Starting with the significant and unfamiliar task of efficiently closing and then swiftly reopening our entire fleet of nearly 1,500 retail locations, some of them multiple times.
Capitalizing on the accelerated shift to online spending, achieving record digital revenue of $450 million, an increase of almost 75% year over year while also fueling record profitability for this channel, driving record conversion rates in stores, helping us to partially offset the impact from lower traffic levels and store closures.
Conserving capital and reducing operating expenses by 15% compared with fiscal '20, generating cash flow of over $130 million to ensure healthy liquidity.
New website visitors were up 40%, contributing an almost 50% growth in new customer purchases, and we delivered another strong quarter of this digital growth with comps up 55%.
The combination of these factors led to a total revenue decrease of 6% versus last year, with stores open about 90% of the possible days in the quarter.
This result was better than we expected due mainly to the stronger store sales at Journeys and that represents a meaningful improvement from last quarter's 11% decline in Q2's 20% decline.
Fortunately, with best-in-class digital abilities, Schuh was able to capture a significant portion of lost store volume through its digital channel, and total sales were down only 13%, capping off a year in which Schuh, like Journeys, gained market share.
For the upcoming year, J&M has focused 90% of new product development on our expansion of its casual offering to include casual athletic, leisure, rugged, outdoor and performance.
A higher tax rate offset the higher operating income, resulting in adjusted earnings per share of $2.76, compared to $3.09 last year.
While comps were up 1%, consolidated revenue was $637 million, down 6% compared to last year, driven by continued pressure at J&M and the impact from store closures during the quarter.
A robust e-commerce comp of 55% was really offset by a decline in-store revenue of 19%, driven by a comp decline of 10%.
While our stores were closed for 10% of the possible operating days during the quarter.
Digital sales increased to 27% of our retail business from 17% last year.
Consolidated gross margin was 45.8%, down 110 basis points from last year.
As we have experienced all year, increased shipping to fulfill direct sales that pressured the gross margin rate in all our businesses totaling 80 basis points of the overall decline.
Notably, Journeys' gross margin increased 210 basis points driven by lower markdowns.
Schuh's gross margin decreased 410 basis points due to the increased e-comm shipping expense.
J&M's gross margin decrease of 1,690 basis points was due to more closeouts at wholesale, higher markdowns at retail and incremental inventory reserves.
So, finally, the combination of lower revenue at J&M, typically the highest gross margin rate of our businesses and the revenue growth of licensed brands typically our lowest gross margin rate negatively impacted the overall mix by 50 basis points.
The largest year-over-year savings came from the occupancy costs, driven in large part by the execution of about $18 million of rent abatements with our landlord partners who provided support for the time stores were closed and savings from the U.K. government program, which provides property tax relief.
We took the most significant cost actions at J&M evident by the 29% reduction in SG&A in the Q4 and our 25% reduction for the full year.
We negotiated 123 renewals this year and achieved a 23% reduction in cash rent or 22% on a straight-line basis in North America.
This was on top of an 11% of cash rent reduction or 8% on a straight-line basis for 160 renewals last year.
These renewals are for an even shorter-term averaging approximately one and a half years compared to the three-year average that we saw last year, with almost one-third of our fleet coming up for renewal in the next 24 months, this will remain a key priority for us going forward.
In summary, the fourth quarter's adjusted operating income was $64.7 million versus last year's $59.3 million.
Our adjusted non-GAAP tax rate for the fourth quarter was 37.5%.
Tax initiatives under the CARES Act and then other provisions generated a onetime $65 million permanent income tax benefit for Fiscal year-end '21.
Q4 total inventory was down 20% on sales that were down 6%.
For the fourth quarter, our ending net cash position was $182 million, $100 million higher than the third quarter's level, driven by strong cash generation from operations.
Capital expenditures were $6 million as our spend remains focused on digital and omnichannel and depreciation and amortization was $11 million.
We closed 16 stores and opened none during the fourth quarter, capping off the full year in which we closed 33 stores and opened 13.
Directionally, the overall sales decline for Q1 compared to fiscal-year end '20 could be in the neighborhood of the 11% decline we experienced in the past third quarter.
Gross margin rates for Q1 will be below fiscal '20 levels, more than that 210 basis point decline we experienced this past third quarter.
However, there will be some deleveraging due to the sales volume likely in the neighborhood of 100 basis points.
Combined with the seasonality of our business, we are expecting more than 100% of our full year earnings to also come from the third and fourth quarters.
The annual tax rate is expected to be approximately 32%.
For fiscal '22, capital expenditures will be between $35 million and $40 million and centered on digital and omnichannel investments, which comprised about 75% of this amount.
This does not include another $16 million net of tenant allowance related to the move to a new headquarters location, which were delayed because of the pandemic.
We estimate depreciation and amortization at $48 million.
We currently plan to open up to 15 new stores, mainly at Journeys.
We currently plan on closing about 35 stores, but discount could go up or down based on our ability to obtain short-term lease deals at attractive rents.
For this year, we are assuming an average of 14.6 million shares outstanding this assumes no stock buybacks under our current $100 million Board authorization, of which $90 million is remaining.
Initially, we believe we can reduce operating expenses by as much as around $25 million to $30 million, approximately 3% on an annualized basis.
Levi's is one of the most recognized consumer brands with our heritage dating back almost 170 years.
While we doubled e-commerce in the five years leading up to the pandemic, we aim to double the business again in a much shorter period by leveraging the 75% comp increase we achieved last year.
And to do this, in North American stores, we're launching the initial rollout of BOPUS, an offering we've had in the U.K. that drives around 20% of Schuh's online purchases and steers customer traffic to its stores.

Summary:
A higher tax rate offset the higher operating income, resulting in adjusted earnings per share of $2.76, compared to $3.09 last year.
While comps were up 1%, consolidated revenue was $637 million, down 6% compared to last year, driven by continued pressure at J&M and the impact from store closures during the quarter.