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: I hope you, your colleagues and loved ones are staying safe and healthy.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a global challenge, we remain dedicated to the safety of everyone in the entire Skechers organization and appreciate their ongoing efforts and resiliency during this difficult period.
While many countries' restrictions are easing, our thoughts are with those regions facing another coronavirus wave.
As is the case with most businesses, the pandemic continued to impact Skechers but the high demand for our comfort technology product resulted in a strong beginning to 2021 and it feels reminiscent of 2019.
In the first quarter, we achieved revenue growth of 15% over the same period last year, which resulted in our first quarterly sales of more than $1.4 billion.
This was done while parts of the world remained closed due to the pandemic.
The $1.43 billion first quarter sales were also an 11.9% increase over first quarter 2019, which was then a record for the period.
Driving the record sales was 20.2% increase in our international business and an 8.5% increase in our domestic business.
This double-digit growth drove international sales to 57.8% of total sales in the first quarter.
Throughout the quarter, we focused on delivering our footwear and apparel to meet the needs of both our consumers and customers.
Our sell-throughs across customer types and categories exceeded expectations in many markets and we were able to deliver double-digit growth.
Skechers' mission of delivering comfort, style and quality and innovation at a value resonated with consumers prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the same is true now.
Consumers are returning to a new normalcy, one that involves more walking, more comfort on the job and a casual lifestyle mindset.
We are a natural choice for any demographic worldwide with comfort technology at our core.
The record sales are a testament to the fact that consumers appreciate our product offerings, which we're seeing by the success across many divisions.
Our International Wholesale business grew 23.8% for the first quarter last year and 13% from 2019.
The quarterly sales growth was driven by an increase of 174% in China, which was severely impacted by the pandemic in the prior year.
However, even as compared to 2019, China grew 45.5%.
The International Wholesale growth was partially offset by decreases in our subsidiary and distributor businesses.
Subsidiary sales decreased 4.8% from 2020 but improved 4.2% from 2019.
The first quarter 2021 decrease was due to temporary closures and reduced operating hours in Spain and Italy, and especially in the United Kingdom, where businesses were closed for the entire quarter.
Where markets were open, sales were strong, including in Germany, India and Canada.
Our distributor business was down 6.5% from last year, yet several markets experienced growth in the quarter, specifically Russia, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine.
We believe we will continue to see improvements in our distributor business in the second quarter and the remainder of the year.
Sales in our Domestic Wholesale business decreased less than 1% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2020 but improved 8.1% compared to the first quarter of 2019.
We believe sales in our Domestic Wholesale business were negatively impacted by logistical challenges, which caused slower replenishment and product shipments to some accounts.
Key sales drivers came from multiple categories with the largest gains in our Women's Sport, Kids, Work and Men's Performance.
Additionally, the average selling price per pair increased 2.7%, reflecting the strength and appeal of new comfort products and technologies.
Skechers direct-to-consumer business increased 18.1% over 2020 and 13.1% over 2019, despite the fact that domestic operating hours were reduced by approximately 15% during January and February, and 7% in March.
In our international company-owned stores, we lost 37% of the days available to sell during the quarter.
Our domestic direct-to-consumer sales increased 28.4% compared to the first quarter of 2020 and 18% compared to 2019.
This improvement came from our domestic e-commerce channel, which grew by 143% and our brick and mortar stores, which grew by 13.6%.
Our domestic direct-to-consumer average selling price per unit rose 10.9%, which speaks to the strength of our current product offering.
While we expected our e-commerce business to continue to perform exceptionally well, we were pleased with the increased traffic and sales in our domestic retail stores, especially in March, which we believe improved as more people became comfortable shopping and we ramped up our marketing efforts.
We have now completed the update of our point-of-sale system, which further optimizes our domestic direct-to-consumer channels and will continue to improve our omnichannel capabilities.
We are now focused on rolling out this same platform worldwide.
Our e-commerce channel remains a meaningful growth opportunity as sales increase significantly across the globe.
We plan to expand our e-commerce reach across Europe, beginning with a new site in Ireland and the revamp of our U.K. site this summer.
Our international direct-to-consumer business increased 1.9% over the first quarter of 2020 and 4.4% over 2019.
The growth was largely attributable to our company-owned e-commerce sites and the strength of our sales in Korea, India and Thailand, partially offset by ongoing temporary store closures due to stay at home guidelines across many markets, most notably in the United Kingdom.
While we are seeing some markets reopening this month, including England last week, other countries have extended or reinstated their lockdowns given the unpredictability of the coronavirus and its impact on many markets, we remain cautious about a return to normal traffic and sales in many international stores.
In the first quarter, we opened 12 company-owned Skechers stores, six of which are in international location, including our largest store in India.
We have opened seven stores to-date in the second quarter, including our first in Antwerp.
We closed 20 locations in the first quarter as we opted not to renew expiring leases, and we expect to close one additional store at the end of this month.
An additional net 106 third-party Skechers stores opened in the first quarter, bringing our total store count at quarter end to 3,989.
The stores that opened were across 16 countries with most located in China and India.
To support the open regions during the first quarter, we ramped up our marketing efforts to drive home our comfort message.
This included former professional quarterback and lead NFL commentator, Tony Romo in our Max Cushioning commercial during the Super Bowl and NFL coach, Jon Gruden and sports analyst, Howie Long in new commercials for Skechers Arch Fit, as well as Brooke Burke featured in Arch Fit and Skechers apparel commercials during the quarter.
Our new campaign went on television as well as digital platforms to support key initiatives for men, women and kids.
In the first quarter, we were awarded Company of the Year by leading industry publication, Footwear Plus, for the ninth time in 15 years.
This was due to our efforts during the challenging 2020 year and our ability to deliver to consumers the comfort they wanted.
We are pleased with our performance in the first quarter, I think this was a solid beginning, especially given the ongoing pandemic-related difficulties most recently impacting our international business, which now represents 58% of our total sales.
While many markets continue to face challenges, we are seeing strong signs of recovery and remain focused on delivering our comfort technology and managing the flow of our inventory to fulfill demand where we are open and drive sales where possible.
The Skechers brand performed exceptionally well this quarter, despite ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic, including continuing store closures and operating restrictions in many markets across the world.
The quarter began as expected with the pandemic continuing to influence tepid consumer trends worldwide, especially as many markets reinstituted lockdowns.
However, mid-quarter, we began seeing signs of consumer engagement and optimism domestically that we have not seen in over a year, that led to results in March that even exceeded our own internal expectations, reflecting high demand for the Skechers brand.
Although we remain cautious given the nature of government responses to COVID-19 globally, we are optimistic that our first quarter results are indicative of the power of our brand as the world begins to recover from the pandemic.
Now, let's turn to our first quarter results, where you will note that due to the unusual nature of last year, we will occasionally compare to both 2020 and 2019, where we feel the added measure is beneficial to evaluating the performance of our business.
Sales in the quarter achieved a new record, totaling $1.43 billion, an increase of $186.1 million or 15% from the prior year and an impressive 11.9% increase over the first quarter of 2019.
On a constant currency basis, sales increased $145.9 million or 11.7%.
International Wholesale sales increased 23.8% in the quarter compared with the first quarter of 2020 and 13.4% compared with the first quarter of 2019.
Our joint ventures grew an impressive 120% in the quarter led by China, which grew 174% against prior year results, which contained the most severe impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.
As compared to the first quarter of 2019, China grew 45.5% driven by strong e-commerce performance.
Subsidiary sales declined slightly in the quarter by 4.8%, primarily as a result of continuing closures in Europe and Latin America.
However, as compared to 2019, our subsidiary sales grew an impressive 4.2% despite the current year operational restrictions.
As expected, our distributor business continued to face pandemic headwinds in the first quarter, decreasing 6.5% but saw a marked improvement as compared to the second half of 2020.
Although we continue to expect this portion of our business to recover more slowly than the overall International Wholesale segment, we remain optimistic that we will ultimately see a full recovery of sales in this important channel.
Domestic Wholesale sales decreased slightly in the quarter by less than 1%, primarily due to the unfavorable timing of shipments to customers, which we now expect to occur in the second quarter.
Compared to the first quarter of 2019, sales increased 8.1%, which we believe is more reflective of the positive underlying trends we are seeing with the majority of our domestic wholesale partners, particularly based on sell-through we observed in the back half of the quarter.
Direct-to-consumer sales returned to growth in the quarter increasing 18.1%, the result of a 28.4% increase domestically and a 1.9% increase internationally.
The results reflect a slight benefit from the pandemic store closures in the prior year but more importantly, also reflect a notable 143% increase in our domestic e-commerce business and a significant increase in store traffic and sales in March, a trend that has continued.
Gross profit was $679.6 million, up 24.1% or $131.9 million compared to the prior year.
Gross margin was 47.6%, an increase of 350 basis points versus the prior year, primarily driven by increases in our average selling price across all segments as well as a favorable mix of online sales.
Total operating expenses increased by $19.9 million or 3.9% to $528 million in the quarter.
Selling expenses increased by $11.2 million or 15.2% to $85.3 million, which was flat as a percentage of sales versus last year.
The dollar increase was primarily due to higher domestic digital demand creation spending as well as the reopening of certain markets internationally.
General and administrative expenses increased slightly by $8.6 million or 2% to $442.7 million, which was primarily the result of volume-driven expenses in warehouse and distribution for both our international and domestic e-commerce businesses.
This was partially offset by lower retail labor costs.
Earnings from operations was $157.7 million versus prior year earnings of $44.8 million.
This represents an increase of 252% or $112.9 million.
Operating margin was 11% compared with 3.6% a year ago and 13% in 2019, reflecting strong combination of top line performance and operating expense leverage despite ongoing pandemic-related challenges.
Net earnings were $98.6 million or $0.63 per diluted share on 155.9 million diluted shares outstanding.
This compares to prior-year net income of $49.1 million or $0.32 per diluted share on 154.7 million diluted shares outstanding.
Our effective income tax rate for the quarter was 20.2% versus 15.3% in the same period last year.
The increase was predominantly due to an unfavorable mix of earnings from higher tax jurisdictions.
And now turning to our balance sheet.
We ended the quarter with $1.51 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments, which was an increase of $148.2 million or 10.8% from March 31, 2020.
Trade accounts receivable at quarter end were $798.8 million, an increase of $2.6 million from March 31, 2020.
Total inventory was $1.07 billion, an increase of 8.3% or $81.8 million from March 31, 2020.
The increase is largely attributable to higher inventories to support growth in China and government closures in Europe.
Total debt, including both current and long-term portions, was $779.7 million at March 31, 2021 compared to $699.8 million at March 31, 2020.
Capital expenditures for the first quarter were $84.2 million, of which $42.9 million related to the expansion of our joint venture-owned domestic distribution center, $13.8 million related to investment in our new corporate offices in Southern California, $12.4 million related to investments in our direct-to-consumer technology and retail stores and $3.6 million related to our new distribution center in China.
Our capital investments remained focused on supporting our strategic growth priorities, growing our direct-to-consumer relationships and business as well as expanding the presence of our brand internationally.
For the remainder of 2021, we expect total capital expenditures to be between $200 million and $250 million.
Now turning to guidance.
First, let me preface by saying that we remain in a dynamic situation, where conditions can change materially at any point in time.
As a result, assessing the ongoing impact of the pandemic to our business is difficult.
Incorporated into the following guidance is our best estimate of the influence of these factors on our expected results for 2021.
However, if the situation deteriorates and closures continue longer than anticipated, our expected results may differ materially from this guidance.
That being said, we are providing a perspective today for our second quarter and full year 2021 results, based upon current trends, backlogs and other indicators.
We expect second quarter 2021 sales to be in the range of between $1.45 billion and $1.5 billion and net earnings per diluted share to be in the range of between $0.40 and $0.50.
For fiscal year 2021, we expect sales to be in the range of between $5.8 billion and $5.9 billion and net earnings per diluted share to be in the range of between $1.80 and $2.
We also anticipate that gross margins for the full year will be flat or up slightly compared to 2020 and that our effective tax rate for the year will be approximately 20%.
We achieved a new quarterly sales record over $1.4 billion due to the strong demand for our comfort technology footwear and markets where we are open.
International, which is approximately 58% of our total sales was the biggest driver, but we saw strong improvements in our domestic business with increasing traffic in March and now in April.
The achievement came despite ongoing pandemic-related issues.
We drove sales through strong marketing campaigns across multiple platforms, continue to rollout our BOPIS and BOPAC initiative in the United States and plan for additional e-commerce sites in 2021.
To further support our business in the coming years, we are in the process of enhancing our infrastructure with new distribution centers in Peru, the U.K. and Japan.
In addition, our new 1.5 million square foot China distribution center remains on track for full implementation by mid-year.
Given today is Earth Day, I'd like to note that we are continuing to work on the expansion of our LEED Gold certified North American distribution center, which will bring our facility in Southern California to 2.6 million square feet in 2022.
We are also completing construction on Phase 1 of our new LEED Gold certified office buildings and we are increasing efficiencies in our existing corporate office buildings, including the addition of solar panels.
Although we remain cautious given the ongoing temporary closures in many countries, we are seeing the improved traffic that we experienced in March continue in April, where markets are open.
The demand for our product is strong as consumers want familiarity, comfort, quality and value, all of which the Skechers brands delivers together with innovation and style.

user
compname reports q1 earnings per share $0.63.
q1 earnings per share $0.63.
q1 sales $1.43 billion.
sees q2 earnings per share $0.40 to $0.50.
sees fy earnings per share $1.80 to $2.00.
sees q2 sales $1.45 billion to $1.5 billion.
sees fy sales $5.8 billion to $5.9 billion.

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