bring this to life with the openings of Foot Locker and Kids Foot Locker in Old Spanish Trail in Houston and Champs Sports in the Oakbrook Mall in Chicago.
We also continue to fuel the future of our industry for the next generation of creators through our greenhouse incubator and our homegrown and lead initiatives.
On the latter, in addition to our work to advance education and economic opportunities for the black communities we serve, we have also established partnerships with 45 new black-owned brands and creators to provide a platform to showcase their design collaborations this year.
Next to that, we also continue to invest in growing our membership and enhancing our consumer journey through the geographic rollout of FLX and adding millions of new members to our business in Q1, expanding our dropship initiative, elevating our mobile app experience, enhancing our buy online and pickup in-store journey, providing new payment options and much more, all to better serve our consumer.
So a lot of work against our key strategic initiatives as we continue to push our consumer offense forward.
It's a combination of product leadership and diversity, our enhanced omni capabilities and our focus on community and purpose that will keep us moving forward and strengthen our relationship with our consumers.
Let me now pass the call over to Andrew.
It is my pleasure to join you today to discuss our first quarter results.
As a consumer of this brand, Foot Locker always stood out to me as a source of inspiration and empowerment of youth culture.
Now as a member of the Foot Locker family, this is more evident than ever, and I see that passion in all that we do.
In my short time with the company, my observations have reaffirmed my belief that this is a very special organization, one that is positioned for ongoing success and value creation.
It's no secret that the retail environment is rapidly changing.
The pandemic has only accelerated the change.
Everything from the customer journey, the process of discovery and the magnitude of digital engagement has evolved and intensified.
It's clear to me that our team is focused on key initiatives that amplify the consumer experience across all of our touch points.
Supporting our transformative initiatives is our financial position, which is as strong as it's ever been and will allow us to remain opportunistic as we pursue our strategic plans.
No doubt, there are challenges that stand before us, as well as key strategic decisions, such as the rationalization of our real estate portfolio that Dick mentioned earlier.
But as we continue to emerge from the pandemic, our objectives will center around executing our growth strategy, amplifying our unique value proposition to our consumers and vendor partners and returning value to our shareholders.
Let me say once again: I'm glad to be here working with Dick and the broader team, and I look forward to sharing more as we continue to evolve the omnichannel retail experience for our consumers.
Before we get into the numbers, I'd like to note that in addition to comparing our results to last year, I will also reference comparisons to the first quarter of 2019 where it's helpful.
Now let's talk about our performance in the first quarter.
We delivered exceptionally strong top and bottom-line results in Q1, especially when considering the impact the pandemic continue to have on our operations.
Our comp sales increased 80.3% in spite of store closures in Europe and Canada and supply chain pressures in the U.S. and EMEA.
The combination of robust demand for our assortment and lean with fresh inventory composition led to significantly lower levels of promotional activity this quarter.
As a result, we had strong gross margin recovery compared to Q1 of 2020 as well as expansion versus Q1 of 2019.
This, coupled with leverage on our SG&A expense, drove a meaningful swing in first quarter earnings per share versus last year's loss and a nearly 30% increase over Q1 of 2019.
Taking a closer look at our results.
Total sales increased 83% over last year and 3.6% over Q1 of 2019.
On a constant currency basis, sales increased 79% over Q1 of 2020.
The strength was primarily driven by our stores, which increased 99%.
Let me remind you that our fleet was open 83% of potential operating days in the quarter versus 48% last year.
While our U.S. and Asia Pacific banners were essentially fully opened, EMEA and Canada continued to face pressure due to COVID restrictions, opened roughly 39% and 75% of potential operating days, respectively.
Our direct-to-consumer channel remained quite healthy as well, with sales up 47% as customers truly embraced our omnichannel offering.
DTC was 25% of total sales for the quarter compared to 31% last year.
Despite being much less promotional, average selling prices were down low single digits in the quarter, while units nearly doubled.
The decline in ASP was driven primarily by product mix.
We had a higher level of apparel and accessories in our mix this year versus last year.
In general, apparel and accessories carry lower ASPs than footwear.
In addition, we lapped last year's strong digital performance, which was heavily penetrated in footwear.
Clicking down to our regions.
North America saw impressive growth nearly across the board, led by Champs, where comps increased triple digits.
The rest of the U.S. banners follow with comps up over 90% and Foot Locker Canada posted a low 70% gain as it contended with store closures as we previously discussed.
Eastbay was up middle single digits for the quarter, which was an improvement from recent trends.
The gradual return to group sports participation sparks sales of hard goods and team performance products.
Recall, that unlike our other banners, Eastbay did not comp against store closures last year.
Foot Locker Asia delivered a triple-digit comp gain, while Foot Locker Pacific increased in the mid-90% range.
Despite extensive COVID restrictions, Foot Locker Europe still posted a high 30% comp increase.
Sidestep, which experienced the most store closures, decreased in the high teens.
Encouragingly, the direct businesses remained very strong for both banners.
Moving down the income statement.
Gross margin was 34.8% compared to 23% last year.
When compared to a more normal Q1 2019, gross margin improved 160 basis points.
Our merchandise margin rate improved 250 basis points over last year and 80 basis points over 2019, as the meaningful reduction in markdowns more than offset the higher freight expense that comes with increased penetration of digital sales.
Looking ahead, we expect the promotional environment to remain favorable through most of the year, but to a lesser extent than what we experienced in Q1.
As a percent of sales, our occupancy and buyer's compensation returned to more normal levels versus last year's abnormally high rate.
Inclusive of approximately $5 million of COVID-related rent abatements in the quarter, our occupancy costs leveraged 80 basis points over Q1 of 2019.
Our SG&A expense rate came in at 19.4% of sales in the quarter, as our strong sales results provided us with 750 basis points of leverage over last year and 60 basis points of leverage compared to 2019.
In addition to careful expense control, we received approximately $10 million in government subsidies, which partially offset nearly $2 million of incremental PPE expense and 90 basis points of higher bonus expense.
For the quarter, depreciation expense was up slightly to last year at $45 million.
Net interest expense increased $1 million compared to last year due to lower levels of interest income on our cash balance.
We previously disclosed, given the considerable improvement in credit markets, we amended our credit facility, which will result in lower fees moving forward.
Our tax rate came in at 28.7% versus 22% in Q1 last year.
We ended the quarter in a strong liquidity position with over $1.9 billion of cash, an increase of $951 million as of the end of Q1 last year.
Our higher inventory turn and slower receipt flow rate was a significant source of cash, building upon the cash we accumulated through our preservation efforts last year.
We currently have no outstanding borrowings on our $600 million credit facility.
At the end of Q1, inventory was down 30% compared to last year.
However, keep in mind that at the end of Q1 2020, our inventory was up 20%, which was due to the elevated store closures resulting from the pandemic.
We expect our inventory levels to begin building back up in Q2.
We invested approximately $51 million into our business during the quarter.
This funded the opening of 12 new stores as well as the remodeling or relocating of 15 stores.
We also closed 58 stores in the quarter, primarily in the U.S., leaving us with 2,952 company-owned stores at the end of Q1.
For the full year, we now expect to open approximately 160 stores, remodel or relocate 120 and close 240.
These amounts reflect the Footaction stores we plan to close or reposition in 2021.
Looking ahead, we are tracking toward approximately $275 million in capital expenditures this year, in line with our prior guidance.
In terms of shareholder returns, we paid out $21 million in dividends this quarter and repurchased approximately 620,000 shares for $34 million.
Given the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic and its continued impact on our visibility across our global portfolio, we are not providing detailed guidance at this time.
However, the following directional considerations for Q2 and the full year may be helpful.
For the second quarter, looking at sales, keep in mind that our comps were up nearly 19% last year in what is historically our lowest volume quarter of the year.
This was due to pent-up demand, high promotional activity and government stimulus.
Due to delays in inventory receipts in Q1 of the current year, some sales have shifted into Q2; and as a result, we expect Q2 total sales to be relatively in line with last year.
With respect to gross margin, given the level and freshness of our inventory, we expect less promotional pressure on merchandise margins as compared to Q2 last year.
Please keep in mind that we face a $6 million headwind for rent abatements we obtained in Q2 last year.
Compared to the second quarter of 2019, we expect to see some modest gross margin expansion.
With respect to SG&A, bear in mind, our strong Q2 sales last year helped to provide leverage beyond our expense management efforts.
We anticipate SG&A to be elevated compared to 2020 as we lap the unique elements that benefited Q2 last year, including $17 million in government subsidies and reduced store operating costs.
Given our strong start to fiscal 2021 and assuming a continued recovery from the pandemic, our current high-level expectations for the full year are as follows: total sales to increase at a low double-digit to low teens rate over fiscal 2020; meaningful gross margin expansion over fiscal 2020, largely reflecting a more rational promotional environment.
When compared to fiscal 2019, we expect to see modest gross margin improvement.
SG&A rates to be roughly in line with fiscal 2019.
Looking at our non-GAAP tax rate, for the full year, we expect it to be lower than fiscal 2020 but somewhat higher than fiscal 2019.

user
foot locker q1 non-gaap earnings per share $1.96.
q1 non-gaap earnings per share $1.96.
q1 earnings per share $1.93.
q1 same store sales rose 80.3 percent.
foot locker - in q2 2021, company decided to convert about one third of its footaction stores into other existing banner concepts over course of year.
co will close majority of remaining footaction stores as leases expire over next two years.
not providing detailed full-year 2021 guidance at this time.

assistant