The consumer may be stirring gently this summer. Leisure-products makers are gearing up for the return of vacationers and home-redecorating projects.Be it golf clubs, motor boats or sofas, there are rumblings of improved spending. But shrunken inventories betray a restrained view of the economy’s immediate prospects.

Icon/Newscom Sporting-goods maker Callaway Golf is keeping inventories in check, expecting a slow economic rebound.

Callaway Golf Co. sees “economic indicators” pointing to “a recovery mode, although not necessarily a rapid one,” Chief Executive George Fellows said Tuesday. “As we look at this upcoming year, we are cautiously optimistic that the economy and overall market conditions will improve,” Chief Financial Officer Bradley Holiday added. “The question is how much and how quickly.”

The Carlsbad, Calif., golf-equipment maker’s profits fell 29% on a 15% revenue drop in 2009. This year, the company sees sales rebounding somewhere between 4% and 10% above last year. So if revenue meets the company’s best expectations, by the end of 2010 Callaway sales will get back to the level of 2008, healthy by most measures.

It’s clear from inventory levels that these companies aren’t getting too amped about a fast recovery. Mr. Fellows said the company ended the year with its lowest inventory level in five years, and it intends to work with its retailers to keep inventories at levels that match lower demand.

“I think they’ve learned as we have lessons on how to better inventory our positions against demand,” Mr. Fellows said. Retailers have learned “they can probably get by with somewhat lesser inventory than before.”

Brunswick Corp., which sells equipment for and operates bowling alleys and makes marine engines and motor boats and fitness equipment, said it’s planning to reduce the pipeline of new boats in its marine retail unit by about 13%. Already-low field inventory levels “will drop even further” this year, Chief Executive Dustan McCoy said Thursday.

Lake Forest, Ill.-based Brunswick expects boat-dealer sales to be down 10% this year, but discounting should also be “far lower” than in 2009, Mr. McCoy said, because of already low inventories. One sign of its conservative outlook: net inventories were down 40% at Dec. 31, from the year-ago period, in line with its 41% year-over-year sales decline.

The drop in outdoor activities hasn’t helped home-furnishings maker Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. It and other furniture makers were hit hard by the recession and the downturn in new-home building. Ethan Allen, of Danbury, Conn., responded with a major retrenching that the company hopes will allow it to return it to profitability this year. On Thursday, it swung to a fiscal-second-quarter loss of $3.3 million despite cost cuts.

The company has slashed inventory by 24% since December 2008. Chief Executive Farooq Kathwari said Thursday that consumers are still concerned about the economy, but confidence has improved. “We are getting positive feedback” from stores, he said, adding customers “are not as concerned as they were a few months back.”

This article was written by Paul Vigna and John Shipman for the Wall Street Journal.