Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS), which owns the Payless shoe store, issued its Q2 release after the bell on Wednesday. Earnings per share took a significant dive once you made some adjustments for last year's results. They came in at 29 cents per share, a decrease of over 40%. Net sales went down over 8%.

On the surface, the news isn't good -- and it gets worse. As we all know, every investor has to play the earnings game with Wall Street. Collective Brands lost the good fight. The market was looking for 33 cents per share, according to Earnings.com. Coming in four pennies short is about as comfortable as wearing sneakers two sizes too small. Shares of Collective Brands were punished in the after-hours' session, with investors bidding the stock down by close to 7% at one point, though it later recovered.

After the closing bell sounded yesterday, footwear firm Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) reported second-quarter earnings, or should we say second-quarter loss -- yet the Street is ready to celebrate.

The foam footwear manufacturer reported a second-quarter loss of $30.3 million, or 36 cents per share. Taking a $34.8 million charge out of the equation, CROX would have lost a mere six cents per share. While these results are worse than those of a year ago, they managed to top Wall Street's expectations for a loss of 21 cents per share.

Solid performance in the earnings spotlight from Under Armour (NYSE: UA), as the company reported a surprising profit of three cents per share. Under Armour's earnings topped the consensus estimate for a loss of two cents per share and matched the company's year-ago results. Quarterly revenue increased to $164.6 million from $156.7 million a year ago.

The results were driven by a 16.5% increase ($112 million) in clothing revenue, which compensated for an 18.4% drop ($37.5 million) in footwear from a year ago. Looking ahead, Under Armour forecast 2009 earnings between 80 and 82 cents per share, better than the consensus estimate for earnings of 79 cents per share. As far as revenue is concerned, the Maryland-based firm expects $810 million compared to $804.9 from the Street.

Collective Brands (NYSE: PSS), a footwear retailer that competes with companies such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Kohl's (NYSE: KSS), issued Q1 results on Wednesday after the bell. The business earned 59 cents per diluted share. That represented a decline over last year's results which, on an adjusted basis, calculated out to 66 cents per share.

That's not the only disappointing news. You also have a sales decline, impacted by currency effects (of course), as well as the expiration of a license related to the Tommy Hilfiger brand. Also, same-store sales dipped by 4.8% on a reported basis, and 3.2% after the exclusion of currency translation. As can be seen, you can look at same-store sales any way you'd like, but in the end, they went down, and that is never healthy for a retailer. A retailer always wants to see rising comps.

DSW (NYSE: DSW) issued a pretty short press release detailing its Q4 earnings on Wednesday. Can't blame management about that. There really wasn't much to say, other than the data did not look appealing.

The footwear business reported a loss of 17 cents per share. In the previous year's Q4, there was a profit of 2 cents per share (I'm sure DSW is looking on that time period with bitter nostalgia). Unfortunately, the market was looking for a loss of only 12 cents per share according to this.

Nike, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) issued its Q3 numbers on Wednesday, and they were impressive in that they beat the analysts by quite the wide margin. According to Trey Thoelcke's earnings preview, analysts were looking for the sneaker giant to do $0.79 per share. Well, on an adjusted basis, excluding an impairment effect related to the Umbro asset, Nike delivered $0.99 per share. That represents an 8% jump in the bottom line.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the parade of earnings declines to continue into the final week of February, with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO), Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN), Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN), Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M), DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA), Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE: LTD), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE: RY), Del Monte Foods Co. (NASDAQ: DLM), Kohl's Corp. (NYSE: KSS), Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS), Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH), and H.J. Heinz Co. (NYSE: HNZ) all expected to post lower earnings for the most recent quarter. Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP), Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS), and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) are expect to have swung to a loss.

Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) reported earnings for the fourth quarter after the market close on Thursday. The shares were up almost 10% on the news during the after-hours trading session since the footwear company beat expectations by a wide margin. But let me tell you something: I cannot imagine any sane investor wanting to risk his hard-earned capital on this stock. The numbers are just too dismal.

Wall Street was bracing for a loss of $0.56 per share in the fourth quarter. Well, Crocs did much better than that. It lost only $0.40 per share. Great, right? Yeah. Let's look at the top line: it declined by 43%. Does that put the earnings beat in perspective? I sure hope it does. How about the fact that gross margin went down to 44% compared to 56% in the year-ago period -- does that also lend some context?

Nike (NYSE: NKE) will be reporting numbers for the second quarter on Wednesday, December 17. What should investors be expecting from the famous sneaker company?

Well, according to this earnings source, Wall Street thinks that Nike can deliver somewhere around $0.79 per share. If management hits this number, then we're talking growth of about 11%. Not the most exciting growth rate ever seen, but shareholders learn to appreciate low double-digit growth expansion in bad economic times. And judging by recent history, it seems like a good bet that Nike will, at the very least, meet expectations. The company has beaten the analysts on a pretty consistent basis, so even if the global recession has caught up to Nike, I'd have to assume that they'll at least deliver what's expected of the business (my guess is that we'll see a beat). Back in September, Michael Fowlkes wrote about Nike's beat in Q1.

Shareholders will be looking for clues as to how Nike is handling the tough climate. Margins will be looked at, and the effect of currency exchange rates will be scrutinized. The big question will center on what happens next. Will consumers still want to spend good money on expensive footwear? Nike does have great brand equity, as I noted back in the summer, but you pay up for its products. How attractive can that be with job cuts dominating the news flow? Shareholders should also see how many shares of stock management saw fit to take out of the float. That will indicate a level of confidence in its current business model.

According to Trey Thoelcke's coverage on earnings reports, Nike (NYSE: NKE), a competitor of Adidas (OTC: ADDDY), beat Wall Street expectations for its Q4 results. Analysts thought that Nike might be good for earnings of $0.96 per share, but the footwear entity booked $0.98 per share, beating estimates by two cents (thankfully, it wasn't the proverbial penny, which definitely gets boring after awhile). Investors didn't seem to be too keen on the results, as the stock sold off in after-hours trading on Wednesday, dropping almost 5%.

Let's take a closer look at the results. For the fourth quarter, the top line increased by 16% - not a bad revenue jump. And that $0.98 earnings per-share figure represented an increase of 14%. The fiscal year actually looked pretty good, too. Revenues increased 14%, and net income expanded by 28% to $3.74 per share. Gross margin expanded, and worldwide futures orders were up 11%. I like all these double-digit numbers, and I like the fact that the company paid out more in dividends this year than last, and I can see that Nike is taking advantage of the weak dollar through its international exposure.

Nike's stock has performed well, over the last five years, but lately it's not been as strong. Investors would certainly be justified in having a cautious stance with a company like Nike considering the current economic climate. Sneakers obviously might not be worth a lot of discretionary income in a time of high energy costs and slow growth. But with numbers like these, I have to say that Nike knows how to leverage its brand equity to full effect. This was a great yearly report, and if the stock pulled back a little further, I would definitely consider it.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.