When it comes to Vans‘ long-awaited turnaround, VF Corp. believes there’s a lot to be positive about.
“Vans continues to be recognized for the innovation and excitement that’s happening,” said VF’s chief executive officer Bracken Darrell during the firm’s second-quarter earnings conference call Wednesday. He cited to the Piper Jaffray teen survey, which indicated that Vans is one of the top brands of its targeted consumer base, and a recent AlixPartners Consumer Sentiment Index that noted Vans as the number-two fashion footwear brand.
While the brand was down 9.8 percent in the second quarter, Darrell emphasized that global direct-to-consumer sales were “positive for the first time in almost five years as our product engine shows up in our channels first.”
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Darrell reminded analysts on the call that the company started with improved performance in U.S. e-commerce a few quarters ago, and then in Americas DTC in total, followed by global DTC in the second quarter ended Sept. 26.
“We’re introducing new ideas first with small batches in e-comm as well as with appropriate partners and cultural platforms and quickly introducing a few of these ideas into limited stores, our own, then scaling a subset of those products into the wider fleet,” Darrell said, adding that product flows into wholesale after that, or about six to nine months behind DTC.
“We have a lot of confidence in the wholesale channel for [the third quarter], and especially [the fourth quarter], based on a strong response from our partners to our increased product newness,” the CEO said.
Darrell also spoke about refreshing icons — like the Pearlized Old Skool — and offering new silhouettes. New styles include the Super Lowpro sneaker, mules and loafers. Even better, the brand is “three months closer to what we told you would happen in wholesale, and we’re reconfirming it,” Darrell said. “Our direction at Vans is clear, and I’m confident we’ll see the acceleration.”
Darrell also said the brand’s distribution is more limited than that of the traditional athletic shoe at the typical sporting goods retailers, which leaves runway growth in lifestyle as one of Vans’ biggest opportunities. “We’re looking at order books, and we’re feeling good about them,” he noted.
At its Timberland shoe brand, Darrell said it “continues to build strong brand heat and relevance with new consumers,” adding that the diversification strategy at Timberland is beginning to take hold.
“What’s even more exciting is the growth potential we see beyond our core footwear franchises. Sneakers and apparel represent significant white space for Timberland,” the CEO said. “You won’t see a meaningful contribution in the near-term numbers yet, but there’s a lot happening behind the scenes, and we see substantial opportunity as we invest into those categories.”
And at the smaller — but fastest-growing — Altra brand, which posted growth at more than 40 percent in the quarter and was up in every region and channel, a robust product innovation pipeline and stronger storytelling has been resonating with consumers.
“Road and trail both grew strongly in the quarter,” Darrell said. “We already lead in trail, and the market for road running is 10 times bigger.” He noted that Altra‘s Torin 9 launch was the biggest launch of the season with strong sell-through, while the new Vanish Carbon 3 and Tempo 2 elevated the brand’s pinnacle race offerings.
VF reported a net income jump of 50.3 percent to $285.3 million for the quarter ended Sept. 26, on a 3.8 percent decline in revenue to $2.7 billion.
Needham’s Tom Nikic said choppiness at Vans — and the glacial pace of the turnaround — represented another “frustrating quarter.” But he does have a “buy” rating on shares of VF as guidance is for trends to improve “significantly” in the fiscal second half.
“Overall, Vans is expected to get less bad in [the third quarter], down 4 percent or less, and is implied roughly flattish for fiscal [fourth quarter], which could signal growth in fiscal year ’28,” the Needham analyst said. And given the challenging marketplace and Altra’s growth of more than 40 percent, he concluded that the “brand is growing so fast that the growth in Altra footwear this year is expected to full offset declines in Vans footwear.”
Truist analyst Joseph Civello also has a “buy” rating on shares of VF, noting that with management’s greater visibility into Vans wholesale orders for spring 2027, “We continue to believe Vans is well positioned for a wholesale inflection, especially given the shift in fashion trends away from legacy athletic lifestyle silhouettes plus a meaningful gap in shelf space created by Nike’s pullback of lifestyle product.”
Separately, Lyst on Wednesday disclosed its list of the 10 hottest products in the third quarter, with Vans Premium Authentic ranked at number four. Lyst said demand for Vans is up 29 percent year-over-year.
