Tapestry executives continued to tout the growth of Coach’s footwear range in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.
On the company’s earnings call on Thursday, Tapestry chief executive officer Joanne Crevoiserat called footwear a “significant growth opportunity” for Coach, with revenue in the segment growing over 20 percent in the first quarter. She noted that the Margot family of shoes and the “continued success of sneakers” drove much of the category’s growth in the period.
Todd Kahn, brand president and chief executive officer of Coach, dove into the category further when taking questions from analysts on Thursday’s call. He noted that footwear contributed about 6 percent of Coach’s overall growth in the first quarter.
“I mean, we’re still walking,” Kahn said. “We haven’t run yet. There is so much opportunity. And footwear is one of those examples where our ‘One Coach’ strategy comes into being.”
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The “One Coach” strategy is the brand’s way of evolving the traditional division between its full-price and outlet businesses. Under this program, Coach is selling some of its collection merchandise at full-price across its outlet stores in order to have a “more consistent presentation” of the brand across physical and digital channels.
“We launched our Soho sneaker at one price across all channels, and that’s resonating,” Kahn added. “What’s interesting about Soho, it’s a great acquisition vehicle for our young men. Their first purchase at Coach is often a Soho and then eventually, we get them into leather goods. So, we love that.”
Kahn also echoed Crevoiserat’s call out of the Margot footwear collection, noting that it’s an “outstanding” shoe in Coach’s women’s business.
“What we like about footwear is the additional UPTs [units per transaction] at any of our direct businesses,” the brand CEO said. “But in addition, it’s a great beachhead for wholesale accounts in markets that maybe we were underpenetrated, like Europe. So you see us drive a lot of wholesale business through that category in a very profitable way. And we love the frequency of purchase of footwear. We love the additional UPT, and we love that it’s expanding us across all genders.”
This continued growth in footwear as Tapestry reported net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 increased 30.9 percent to $360 million, or $1.76 a diluted share. Adjusted earnings tallied $1.82 per share — easily beating the $1.56 analysts forecast.
Sales rose 12 percent to $1.9 billion, excluding the impact of Stuart Weitzman, which was spun off to Caleres last year. That topped the $1.85 billion analysts forecast. Direct-to-consumer sales rose 9 percent while the internationally skewed wholesale business saw sales jump 30 percent.
Coach sales continued to leap, increasing 16 percent to $1.7 billion. Kate Spade, which is retrenching in order to grow back from a stronger base, was down 10 percent to $233 million for the quarter.
Looking ahead, Tapestry nudged up its outlook for the full year. Revenues are now expected to rise 6 percent to 7 percent to $8.5 billion to $8.6 billion, moving the range up $100 million from the initial forecast.
