V F CORP — Call Transcript 2026

VF Corporation, thank you for being here. Bracken Darrell, CEO, Paul Vogel, CFO. Before we kick off, I'm just gonna give the mic quick to Allegra Perry in IR to say a few opening comments. Morning, everyone. Okay, throughout today's discussion, VF Management may make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These uncertainties are detailed in documents filed regularly with the SEC by VF. Unless otherwise noted, amounts referred to on today's call are all on an adjusted constant dollar continuing operations and excluding Dickies basis. The company uses those as lead numbers in its discussion as it believes they more accurately represent the true operational performance and underlying results of the business. VF Management may also refer to reported amounts which are in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Thank you, Allegra, and thank you Bracken and Paul for being here. Appreciate it. We'll kick off with just kind of a high level. I'm curious to hear from both of you guys. Both of you fairly new on the overall scheme of things, to the retail world, the brand world. I'm curious just at a very high level, how it's been for you guys generally, how it's compared to your previous experiences, what's been positive surprise, negative surprise? Anything along those lines I think would be really interesting to hear. I'll let Paul go first. I'd say a couple things. I think one is from a brand perspective, it's actually somewhat similar, right? My prior world, I worked for very strong brands, and so when you have really strong brands, the cultivation of those brands, the ownership of those brands, the protection of those brands, that's all very similar, right? Everything you want to do is in service of making sure that that brand is growing and you're thoughtful about how you're managing and protecting that brand, right? That's very similar to me. You know, I think obviously in the tech world, the ability to make change sometimes can be pretty fast in terms of just writing new code. It actually, in my view, it actually makes the decision-making process have to be even faster in this world because you know when that decision happens, it's then going to take a little bit of time to see it roll through the system. I had a lot of speed in my old job. One of the things that Bracken and I have both really stressed is bringing speed to this world. You know, because of lead time to you know to get products on the shelves, you can't really take your time in making other decisions. That's where I think I don't know if it's different or the same. We did things pretty quick in the other world, but we do things quick here for a different reason because there's quick, and then there's not so quick. I think the better you can be and feel more thoughtful of stuff you can be quick on, it helps you get that stuff done in a timely manner. I think for me, it felt in the beginning, it felt so similar. It was almost uncomfortable. You know, I was checking myself on every decision because it just felt like literally almost a rinse and repeat of Logitech, you know? 'Cause when I went into Logitech, it was a deep turnaround. Came in here, it's a deep turnaround. You know, turnarounds are characterized by your costs are too high, your growth is too low, you've got to change a lot of things. It felt so comfortable, and there was so much change to do that I was almost nervous that I was missing something, you know? As I stayed here longer, the differences have started to appear. You know, I would say through the first year, you know, it felt like, boy, this feels like a play I know how to run really well. Now it's getting even more interesting. You know, like for example, I mean, one of the biggest differences is just the number of leadership changes I've had to make here, you know, including Paul. You know, I think we've changed the entire leadership team. In fact, just in the last three months. Now, the good news is they've been really systematic and planned. Like in the last three months, we announced a transition of, you know, Martino, who was running our global commercial organization, is gonna step down sometime in the next quarter or so, or step away sometime next quarter or so. We've already promoted Brent Hyder, who I brought in literally in the, I think the second month I was here. And then he ran the Americas for a while, and then our plan was to promote him and put him in place, and we did that. A very, very long planned transition. Same thing we're doing actually today. We're announcing that Caroline Brown, who was on our board, I asked her to step in to really help us really get The North Face going again. You know, we'd had a lot of political challenges inside the company. There was a lot of strife, and the morale was terribly low. Caroline came in. I thought, you know, we'll be lucky if we keep her for a couple of years. She's come and done a super job. In the meantime, we hired in Chris Goble, who was at the Gap. He had led the turnaround of the Gap brand. He'd been at the Gap for a long time. He'd run the North America business for the Gap, a little like Brent had. We had somebody, and we put him on Dickies, and then we held him back from Dickies 'cause we knew we were gonna make this move. We've now, we're systematically making the next step. Caroline will go find a new transition she really wants to do, and Chris will be promoted and put in charge of the North Face brand. The cool thing about this situation is that we've been able to systematically do a lot of the things that you know, honestly, you would wanna do in a long timeframe, but we've been able to do them relatively short, and that's probably just because of my experience. The last thing I'll say that I'd say is quite different is AI. You know, Paul talked about speed, and I'm you know, I really am very excited about speed. You know, I always say, you know, when I hire people usually ask you know, "What do you hire for?" It's definitely two of Chris and Brent and others, Paul. I really end up hiring for two things. By the time you're CEO and you're hiring people, they have the capability. I mean, everybody interviews you. The two things that really stand out are the personal drive to have an impact. You know, it really stands out, usually stands out in an interview. The other one is speed, which is harder to see in an interview, but the drive to make things happen right away because, you know, the faster you make things happen, the faster you find out if they worked, and the faster you can change. You know, I think that's the. This has been super exciting, you know, it'll be three years this summer for me. Super exciting three years, and we're definitely on track to what I thought we could do here. One of the things that you inherited when you came, both of you, was a kind of a struggling Vans business. I think that's been a hot topic for certainly the investment community. I'm sure. Sure Within the company. How do you feel about the progress? Maybe give us an update on how you feel about that brand by geography, where you're furthest along, where you still have more work to do. I love the Vans brand. I loved it before I got here. I liked it before I got here. I loved it once I got into it, and it is a phenomenal brand. You can't see 'cause we're not doing video, but I have the coolest shoes. I mean, these are real. But, you know, the exciting thing for me to be able to say today is we have so many cool things out there and so many more coming. It's, I'm really excited about the brand. I'm also very patient, as you know, probably more patient than some investors would like. I think it's more important to really get the brand sturdy and healthy and then grow it through elevation, through innovation, and through great marketing in a really systematic long-term way than it is to try to get it quickly turned around. I think people. Some people would have loved for me to just, you know, wave a magic wand and get it turned around. I've seen people do that. It does turn around. It's easy to do that, and then it goes the other way pretty quickly or in the next year or two. I'm not here for that. You know, I want, we want this thing to be a long-term sustainable growth engine again, and it can be a really strong one. We've got fantastic products that are out there. We've got even better ones coming and I'm super excited about the team on the brand too. I mean, from the head of marketing to the head of design to the head of merchandising, you know, Susan herself, we just got a great team. I'm very excited about the business, but I'm patient. About in terms of where you stand in that, in that journey by geography, where do you feel like you're furthest along? Where is the brand starting to really resonate? Any green shoots you can share? Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't answer that right away. You know, I would say, but I think I've said this in the last couple of calls. I'm really fixated on the U.S. on our own DTC. Not because it's the only thing that matters, it is more than half the brand, half the business is our U.S. business, but just because I think we're, you're gonna see stuff there first. We already started to see it last quarter, as you know. You know, the excitement around the brand is gonna show up first where you have the greatest number of new products, and you know, and I originally thought, "Well, maybe we'll see it in wholesale first 'cause they can curate faster 'cause they're. We'll have a few new products coming, and they'll be able to curate their assortment and get a bigger proportion of that. That's not exactly the way I think it really has worked. I think it's the opposite. I mean. It's taken longer, but I think where we could bring a broader assortment of new products, where you could really see what's coming and see it in the context of apparel. That's where we're starting to see it. E-com, I think, went positive for the first time last quarter in the U.S. I think you're going to continue to see great progress in the U.S. market, both e-com and brick and mortar. The rest of the world will be slow. I mean, I think APAC will be very slow because the brand was never well established there. I think our sales there are really built on kind of retail momentum and e-com momentum more than fundamentals. I don't expect magic in APAC. I think EMEA will be somewhere in between. EMEA, we do have a strong brand there, but not as strong as the U.S. Keep your eyes on the U.S., that's where the action is. Got it. You referenced some management changes within The North Face. Maybe talk about what prompted those changes, what you're looking for to drive momentum in that brand. Anything that needs fixing? What are you looking for new leadership to do? You know, first of all, this was a plan, so we've had this for a while, and The North Face business is in good shape. You know, you've seen the growth quarter by quarter, and we expect it to look something like that all the way through next year. We feel good about where we are in The North Face. What I do think we'll get from Chris, which is exciting, is he's somebody who comes in with a direct commercial background and a direct merchandising background, which is a little different from a lot of the presidents that go into these jobs. Many of them in this industry don't have both of that combination of practical commercial experience, you know, delivering the numbers, making sure you know what the assortment ought to be by channel, even by retailer and at the same time have a really strong merchandising background. I mean, this business is a product business. If you don't have great product, you're not gonna win. So he's got that rare combination of both, and I think he's gonna bring a really good touch to that, probably a simplifying touch to that. The North Face is a big, healthy brand, but it's also complex, and I wanna keep simplifying it. Even as we expand into 65 days a year, expand into more and more women's product, elevate more of our product. You know, it's working. We're doing that now, but we can do that and make it more transparent to consumers. We touched on two. Let's go for the third, Timberland. What are you seeing? What are you looking for? This brand certainly has some momentum. How do you think about the longer term growth opportunities at Timberland? What is it that drives that momentum? I mean, it's really cool. Being a part of this business is so cool 'cause each brand has a really defined challenge. You know what? The challenge of The North Face is, how do we double that thing when it's already so big? The answer is, boy, do we have a lot of opportunities, and the momentum's with us. The challenge of Vans, of course, is how do we get the momentum back? You know, and it's starting to come back now. You're seeing. You mentioned green shoots earlier. We're selling out of more and more of the new products. I mean, all the new products are working, almost all. I think there's probably almost none. There are very few exceptions. When we launch something, it really sells out. We've got to have. Be a little bolder on our buys. Timberland, the story is how do we get this incredibly strong momentum we have on the brand and how do we make sure it transfers into other products beyond that yellow boot everybody's so familiar with? We're going to do that. We've got a great plan to do it. We've got a great team to do it. We're starting to do it. If you keep an eye on our Instagram, you see how we're doing it. We're not going to let up on making sure that we're selling that yellow boot and the black boot, but we're going to keep bringing it into new things in both footwear and apparel. That's a challenge. I feel good about it. That's another place where we have a fantastic team, great marketing, great products. Just stay tuned. It's going to be fun to watch. Maybe we'll give one to Paul, just to give you a break, Pac. Okay. You guys have committed to a 10% EBIT margin by 2028. At the time you gave that guidance, since then, we've had Liberation Day, we've had the SCOTUS decision, we've had a few curve balls. Maybe talk about, you know, where you feel you're on track towards hitting that goal, maybe where you're running above, if there's any places that you're running behind, just as we look out to hitting that 10% target. Yeah. We definitely feel still feel very good about the targets we put out. You know, if you kind of break it down, you know, the fiscal 2028 number, the exit run rate number was, you kind of premised on flat growth on fiscal 2024, right? We do need a little bit of revenue growth in there. Not a ton, but a little bit to get back to sort of what we said flat from that point. We expect to get that. Second on the gross margin side, you know, we said 55%. We're pretty close to it now, if you kinda look at where we're gonna end the year, based on how we've done for the first three quarters and then for Q4. We're pretty close to there. I think we're, you know, definitely on track, if not ahead of track, on the gross margin side. On the SG&A side, we're right on track there as well, right? You'll see, you know, leverage each year. You're starting to see some leverage. I think you'll see incrementally more leverage as we go on. We feel good about it. Not only that, you know, we're generating free cash flow and positive free cash flow. We said it would be up this year. It will be up this year, which is great. We've been able to pay down the debt. We said our debt would be below, you know, 3.5 times or below at the end of the year, so we're on track to hit that 2.5 times at the end of fiscal 2028 that we talked about. You know, so we feel like we're just kinda systematically, you know, checking off all the things we said we're going to do. We feel really good about it and, you know, we'll just continue to execute. Can you maybe talk about some of the puts and takes on gross margins, as we look out to next year? Just it's a complex business, a lot of moving pieces. Maybe talk about what's working for you, what's working against you. I'd love to also know, well, if there is any low-hanging fruit on the SG&A side that you can still kinda extract? Yeah. On the gross margin side, obviously, the tariffs are obviously running through. We've talked about we'll be able to mitigate it within fiscal 2027, so maybe not for all of fiscal 2027, but within fiscal 2027, we'll be on that rate. I feel like we're projecting where we'd want to be, right? We said that pricing really wasn't a factor in Q3. We'll have some impact on Q4 in terms of helping mitigate it and moving forward. You know, with all that, we've been able to, you know, deliver kinda at or better than expected gross margin, so that's been really great. On the margin side, obviously, we're always working on sourcing and supply chain, all those things, just trying to continue to get incrementally better there. You know, so much just you know, selling more, you know, full priced items, right? The more we can sell full priced items, be a little less promotional has also helped. That's kinda been the mix that's gone into the gross margin. I would say, really good job on the supply chain sourcing side. We're going to have the ability to mitigate the tariffs the way we thought, and we're starting to do a better job on sort of selling full price on the gross margin side. On the SG&A side, I don't know if there's any more low-hanging fruit. I think it's just I mean, SG&A is just a, you know, a day in, day out, year in, year out, line items that you just have to pay attention to, right? I think in our case, obviously, we're trying to return to growth, so we need to be very thoughtful and strategic about our SG&A. Then when you return to growth, it's like, how do you not get ahead of your skis? All of a sudden, you start seeing real growth. It's easy to, you know, kinda, you know, take the foot off the gas in terms of the discipline you want on the SG&A side. I think we're in that position now where, you know, hopefully we're going to return to growth. Obviously, we'll be up, you know, this year, just a little bit, but we'll be up. you know, so it's, you know, continue to just show that discipline. I think that's where we're headed on the SG&A side. Helpful. In the U.S. specifically, if you know, if we were sitting here two weeks ago, I might have asked you know, how are you thinking about refunds coming back to the U.S. consumer, and how much of a driver, you know, can that be to the business, if you're even really thinking about it, as a driver in yours? Now we're sitting here with some pretty, you know, crazy fluctuations on oil. Talk to us about the U.S. consumer, the macro, how that sort of pervades your view of growth across brands. You know, I think generally speaking, you know, I think I said this six months ago or something, that the U.S. consumer's been stubbornly positive, you know? I don't know, you know, the best predictor of the future is usually the past, and I think that's probably gonna continue. We don't expect robust, you know, consumer growth ahead, but, you know, we don't need much. I mean, we have so much in our control. You know, we started by talking about Vans, you know. We have so much in our control to make sure we're really executing well, and we have a lot of things we're improving right now in all three brands. I don't think we're very dependent on how good or bad the macro is in the U.S. to have a good business. We should have a good business regardless. I'm not saying no matter what. I mean, if things got really bad for some reason, it would be different, but they haven't, and it feels like we're probably going to keep going about the same way. We'll see. You know, nobody can really predict with this war right now in Iran. It's really unpredictable. I'm quite optimistic. You know, I think we have a lot of things in our control. How about some of the other geographies? Obviously, you're a global business. Can you talk to us about Europe, talk to us about Asia, how you're looking at the macro, the backdrop that you're playing under. Yeah, I think EMEA is tougher. You know, now I generalize, and I apologize to all the Europeans out there for having another American talk about Europe. I think Europe is always a little more, takes things a little harder and takes good news a little softer, you know? I think probably the challenge over there is, you know, the Middle East is closer there, and I think they probably feel it more every day than we do a little bit. They've got two wars happening in the Middle East right now, or two battlegrounds happening in the Middle East. Three in Europe and the Middle East put together if you add Ukraine, which of course you have to. There's just a lot going on over there, so I think it's a little rougher over there. Again, you know, our business is okay over there. You know, there's nothing too alarming, and I think it's been okay. I think we're almost, and maybe Europeans too, almost desensitized to all the challenging news, you know, which in a way from a business standpoint is kind of a good thing. APAC's different. APAC, it feels like it operates more in isolation, and it's a much smaller part of our business. The one thing you do know is there is nothing happening in the Middle East right now from a business standpoint, you know. Now, the good news for us is. The good news right now for us is that's a really small part of our business, but it's a lot of potential out there, so one day we'll get that back. Yeah, I think generally speaking, you know, outside of, especially Europe, probably will feel it more. Maybe talk to us about tariffs. You know, we've obviously had some fluctuations, right, with recent in recent weeks. Maybe talk to us about how you kind of changed and adjusted to the higher tariff world and what sort of changes you might be making now if, you know, if any. I'd love to hear also, you know, what your plan is if we are operating in a lower tariff environment. Does it mean anything for you in terms of pricing and how you think about, you know, what you put in front of the customer from a price point perspective? How did that change? I'll go first and then Paul, why don't you pick it up from here. You know, I think first of all, we adjusted very fast to the tariffs. I mean, we, as I think you all know, we've been very practical and said, you know, "Well, the tariffs just aren't gonna affect our business as imposed before the Supreme Court decision. You know, they're not going to impact our business by the middle of next fiscal year 'cause we're going to offset them between cost reductions and pricing," and we're well on track to do that. Now after the Supreme Court decision, we're operating as if that Supreme Court decision didn't happen because we're not going to count on anything. We don't believe in luck, you know. We'll see. You know, if that happens, it'll be great. If it doesn't, we'll be fine. Yeah, I mean, I don't know there's much more to add on that. I think, we're operating as if nothing's changed, right? In terms of we, you know, and if things change down the line, we'll adjust. You know, we've acted very quickly. We work closely with our suppliers. We've been very thoughtful about how we're gonna raise prices, and it's very different by brand. It's very different by product by brand. For us, it's just sort of status quo. You know, I think when there's this level of uncertainty, you just kind of stay the course and unless something, you know, is definitively changing. If we were in a refund situation where you would actually get something back, what is that number? What did you pay under IEEPA tariffs? You know, if you do have some money coming back to you, what is the- Yeah, we haven't disclosed that number. I don't think we have, right, Allegra? We probably can. I just, we haven't done it, so it'd have to be. I don't know the exact number. It's, I mean, look, it's not immaterial. I mean, it's real money. Again, we're at this point, we're not counting on it. If everything goes through and it turns out that we get the money back, great. At this point, we're assuming, again, no change to anything. We're also not assuming, going back to your first question, that this decision's going to have any material effect on pricing in absolute terms or relative to other companies. Got it. You've made some changes from an organizational structure. Maybe you can talk to us about those, how it's allowed you maybe to be a little bit faster, speed to market, the positives and the benefits from those changes. Yeah, you know, I kinda opened with that. We've made a series of changes, and we're going to continue to make changes. You know, you know, I personally love being close to the brands and close to the commercial teams, and those are the two areas where I probably feel like I can add the most value. I always think about how I can make sure that I get to be close to those leaders who are leading those parts of the business, and some of these changes are directly on that. I also think, you know, you're never done. You know, we have a very deep and rigorous succession planning process, so you've gotta always have a plan for, you know, where are you going next, who are you developing, who are those people? We've got such an ambitious program for developing people inside the company. That's a key part of every change we make. You know, I'm really excited about the path that our chief people officer Brent Hyder had and Tyler has. We've got a new chief people officer in place now. He was promoted internally, just like Chris Goble was into the North Bay. I'm really excited about you know, really the people development part of our model. It's going to get stronger and stronger, and we're already able to attract really great talent, and I think we're going to keep that talent and grow talent internally a lot more now. So yeah, overall the changes are, you know, they're beginning to be kinda table stakes every quarter, every year for us. It's just part of it, but it's a lot of internal promotion. AI is a hot topic. We're hosting a lunch today on that topic exactly. Curious how you're using AI in your business to find efficiencies, how are you using it today versus what you see in the future. How is it helping you, if at all, right now? What kind of changes do you expect on the AI front? I'll start and again hand it off to you, Paul. You know, we've got a very ambitious agenda for AI like most companies do or should. You know, I mean, the obvious places you see it are in places like customer service where it's a direct cost reduction and efficiency play. But we probably have, I don't know, 14, 15, 16 different AI projects across virtually every part of our business. All of them are relatively small today. We're investing aggressively in AI across the board. We think it's the game changer people are thinking it is. We're also aware that, you know, we don't see anybody who's really done anything remarkably transformative yet in this industry. We're hesitant to talk too much about what we're doing until we have real proof, you know? It's not skepticism on our side at all. It's practical reality. Like, we like to do things than talk about. We probably won't talk too much about what we're up to, but we're excited about what's possible. Yeah. I would just add, you know, me and Bracken talked about the sort of the brand and the product side and marketing side and for us on the corporate overhead side, you know, there's obvious things there as well, right? Whether you think about finance or HR or the technology side. I mean, in finance in particular, there's just a ton of opportunity there, right? I mean, there's you know, there is a curve to get there, particularly when you've got, you know, as many brands as we do, making sure you've got sort of the data in a place that you can really analyze it the way you want. I mean, there's going to be semantic models where I'll literally, if you ask me a question, I'll just be able to type it right into the chat bot and get the exact answer you want, every number, every trend line, everything with a chart and a picture, and it'll happen automatically. So we're not there yet, but we're not, you know, we're not years and years away from that either. I'll give you one little example of something we just. We have so much going on. This is one tiny example we just introduced last week, a portal, where you can just go in and depending on what kind of thing you're trying to solve, you didn't have to go into the AI engine itself. You go into our portal, you decide what kind of question am I asking. Is it about creativity or is it about analysis? You just go into that, you hit the portal, you ask the question, you get the answer, it goes to the appropriate engine. That's so that we can make sure we shield our data from the broad AI models data, but also that we give people super frictionless access to AI across our company. That's just one tiny example of what we're up to. We're doing a whole bunch of things like that. Yeah. On the AI topic, it kind of moves into just the discussion overall of cash, right? CapEx. Like how much investment, you know, are you having to make on AI? Is that more of a CapEx investment? Does it run through the P&L? Maybe talk about cash flow and priorities for cash in that context. Yeah. I mean, it's not that big right now. I think it'll probably be a combination of both, if I'm being honest. There'll be some long-term projects that we'll capitalize and there'll be some short-term things that'll be just expenses. We're trying to figure out how they are. The numbers right now are not that big, but they will obviously get bigger. That just goes into the broader CapEx strategy we have in general, which is, you know, balancing, you know, our free cash flow with our CapEx, which, you know, within CapEx, the two biggest ones for us are really on the technology side, on the store opening side. Just making sure that as we open stores, we're doing them effectively with a good ROI. As we're building out technology, we're doing it, you know, smartly and efficiently, and then having room to add in the next-gen stuff like AI or other investments we wanna make in other areas where we think there's long-term growth. I also suspect that the bigger expense long-term is not going to be CapEx, it's going to be expense. The great thing about that is there's so much efficiency in the application of AI to offset that expense and deliver, you know, significant savings on top of it that I think we're going to be really successful in lowering our costs as we invest more in AI. It's a little early to say that with 100% confidence, but say 99%. I feel really strongly about that. There's a sweet spot ahead on this. I'm curious. Again, it's capital allocation to a certain extent. You've got a history of buying brands. You've got a history of, you know, disposing of brands. Where are you now just in that thought process? What's next, if anything at all? I'm dominating that one. Yeah, it's all good. Look, I think a couple things. I think one is we're very committed to getting our leverage down, right? Which we've talked about. You can think of our, from a capital allocation standpoint, any excess cash is going to go towards bringing that leverage ratio down, and that's, you know, we're on that track. We've given you kind of where we're at. You know, until we're, you know, 2.5x or below, I think that probably kinda limits some of where we may go. I'll steal a line that Bracken always uses, we're all here for growth, right? We all wanna grow, and we wanna get this business back to growing. Growth obviously comes from organic growth, but eventually it also can come from M&A growth, and so we're not there yet. We've said all along our number one priority is to get our leverage in the spot we want it to get in, and then from there, you know, we'll see. I think about it purely from optionality, right? And what we're trying to do is get this business back to a place where we have maximum optionality to do what we wanna do to grow the business. I also think we're in this luxurious spot that may be hard for some investors to see today, where we have so much internal growth potential that we don't even need to worry at all about acquisitions. I mean, if I look just at those three large brands we talked about, all of them can grow strongly. If you add Altra, which, you know, we haven't talked about at all today, you know, Altra is a running brand that's last quarter grew, I think, over 20%. It's either between 20% and 35% the last few quarters, and I don't see any reason why that's going to let up. That's before we even expand its 'footprint' of what kind of business it can be. I think there's a lot of growth there. There are other small brands we never talk about that have lots of growth potential. We have a lot of potential here internally before we worry about acquisitions. You know, my general view of companies is that, you know, if you do nothing but just grow with the market, you're going to grow low single digits. That's your business. If you outperform the other people in your business by having a better innovation engine and a better marketing engine, that's always the goal. That's certainly our goal, and we're going to do that, then you grow mid-single digits. If you do that and you're entering new categories, either by acquisition or through organic decisions to go into new categories within those brands you have, then you can grow upper single digits% or even touch double digits% on a consistent basis. That's the model that we're running. We're not at that mid-single digits% yet. We're on our way to lower single digits%, but one day, I think we'll get higher than that. Can you maybe talk on that growth topic? Can you maybe talk about the drivers when you think about DTC and retail. Yeah. Versus wholesale, maybe by brand, where you see the outsized growth opportunities. We've heard from a couple of folks at this conference that are saying things like, "Hey, stores are back." Right? Maybe e-com's losing a little bit of share. Some of the younger consumers like to go into stores, which can impact both your retail business and your wholesale business. I'd love to hear your thought on the drivers for each of those brands. Well, I'll talk for just a second. I'll break it down by brands maybe one time, and then I'll ladder up. On Timberland, you know, it's really. We really need to expand our retail footprint because people wanna buy Timberland, they don't know where to go to buy it. You know, if you're going to buy a footwear, especially a boot, you kinda feel like you need to try it on. We've expressed this, we need to have more stores for Timberland, especially in the U.S. market where there's really not enough obvious places to go buy it. Now, that said, if I step back up again, all three of those channels are super important, and I think they're all going to play a really important role for us. You know, the cool thing about DTC, as I said earlier, is that you can bring your products to market in an unfiltered way, and you don't have to convince somebody else that they're going to sell. You just have to convince yourself, you know? We haven't always taken advantage of that, by the way. Our own processes got in the way of us doing that, so we're changing that right now. The cool thing about wholesale, which I just love, is it's the most competitive environment there is to sell in. I mean, you go in there, the average person who walks into a wholesaler is not necessarily, and maybe not at all committed to your brand, but they're committed to buying something. They're in there to do something. It's a real torture test, and you must be in there, or we must be in there to make sure that we have compelling products and compelling marketing. If we're not winning in there, then we have to ask ourselves what's wrong with us. I love being kinda equally distributed among the three. You know, a little larger on wholesale, I like having half the business be wholesale, 'cause man, oh, man, if you're not winning there, you gotta soul search. I love the e-commerce business 'cause it's so fast and we can do things so lightning fast there. Bricks and mortar is where you really get to experience your customer, and you get to find out, you know, are we doing everything we can to give them everything they might need in that shopping trip? I like all three, and I think we're going to do well in all three over time. Maybe talk a little bit more about the wholesale channel and where you're seeing the greatest receptivity to product. Which brands are you just having great conversations and seeing great traction with those wholesale accounts? 'Cause it is a challenging environment, right? To get that shelf space and. Yeah. Continue to have those partners order up every year. Well, you know, Timberland's like running through open doors right now because, you know, there's very strong demand and so we're. You know, I'd say there is the easiest discussions. The opportunity in The North Face is big because we had a period of several years ago where we didn't do as good a job with our wholesalers as partners. We didn't just didn't treat them well. We didn't serve them well, and we paid the ultimate price, which is our business shrunk in there. So we have the opportunity now to get that back and we're really working on that, and we're trying to be a really first class. Well, first of all, good and then great, wholesale partner for all those players that are so important to us. Vans is, you know, as I said, focused on the U.S., focused on DTC. Wholesale will follow that. We have some, a few key wholesalers who are really critical to that business long term, but honestly, we can do so much in DTC before we really are winning big with them. I think you'll see those come back. It'll be a sequential. We'll first win in DTC and Vans, and then we'll win in wholesale. For all those comments, I'm really focused on the Americas business, which is about half our business. Got it. How about when you think about from a traffic and units perspective versus price? You know, what do you see as being the primary driver of growth, and how does that differ by brand? Maybe I'll step back and just say traffic in general is like the holy grail of retail, right? You know, getting people into stores is really key and, you know, the traffic in general has been more difficult, I would say, since I got here than it was before I got here. I suspect that's starting to change a little bit, you know, by brand, and we'll see. You know, I'm again focused on the U.S. market. I think we're starting to see that change by brand, and I think that's a good thing. There's so much beyond traffic that, you know, and this is one of the things I've really learned in this business. How the execution in store is so critical to really the performance of a business, and we were not executing at the level we could have been. As of about three or four quarters ago, we're starting to see a change in that you know, we're getting more out of everybody who's walking in that store. That's great because when the traffic comes on top of that from brand heat, but brands like Timberland and The North Face and then ultimately Vans, you know, we're just going to be in a much better spot. Overall, I think traffic is the ultimate measure of brand heat and, you know, we've got a ways to go before I'll feel like, okay, we're really there. Got it. With all this talk of growth, I guess we'll just come back to that 10% EBIT margin target. It was kind of put out there under a no growth scenario initially, but maybe can we talk about that and what does that potentially look like if you are in fact successful at achieving some of these growth levels that we're talking about? Yeah. I think we had said that at the initial Investor Day that the targets we had were sort of a base, like this is what we wanna get to. It didn't mean that was where we're going to stop, right? I think we've always believed that 10% was a good starting point for saying, "Hey, here's what we can get back to. Here's what we think a well-run, well-executing business should perform at, and we can get there by this period of time." That was the 10%. I think we also said that we believe we can get above that, and then the question is how far above that is really just dependent on where we want to invest, how much we wanna spend to continue to grow the business, where the opportunities are. You know, as I said before, I think we're really confident in the numbers we put out, the targets, we think we'll hit them. You know, if growth starts to really accelerate, yes, I think there's probably upside from there, again, if that happens. The question is how much of that upside do we, you know, do we use to reinvest either into the current businesses or something else, or how much we let flow to the bottom line. It'll be a great problem to have when we have it. We're almost at time, but maybe Bracken just to close up, what's got you most excited within the business right now? You know, I don't think I've ever been as excited as I am right now. Last week we had 800 of our leaders in a big meeting we do every year to plan out next year. We really celebrate this year and then plan next year and I think I can safely say, man, there, people were walking out of there super pumped, and I was. I just feel really good about our plans. I feel really good about our teams. You know, I think we're just committed, you know? I think there's nobody who working in our business now who doesn't see that we can be a really strong long-term growth business. That's what I came for. That's what everybody came for. Appreciate it, Bracken. Paul, thank you for doing this, and thanks everybody for joining. Thanks so much. Thank you.

Speaker 4: VF Corporation, thank you for being here. Bracken Darrell, CEO, Paul Vogel, CFO. Before we kick off, I'm just gonna give the mic quick to Allegra Perry in IR to say a few opening comments. VF Corporation, thank you for being here. vf corporation thank you for being here Bracken Darrell, CEO, Paul Vogel, CFO. bracken darrell ceo paul vogel cfo Before we kick off, I'm just gonna give the mic quick to Allegra Perry in IR to say a few opening comments. before we kick off i'm just gonna give the mic quick to allegra perry in ir to say a few opening comments

Speaker 1: Morning, everyone. Okay, throughout today's discussion, VF Management may make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These uncertainties are detailed in documents filed regularly with the SEC by VF. Unless otherwise noted, amounts referred to on today's call are all on an adjusted constant dollar continuing operations and excluding Dickies basis. The company uses those as lead numbers in its discussion as it believes they more accurately represent the true operational performance and underlying results of the business. VF Management may also refer to reported amounts which are in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Morning, everyone. morning everyone Okay, throughout today's discussion, VF Management may make forward-looking statements. okay throughout today's discussion vf management may make forward-looking statements These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. these statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially These uncertainties are detailed in documents filed regularly with the SEC by VF. these uncertainties are detailed in documents filed regularly with the sec by vf Unless otherwise noted, amounts referred to on today's call are all on an adjusted constant dollar continuing operations and excluding Dickies basis. unless otherwise noted amounts referred to on today's call are all on an adjusted constant dollar continuing operations and excluding dickies basis The company uses those as lead numbers in its discussion as it believes they more accurately represent the true operational performance and underlying results of the business. the company uses those as lead numbers in its discussion as it believes they more accurately represent the true operational performance and underlying results of the business VF Management may also refer to reported amounts which are in accordance with U.S. vf management may also refer to reported amounts which are in accordance with u.s GAAP. gaap

Speaker 4: Thank you, Allegra, and thank you Bracken and Paul for being here. Appreciate it. We'll kick off with just kind of a high level. I'm curious to hear from both of you guys. Both of you fairly new on the overall scheme of things, to the retail world, the brand world. I'm curious just at a very high level, how it's been for you guys generally, how it's compared to your previous experiences, what's been positive surprise, negative surprise? Anything along those lines I think would be really interesting to hear. Thank you, Allegra, and thank you Bracken and Paul for being here. thank you allegra and thank you bracken and paul for being here Appreciate it. appreciate it We'll kick off with just kind of a high level. we'll kick off with just kind of a high level I'm curious to hear from both of you guys. i'm curious to hear from both of you guys Both of you fairly new on the overall scheme of things, to the retail world, the brand world. both of you fairly new on the overall scheme of things to the retail world the brand world I'm curious just at a very high level, how it's been for you guys generally, how it's compared to your previous experiences, what's been positive surprise, negative surprise? i'm curious just at a very high level how it's been for you guys generally how it's compared to your previous experiences what's been positive surprise negative surprise Anything along those lines I think would be really interesting to hear. anything along those lines i think would be really interesting to hear

Speaker 2: I'll let Paul go first. I'll let Paul go first. i'll let paul go first

Speaker 3: I'd say a couple things. I think one is from a brand perspective, it's actually somewhat similar, right? My prior world, I worked for very strong brands, and so when you have really strong brands, the cultivation of those brands, the ownership of those brands, the protection of those brands, that's all very similar, right? Everything you want to do is in service of making sure that that brand is growing and you're thoughtful about how you're managing and protecting that brand, right? That's very similar to me. You know, I think obviously in the tech world, the ability to make change sometimes can be pretty fast in terms of just writing new code. I'd say a couple things. i'd say a couple things I think one is from a brand perspective, it's actually somewhat similar, right? i think one is from a brand perspective it's actually somewhat similar right My prior world, I worked for very strong brands, and so when you have really strong brands, the cultivation of those brands, the ownership of those brands, the protection of those brands, that's all very similar, right? my prior world i worked for very strong brands and so when you have really strong brands the cultivation of those brands the ownership of those brands the protection of those brands that's all very similar right Everything you want to do is in service of making sure that that brand is growing and you're thoughtful about how you're managing and protecting that brand, right? everything you want to do is in service of making sure that that brand is growing and you're thoughtful about how you're managing and protecting that brand right That's very similar to me. that's very similar to me You know, I think obviously in the tech world, the ability to make change sometimes can be pretty fast in terms of just writing new code. you know i think obviously in the tech world the ability to make change sometimes can be pretty fast in terms of just writing new code It actually, in my view, it actually makes the decision-making process have to be even faster in this world because you know when that decision happens, it's then going to take a little bit of time to see it roll through the system. I had a lot of speed in my old job. One of the things that Bracken and I have both really stressed is bringing speed to this world. You know, because of lead time to you know to get products on the shelves, you can't really take your time in making other decisions. That's where I think I don't know if it's different or the same. It actually, in my view, it actually makes the decision-making process have to be even faster in this world because you know when that decision happens, it's then going to take a little bit of time to see it roll through the system. it actually in my view it actually makes the decision-making process have to be even faster in this world because you know when that decision happens it's then going to take a little bit of time to see it roll through the system I had a lot of speed in my old job. i had a lot of speed in my old job One of the things that Bracken and I have both really stressed is bringing speed to this world. one of the things that bracken and i have both really stressed is bringing speed to this world You know, because of lead time to you know to get products on the shelves, you can't really take your time in making other decisions. you know because of lead time to you know to get products on the shelves you can't really take your time in making other decisions That's where I think I don't know if it's different or the same. that's where i think i don't know if it's different or the same We did things pretty quick in the other world, but we do things quick here for a different reason because there's quick, and then there's not so quick. I think the better you can be and feel more thoughtful of stuff you can be quick on, it helps you get that stuff done in a timely manner. We did things pretty quick in the other world, but we do things quick here for a different reason because there's quick, and then there's not so quick. we did things pretty quick in the other world but we do things quick here for a different reason because there's quick and then there's not so quick I think the better you can be and feel more thoughtful of stuff you can be quick on, it helps you get that stuff done in a timely manner. i think the better you can be and feel more thoughtful of stuff you can be quick on it helps you get that stuff done in a timely manner

Speaker 2: I think for me, it felt in the beginning, it felt so similar. It was almost uncomfortable. You know, I was checking myself on every decision because it just felt like literally almost a rinse and repeat of Logitech, you know? 'Cause when I went into Logitech, it was a deep turnaround. Came in here, it's a deep turnaround. You know, turnarounds are characterized by your costs are too high, your growth is too low, you've got to change a lot of things. It felt so comfortable, and there was so much change to do that I was almost nervous that I was missing something, you know? As I stayed here longer, the differences have started to appear. I think for me, it felt in the beginning, it felt so similar. i think for me it felt in the beginning it felt so similar It was almost uncomfortable. it was almost uncomfortable You know, I was checking myself on every decision because it just felt like literally almost a rinse and repeat of Logitech, you know? 'Cause when I went into Logitech, it was a deep turnaround. you know i was checking myself on every decision because it just felt like literally almost a rinse and repeat of logitech you know 'cause when i went into logitech it was a deep turnaround Came in here, it's a deep turnaround. came in here it's a deep turnaround You know, turnarounds are characterized by your costs are too high, your growth is too low, you've got to change a lot of things. you know turnarounds are characterized by your costs are too high your growth is too low you've got to change a lot of things It felt so comfortable, and there was so much change to do that I was almost nervous that I was missing something, you know? it felt so comfortable and there was so much change to do that i was almost nervous that i was missing something you know As I stayed here longer, the differences have started to appear. as i stayed here longer the differences have started to appear You know, I would say through the first year, you know, it felt like, boy, this feels like a play I know how to run really well. Now it's getting even more interesting. You know, like for example, I mean, one of the biggest differences is just the number of leadership changes I've had to make here, you know, including Paul. You know, I think we've changed the entire leadership team. In fact, just in the last three months. Now, the good news is they've been really systematic and planned. Like in the last three months, we announced a transition of, you know, Martino, who was running our global commercial organization, is gonna step down sometime in the next quarter or so, or step away sometime next quarter or so. You know, I would say through the first year, you know, it felt like, boy, this feels like a play I know how to run really well. you know i would say through the first year you know it felt like boy this feels like a play i know how to run really well Now it's getting even more interesting. now it's getting even more interesting You know, like for example, I mean, one of the biggest differences is just the number of leadership changes I've had to make here, you know, including Paul. you know like for example i mean one of the biggest differences is just the number of leadership changes i've had to make here you know including paul You know, I think we've changed the entire leadership team. you know i think we've changed the entire leadership team In fact, just in the last three months. in fact just in the last three months Now, the good news is they've been really systematic and planned. now the good news is they've been really systematic and planned Like in the last three months, we announced a transition of, you know, Martino, who was running our global commercial organization, is gonna step down sometime in the next quarter or so, or step away sometime next quarter or so. like in the last three months we announced a transition of you know martino who was running our global commercial organization is gonna step down sometime in the next quarter or so or step away sometime next quarter or so We've already promoted Brent Hyder, who I brought in literally in the, I think the second month I was here. And then he ran the Americas for a while, and then our plan was to promote him and put him in place, and we did that. A very, very long planned transition. Same thing we're doing actually today. We're announcing that Caroline Brown, who was on our board, I asked her to step in to really help us really get The North Face going again. You know, we'd had a lot of political challenges inside the company. There was a lot of strife, and the morale was terribly low. Caroline came in. I thought, you know, we'll be lucky if we keep her for a couple of years. She's come and done a super job. We've already promoted Brent Hyder, who I brought in literally in the, I think the second month I was here. we've already promoted brent hyder who i brought in literally in the i think the second month i was here And then he ran the Americas for a while, and then our plan was to promote him and put him in place, and we did that. and then he ran the americas for a while and then our plan was to promote him and put him in place and we did that A very, very long planned transition. a very very long planned transition Same thing we're doing actually today. same thing we're doing actually today We're announcing that Caroline Brown, who was on our board, I asked her to step in to really help us really get The North Face going again. we're announcing that caroline brown who was on our board i asked her to step in to really help us really get the north face going again You know, we'd had a lot of political challenges inside the company. you know we'd had a lot of political challenges inside the company There was a lot of strife, and the morale was terribly low. there was a lot of strife and the morale was terribly low Caroline came in. caroline came in I thought, you know, we'll be lucky if we keep her for a couple of years. i thought you know we'll be lucky if we keep her for a couple of years She's come and done a super job. she's come and done a super job In the meantime, we hired in Chris Goble, who was at the Gap. He had led the turnaround of the Gap brand. He'd been at the Gap for a long time. He'd run the North America business for the Gap, a little like Brent had. We had somebody, and we put him on Dickies, and then we held him back from Dickies 'cause we knew we were gonna make this move. We've now, we're systematically making the next step. Caroline will go find a new transition she really wants to do, and Chris will be promoted and put in charge of the North Face brand. In the meantime, we hired in Chris Goble, who was at the Gap. in the meantime we hired in chris goble who was at the gap He had led the turnaround of the Gap brand. he had led the turnaround of the gap brand He'd been at the Gap for a long time. he'd been at the gap for a long time He'd run the North America business for the Gap, a little like Brent had. he'd run the north america business for the gap a little like brent had We had somebody, and we put him on Dickies, and then we held him back from Dickies 'cause we knew we were gonna make this move. we had somebody and we put him on dickies and then we held him back from dickies 'cause we knew we were gonna make this move We've now, we're systematically making the next step. we've now we're systematically making the next step Caroline will go find a new transition she really wants to do, and Chris will be promoted and put in charge of the North Face brand. caroline will go find a new transition she really wants to do and chris will be promoted and put in charge of the north face brand The cool thing about this situation is that we've been able to systematically do a lot of the things that you know, honestly, you would wanna do in a long timeframe, but we've been able to do them relatively short, and that's probably just because of my experience. The last thing I'll say that I'd say is quite different is AI. You know, Paul talked about speed, and I'm you know, I really am very excited about speed. You know, I always say, you know, when I hire people usually ask you know, "What do you hire for?" It's definitely two of Chris and Brent and others, Paul. I really end up hiring for two things. The cool thing about this situation is that we've been able to systematically do a lot of the things that you know, honestly, you would wanna do in a long timeframe, but we've been able to do them relatively short, and that's probably just because of my experience. the cool thing about this situation is that we've been able to systematically do a lot of the things that you know honestly you would wanna do in a long timeframe but we've been able to do them relatively short and that's probably just because of my experience The last thing I'll say that I'd say is quite different is AI. the last thing i'll say that i'd say is quite different is ai You know, Paul talked about speed, and I'm you know, I really am very excited about speed. you know paul talked about speed and i'm you know i really am very excited about speed You know, I always say, you know, when I hire people usually ask you know, "What do you hire for?" It's definitely two of Chris and Brent and others, Paul. you know i always say you know when i hire people usually ask you know "what do you hire for?" it's definitely two of chris and brent and others paul I really end up hiring for two things. i really end up hiring for two things By the time you're CEO and you're hiring people, they have the capability. I mean, everybody interviews you. The two things that really stand out are the personal drive to have an impact. You know, it really stands out, usually stands out in an interview. The other one is speed, which is harder to see in an interview, but the drive to make things happen right away because, you know, the faster you make things happen, the faster you find out if they worked, and the faster you can change. You know, I think that's the. This has been super exciting, you know, it'll be three years this summer for me. Super exciting three years, and we're definitely on track to what I thought we could do here. By the time you're CEO and you're hiring people, they have the capability. by the time you're ceo and you're hiring people they have the capability I mean, everybody interviews you. i mean everybody interviews you The two things that really stand out are the personal drive to have an impact. the two things that really stand out are the personal drive to have an impact You know, it really stands out, usually stands out in an interview. you know it really stands out usually stands out in an interview The other one is speed, which is harder to see in an interview, but the drive to make things happen right away because, you know, the faster you make things happen, the faster you find out if they worked, and the faster you can change. the other one is speed which is harder to see in an interview but the drive to make things happen right away because you know the faster you make things happen the faster you find out if they worked and the faster you can change You know, I think that's the. you know i think that's the This has been super exciting, you know, it'll be three years this summer for me. this has been super exciting you know it'll be three years this summer for me Super exciting three years, and we're definitely on track to what I thought we could do here. super exciting three years and we're definitely on track to what i thought we could do here

Speaker 4: One of the things that you inherited when you came, both of you, was a kind of a struggling Vans business. I think that's been a hot topic for certainly the investment community. I'm sure. One of the things that you inherited when you came, both of you, was a kind of a struggling Vans business. one of the things that you inherited when you came both of you was a kind of a struggling vans business I think that's been a hot topic for certainly the investment community. i think that's been a hot topic for certainly the investment community I'm sure. i'm sure

Speaker 2: Sure Sure sure

Speaker 4: Within the company. How do you feel about the progress? Maybe give us an update on how you feel about that brand by geography, where you're furthest along, where you still have more work to do. Within the company. within the company How do you feel about the progress? how do you feel about the progress Maybe give us an update on how you feel about that brand by geography, where you're furthest along, where you still have more work to do. maybe give us an update on how you feel about that brand by geography where you're furthest along where you still have more work to do

Speaker 2: I love the Vans brand. I loved it before I got here. I liked it before I got here. I loved it once I got into it, and it is a phenomenal brand. You can't see 'cause we're not doing video, but I have the coolest shoes. I mean, these are real. But, you know, the exciting thing for me to be able to say today is we have so many cool things out there and so many more coming. It's, I'm really excited about the brand. I'm also very patient, as you know, probably more patient than some investors would like. I love the Vans brand. i love the vans brand I loved it before I got here. i loved it before i got here I liked it before I got here. i liked it before i got here I loved it once I got into it, and it is a phenomenal brand. i loved it once i got into it and it is a phenomenal brand You can't see 'cause we're not doing video, but I have the coolest shoes. you can't see 'cause we're not doing video but i have the coolest shoes I mean, these are real. i mean these are real But, you know, the exciting thing for me to be able to say today is we have so many cool things out there and so many more coming. but you know the exciting thing for me to be able to say today is we have so many cool things out there and so many more coming It's, I'm really excited about the brand. it's i'm really excited about the brand I'm also very patient, as you know, probably more patient than some investors would like. i'm also very patient as you know probably more patient than some investors would like I think it's more important to really get the brand sturdy and healthy and then grow it through elevation, through innovation, and through great marketing in a really systematic long-term way than it is to try to get it quickly turned around. I think people. Some people would have loved for me to just, you know, wave a magic wand and get it turned around. I've seen people do that. It does turn around. It's easy to do that, and then it goes the other way pretty quickly or in the next year or two. I'm not here for that. You know, I want, we want this thing to be a long-term sustainable growth engine again, and it can be a really strong one. We've got fantastic products that are out there. I think it's more important to really get the brand sturdy and healthy and then grow it through elevation, through innovation, and through great marketing in a really systematic long-term way than it is to try to get it quickly turned around. i think it's more important to really get the brand sturdy and healthy and then grow it through elevation through innovation and through great marketing in a really systematic long-term way than it is to try to get it quickly turned around I think people. i think people Some people would have loved for me to just, you know, wave a magic wand and get it turned around. some people would have loved for me to just you know wave a magic wand and get it turned around I've seen people do that. i've seen people do that It does turn around. it does turn around It's easy to do that, and then it goes the other way pretty quickly or in the next year or two. it's easy to do that and then it goes the other way pretty quickly or in the next year or two I'm not here for that. i'm not here for that You know, I want, we want this thing to be a long-term sustainable growth engine again, and it can be a really strong one. you know i want we want this thing to be a long-term sustainable growth engine again and it can be a really strong one We've got fantastic products that are out there. we've got fantastic products that are out there We've got even better ones coming and I'm super excited about the team on the brand too. I mean, from the head of marketing to the head of design to the head of merchandising, you know, Susan herself, we just got a great team. I'm very excited about the business, but I'm patient. We've got even better ones coming and I'm super excited about the team on the brand too. we've got even better ones coming and i'm super excited about the team on the brand too I mean, from the head of marketing to the head of design to the head of merchandising, you know, Susan herself, we just got a great team. i mean from the head of marketing to the head of design to the head of merchandising you know susan herself we just got a great team I'm very excited about the business, but I'm patient. i'm very excited about the business but i'm patient

Speaker 4: About in terms of where you stand in that, in that journey by geography, where do you feel like you're furthest along? Where is the brand starting to really resonate? Any green shoots you can share? About in terms of where you stand in that, in that journey by geography, where do you feel like you're furthest along? about in terms of where you stand in that in that journey by geography where do you feel like you're furthest along Where is the brand starting to really resonate? where is the brand starting to really resonate Any green shoots you can share? any green shoots you can share

Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't answer that right away. You know, I would say, but I think I've said this in the last couple of calls. I'm really fixated on the U.S. on our own DTC. Not because it's the only thing that matters, it is more than half the brand, half the business is our U.S. business, but just because I think we're, you're gonna see stuff there first. We already started to see it last quarter, as you know. You know, the excitement around the brand is gonna show up first where you have the greatest number of new products, and you know, and I originally thought, "Well, maybe we'll see it in wholesale first 'cause they can curate faster 'cause they're. Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't answer that right away. yeah i'm sorry i didn't answer that right away You know, I would say, but I think I've said this in the last couple of calls. you know i would say but i think i've said this in the last couple of calls I'm really fixated on the U.S. on our own DTC. i'm really fixated on the u.s on our own dtc Not because it's the only thing that matters, it is more than half the brand, half the business is our U.S. business, but just because I think we're, you're gonna see stuff there first. not because it's the only thing that matters it is more than half the brand half the business is our u.s business but just because i think we're you're gonna see stuff there first We already started to see it last quarter, as you know. we already started to see it last quarter as you know You know, the excitement around the brand is gonna show up first where you have the greatest number of new products, and you know, and I originally thought, "Well, maybe we'll see it in wholesale first 'cause they can curate faster 'cause they're. you know the excitement around the brand is gonna show up first where you have the greatest number of new products and you know and i originally thought "well maybe we'll see it in wholesale first 'cause they can curate faster 'cause they're We'll have a few new products coming, and they'll be able to curate their assortment and get a bigger proportion of that. That's not exactly the way I think it really has worked. I think it's the opposite. I mean. It's taken longer, but I think where we could bring a broader assortment of new products, where you could really see what's coming and see it in the context of apparel. That's where we're starting to see it. E-com, I think, went positive for the first time last quarter in the U.S. I think you're going to continue to see great progress in the U.S. market, both e-com and brick and mortar. The rest of the world will be slow. We'll have a few new products coming, and they'll be able to curate their assortment and get a bigger proportion of that. we'll have a few new products coming and they'll be able to curate their assortment and get a bigger proportion of that That's not exactly the way I think it really has worked. that's not exactly the way i think it really has worked I think it's the opposite. i think it's the opposite I mean. i mean It's taken longer, but I think where we could bring a broader assortment of new products, where you could really see what's coming and see it in the context of apparel. it's taken longer but i think where we could bring a broader assortment of new products where you could really see what's coming and see it in the context of apparel That's where we're starting to see it. that's where we're starting to see it E-com, I think, went positive for the first time last quarter in the U.S. e-com i think went positive for the first time last quarter in the u.s I think you're going to continue to see great progress in the U.S. market, both e-com and brick and mortar. i think you're going to continue to see great progress in the u.s market both e-com and brick and mortar The rest of the world will be slow. the rest of the world will be slow I mean, I think APAC will be very slow because the brand was never well established there. I think our sales there are really built on kind of retail momentum and e-com momentum more than fundamentals. I don't expect magic in APAC. I think EMEA will be somewhere in between. EMEA, we do have a strong brand there, but not as strong as the U.S. Keep your eyes on the U.S., that's where the action is. I mean, I think APAC will be very slow because the brand was never well established there. i mean i think apac will be very slow because the brand was never well established there I think our sales there are really built on kind of retail momentum and e-com momentum more than fundamentals. i think our sales there are really built on kind of retail momentum and e-com momentum more than fundamentals I don't expect magic in APAC. i don't expect magic in apac I think EMEA will be somewhere in between. i think emea will be somewhere in between EMEA, we do have a strong brand there, but not as strong as the U.S. emea we do have a strong brand there but not as strong as the u.s Keep your eyes on the U.S., that's where the action is. keep your eyes on the u.s that's where the action is

Speaker 4: Got it. You referenced some management changes within The North Face. Maybe talk about what prompted those changes, what you're looking for to drive momentum in that brand. Anything that needs fixing? What are you looking for new leadership to do? Got it. got it You referenced some management changes within The North Face. you referenced some management changes within the north face Maybe talk about what prompted those changes, what you're looking for to drive momentum in that brand. maybe talk about what prompted those changes what you're looking for to drive momentum in that brand Anything that needs fixing? anything that needs fixing What are you looking for new leadership to do? what are you looking for new leadership to do

Speaker 2: You know, first of all, this was a plan, so we've had this for a while, and The North Face business is in good shape. You know, you've seen the growth quarter by quarter, and we expect it to look something like that all the way through next year. We feel good about where we are in The North Face. What I do think we'll get from Chris, which is exciting, is he's somebody who comes in with a direct commercial background and a direct merchandising background, which is a little different from a lot of the presidents that go into these jobs. You know, first of all, this was a plan, so we've had this for a while, and The North Face business is in good shape. you know first of all this was a plan so we've had this for a while and the north face business is in good shape You know, you've seen the growth quarter by quarter, and we expect it to look something like that all the way through next year. you know you've seen the growth quarter by quarter and we expect it to look something like that all the way through next year We feel good about where we are in The North Face. we feel good about where we are in the north face What I do think we'll get from Chris, which is exciting, is he's somebody who comes in with a direct commercial background and a direct merchandising background, which is a little different from a lot of the presidents that go into these jobs. what i do think we'll get from chris which is exciting is he's somebody who comes in with a direct commercial background and a direct merchandising background which is a little different from a lot of the presidents that go into these jobs Many of them in this industry don't have both of that combination of practical commercial experience, you know, delivering the numbers, making sure you know what the assortment ought to be by channel, even by retailer and at the same time have a really strong merchandising background. I mean, this business is a product business. If you don't have great product, you're not gonna win. So he's got that rare combination of both, and I think he's gonna bring a really good touch to that, probably a simplifying touch to that. The North Face is a big, healthy brand, but it's also complex, and I wanna keep simplifying it. Even as we expand into 65 days a year, expand into more and more women's product, elevate more of our product. Many of them in this industry don't have both of that combination of practical commercial experience, you know, delivering the numbers, making sure you know what the assortment ought to be by channel, even by retailer and at the same time have a really strong merchandising background. many of them in this industry don't have both of that combination of practical commercial experience you know delivering the numbers making sure you know what the assortment ought to be by channel even by retailer and at the same time have a really strong merchandising background I mean, this business is a product business. i mean this business is a product business If you don't have great product, you're not gonna win. if you don't have great product you're not gonna win So he's got that rare combination of both, and I think he's gonna bring a really good touch to that, probably a simplifying touch to that. so he's got that rare combination of both and i think he's gonna bring a really good touch to that probably a simplifying touch to that The North Face is a big, healthy brand, but it's also complex, and I wanna keep simplifying it. the north face is a big healthy brand but it's also complex and i wanna keep simplifying it Even as we expand into 65 days a year, expand into more and more women's product, elevate more of our product. even as we expand into 65 days a year expand into more and more women's product elevate more of our product You know, it's working. We're doing that now, but we can do that and make it more transparent to consumers. You know, it's working. you know it's working We're doing that now, but we can do that and make it more transparent to consumers. we're doing that now but we can do that and make it more transparent to consumers

Speaker 4: We touched on two. Let's go for the third, Timberland. What are you seeing? What are you looking for? This brand certainly has some momentum. How do you think about the longer term growth opportunities at Timberland? What is it that drives that momentum? We touched on two. we touched on two Let's go for the third, Timberland. let's go for the third timberland What are you seeing? what are you seeing What are you looking for? what are you looking for This brand certainly has some momentum. this brand certainly has some momentum How do you think about the longer term growth opportunities at Timberland? how do you think about the longer term growth opportunities at timberland What is it that drives that momentum? what is it that drives that momentum

Speaker 2: I mean, it's really cool. Being a part of this business is so cool 'cause each brand has a really defined challenge. You know what? The challenge of The North Face is, how do we double that thing when it's already so big? The answer is, boy, do we have a lot of opportunities, and the momentum's with us. The challenge of Vans, of course, is how do we get the momentum back? You know, and it's starting to come back now. You're seeing. You mentioned green shoots earlier. We're selling out of more and more of the new products. I mean, all the new products are working, almost all. I think there's probably almost none. There are very few exceptions. When we launch something, it really sells out. We've got to have. I mean, it's really cool. i mean it's really cool Being a part of this business is so cool 'cause each brand has a really defined challenge. being a part of this business is so cool 'cause each brand has a really defined challenge You know what? you know what The challenge of The North Face is, how do we double that thing when it's already so big? the challenge of the north face is how do we double that thing when it's already so big The answer is, boy, do we have a lot of opportunities, and the momentum's with us. the answer is boy do we have a lot of opportunities and the momentum's with us The challenge of Vans, of course, is how do we get the momentum back? the challenge of vans of course is how do we get the momentum back You know, and it's starting to come back now. you know and it's starting to come back now You're seeing. you're seeing You mentioned green shoots earlier. you mentioned green shoots earlier We're selling out of more and more of the new products. we're selling out of more and more of the new products I mean, all the new products are working, almost all. i mean all the new products are working almost all I think there's probably almost none. i think there's probably almost none There are very few exceptions. there are very few exceptions When we launch something, it really sells out. when we launch something it really sells out We've got to have. we've got to have Be a little bolder on our buys. Timberland, the story is how do we get this incredibly strong momentum we have on the brand and how do we make sure it transfers into other products beyond that yellow boot everybody's so familiar with? We're going to do that. We've got a great plan to do it. We've got a great team to do it. We're starting to do it. If you keep an eye on our Instagram, you see how we're doing it. We're not going to let up on making sure that we're selling that yellow boot and the black boot, but we're going to keep bringing it into new things in both footwear and apparel. That's a challenge. I feel good about it. That's another place where we have a fantastic team, great marketing, great products. Just stay tuned. Be a little bolder on our buys. be a little bolder on our buys Timberland, the story is how do we get this incredibly strong momentum we have on the brand and how do we make sure it transfers into other products beyond that yellow boot everybody's so familiar with? timberland the story is how do we get this incredibly strong momentum we have on the brand and how do we make sure it transfers into other products beyond that yellow boot everybody's so familiar with We're going to do that. we're going to do that We've got a great plan to do it. we've got a great plan to do it We've got a great team to do it. we've got a great team to do it We're starting to do it. we're starting to do it If you keep an eye on our Instagram, you see how we're doing it. if you keep an eye on our instagram you see how we're doing it We're not going to let up on making sure that we're selling that yellow boot and the black boot, but we're going to keep bringing it into new things in both footwear and apparel. we're not going to let up on making sure that we're selling that yellow boot and the black boot but we're going to keep bringing it into new things in both footwear and apparel That's a challenge. that's a challenge I feel good about it. i feel good about it That's another place where we have a fantastic team, great marketing, great products. that's another place where we have a fantastic team great marketing great products Just stay tuned. just stay tuned It's going to be fun to watch. It's going to be fun to watch. it's going to be fun to watch

Speaker 4: Maybe we'll give one to Paul, just to give you a break, Pac. Maybe we'll give one to Paul, just to give you a break, Pac. maybe we'll give one to paul just to give you a break pac

Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 4: You guys have committed to a 10% EBIT margin by 2028. At the time you gave that guidance, since then, we've had Liberation Day, we've had the SCOTUS decision, we've had a few curve balls. Maybe talk about, you know, where you feel you're on track towards hitting that goal, maybe where you're running above, if there's any places that you're running behind, just as we look out to hitting that 10% target. You guys have committed to a 10% EBIT margin by 2028. you guys have committed to a 10% ebit margin by 2028 At the time you gave that guidance, since then, we've had Liberation Day, we've had the SCOTUS decision, we've had a few curve balls. at the time you gave that guidance since then we've had liberation day we've had the scotus decision we've had a few curve balls Maybe talk about, you know, where you feel you're on track towards hitting that goal, maybe where you're running above, if there's any places that you're running behind, just as we look out to hitting that 10% target. maybe talk about you know where you feel you're on track towards hitting that goal maybe where you're running above if there's any places that you're running behind just as we look out to hitting that 10% target

Speaker 3: Yeah. We definitely feel still feel very good about the targets we put out. You know, if you kind of break it down, you know, the fiscal 2028 number, the exit run rate number was, you kind of premised on flat growth on fiscal 2024, right? We do need a little bit of revenue growth in there. Not a ton, but a little bit to get back to sort of what we said flat from that point. We expect to get that. Second on the gross margin side, you know, we said 55%. We're pretty close to it now, if you kinda look at where we're gonna end the year, based on how we've done for the first three quarters and then for Q4. We're pretty close to there. Yeah. yeah We definitely feel still feel very good about the targets we put out. we definitely feel still feel very good about the targets we put out You know, if you kind of break it down, you know, the fiscal 2028 number, the exit run rate number was, you kind of premised on flat growth on fiscal 2024, right? you know if you kind of break it down you know the fiscal 2028 number the exit run rate number was you kind of premised on flat growth on fiscal 2024 right We do need a little bit of revenue growth in there. we do need a little bit of revenue growth in there Not a ton, but a little bit to get back to sort of what we said flat from that point. not a ton but a little bit to get back to sort of what we said flat from that point We expect to get that. we expect to get that Second on the gross margin side, you know, we said 55%. second on the gross margin side you know we said 55% We're pretty close to it now, if you kinda look at where we're gonna end the year, based on how we've done for the first three quarters and then for Q4. we're pretty close to it now if you kinda look at where we're gonna end the year based on how we've done for the first three quarters and then for q4 We're pretty close to there. we're pretty close to there I think we're, you know, definitely on track, if not ahead of track, on the gross margin side. On the SG&A side, we're right on track there as well, right? You'll see, you know, leverage each year. You're starting to see some leverage. I think you'll see incrementally more leverage as we go on. We feel good about it. Not only that, you know, we're generating free cash flow and positive free cash flow. We said it would be up this year. It will be up this year, which is great. We've been able to pay down the debt. I think we're, you know, definitely on track, if not ahead of track, on the gross margin side. i think we're you know definitely on track if not ahead of track on the gross margin side On the SG&A side, we're right on track there as well, right? on the sg&a side we're right on track there as well right You'll see, you know, leverage each year. you'll see you know leverage each year You're starting to see some leverage. you're starting to see some leverage I think you'll see incrementally more leverage as we go on. i think you'll see incrementally more leverage as we go on We feel good about it. we feel good about it Not only that, you know, we're generating free cash flow and positive free cash flow. not only that you know we're generating free cash flow and positive free cash flow We said it would be up this year. we said it would be up this year It will be up this year, which is great. it will be up this year which is great We've been able to pay down the debt. we've been able to pay down the debt We said our debt would be below, you know, 3.5 times or below at the end of the year, so we're on track to hit that 2.5 times at the end of fiscal 2028 that we talked about. You know, so we feel like we're just kinda systematically, you know, checking off all the things we said we're going to do. We feel really good about it and, you know, we'll just continue to execute. We said our debt would be below, you know, 3.5 times or below at the end of the year, so we're on track to hit that 2.5 times at the end of fiscal 2028 that we talked about. we said our debt would be below you know 3.5 times or below at the end of the year so we're on track to hit that 2.5 times at the end of fiscal 2028 that we talked about You know, so we feel like we're just kinda systematically, you know, checking off all the things we said we're going to do. you know so we feel like we're just kinda systematically you know checking off all the things we said we're going to do We feel really good about it and, you know, we'll just continue to execute. we feel really good about it and you know we'll just continue to execute

Speaker 4: Can you maybe talk about some of the puts and takes on gross margins, as we look out to next year? Just it's a complex business, a lot of moving pieces. Maybe talk about what's working for you, what's working against you. I'd love to also know, well, if there is any low-hanging fruit on the SG&A side that you can still kinda extract? Can you maybe talk about some of the puts and takes on gross margins, as we look out to next year? can you maybe talk about some of the puts and takes on gross margins as we look out to next year Just it's a complex business, a lot of moving pieces. just it's a complex business a lot of moving pieces Maybe talk about what's working for you, what's working against you. maybe talk about what's working for you what's working against you I'd love to also know, well, if there is any low-hanging fruit on the SG&A side that you can still kinda extract? i'd love to also know well if there is any low-hanging fruit on the sg&a side that you can still kinda extract

Speaker 3: Yeah. On the gross margin side, obviously, the tariffs are obviously running through. We've talked about we'll be able to mitigate it within fiscal 2027, so maybe not for all of fiscal 2027, but within fiscal 2027, we'll be on that rate. I feel like we're projecting where we'd want to be, right? We said that pricing really wasn't a factor in Q3. We'll have some impact on Q4 in terms of helping mitigate it and moving forward. You know, with all that, we've been able to, you know, deliver kinda at or better than expected gross margin, so that's been really great. On the margin side, obviously, we're always working on sourcing and supply chain, all those things, just trying to continue to get incrementally better there. Yeah. yeah On the gross margin side, obviously, the tariffs are obviously running through. on the gross margin side obviously the tariffs are obviously running through We've talked about we'll be able to mitigate it within fiscal 2027, so maybe not for all of fiscal 2027, but within fiscal 2027, we'll be on that rate. we've talked about we'll be able to mitigate it within fiscal 2027 so maybe not for all of fiscal 2027 but within fiscal 2027 we'll be on that rate I feel like we're projecting where we'd want to be, right? i feel like we're projecting where we'd want to be right We said that pricing really wasn't a factor in Q3. we said that pricing really wasn't a factor in q3 We'll have some impact on Q4 in terms of helping mitigate it and moving forward. we'll have some impact on q4 in terms of helping mitigate it and moving forward You know, with all that, we've been able to, you know, deliver kinda at or better than expected gross margin, so that's been really great. you know with all that we've been able to you know deliver kinda at or better than expected gross margin so that's been really great On the margin side, obviously, we're always working on sourcing and supply chain, all those things, just trying to continue to get incrementally better there. on the margin side obviously we're always working on sourcing and supply chain all those things just trying to continue to get incrementally better there You know, so much just you know, selling more, you know, full priced items, right? The more we can sell full priced items, be a little less promotional has also helped. That's kinda been the mix that's gone into the gross margin. I would say, really good job on the supply chain sourcing side. We're going to have the ability to mitigate the tariffs the way we thought, and we're starting to do a better job on sort of selling full price on the gross margin side. On the SG&A side, I don't know if there's any more low-hanging fruit. You know, so much just you know, selling more, you know, full priced items, right? you know so much just you know selling more you know full priced items right The more we can sell full priced items, be a little less promotional has also helped. the more we can sell full priced items be a little less promotional has also helped That's kinda been the mix that's gone into the gross margin. that's kinda been the mix that's gone into the gross margin I would say, really good job on the supply chain sourcing side. i would say really good job on the supply chain sourcing side We're going to have the ability to mitigate the tariffs the way we thought, and we're starting to do a better job on sort of selling full price on the gross margin side. we're going to have the ability to mitigate the tariffs the way we thought and we're starting to do a better job on sort of selling full price on the gross margin side On the SG&A side, I don't know if there's any more low-hanging fruit. on the sg&a side i don't know if there's any more low-hanging fruit I think it's just I mean, SG&A is just a, you know, a day in, day out, year in, year out, line items that you just have to pay attention to, right? I think in our case, obviously, we're trying to return to growth, so we need to be very thoughtful and strategic about our SG&A. Then when you return to growth, it's like, how do you not get ahead of your skis? All of a sudden, you start seeing real growth. It's easy to, you know, kinda, you know, take the foot off the gas in terms of the discipline you want on the SG&A side. I think we're in that position now where, you know, hopefully we're going to return to growth. Obviously, we'll be up, you know, this year, just a little bit, but we'll be up. I think it's just I mean, SG&A is just a, you know, a day in, day out, year in, year out, line items that you just have to pay attention to, right? i think it's just i mean sg&a is just a you know a day in day out year in year out line items that you just have to pay attention to right I think in our case, obviously, we're trying to return to growth, so we need to be very thoughtful and strategic about our SG&A. i think in our case obviously we're trying to return to growth so we need to be very thoughtful and strategic about our sg&a Then when you return to growth, it's like, how do you not get ahead of your skis? then when you return to growth it's like how do you not get ahead of your skis All of a sudden, you start seeing real growth. all of a sudden you start seeing real growth It's easy to, you know, kinda, you know, take the foot off the gas in terms of the discipline you want on the SG&A side. it's easy to you know kinda you know take the foot off the gas in terms of the discipline you want on the sg&a side I think we're in that position now where, you know, hopefully we're going to return to growth. i think we're in that position now where you know hopefully we're going to return to growth Obviously, we'll be up, you know, this year, just a little bit, but we'll be up. obviously we'll be up you know this year just a little bit but we'll be up you know, so it's, you know, continue to just show that discipline. I think that's where we're headed on the SG&A side. you know, so it's, you know, continue to just show that discipline. you know so it's you know continue to just show that discipline I think that's where we're headed on the SG&A side. i think that's where we're headed on the sg&a side

Speaker 4: Helpful. In the U.S. specifically, if you know, if we were sitting here two weeks ago, I might have asked you know, how are you thinking about refunds coming back to the U.S. consumer, and how much of a driver, you know, can that be to the business, if you're even really thinking about it, as a driver in yours? Now we're sitting here with some pretty, you know, crazy fluctuations on oil. Talk to us about the U.S. consumer, the macro, how that sort of pervades your view of growth across brands. Helpful. helpful In the U.S. specifically, if you know, if we were sitting here two weeks ago, I might have asked you know, how are you thinking about refunds coming back to the U.S. consumer, and how much of a driver, you know, can that be to the business, if you're even really thinking about it, as a driver in yours? in the u.s specifically if you know if we were sitting here two weeks ago i might have asked you know how are you thinking about refunds coming back to the u.s consumer and how much of a driver you know can that be to the business if you're even really thinking about it as a driver in yours Now we're sitting here with some pretty, you know, crazy fluctuations on oil. now we're sitting here with some pretty you know crazy fluctuations on oil Talk to us about the U.S. consumer, the macro, how that sort of pervades your view of growth across brands. talk to us about the u.s consumer the macro how that sort of pervades your view of growth across brands

Speaker 2: You know, I think generally speaking, you know, I think I said this six months ago or something, that the U.S. consumer's been stubbornly positive, you know? I don't know, you know, the best predictor of the future is usually the past, and I think that's probably gonna continue. We don't expect robust, you know, consumer growth ahead, but, you know, we don't need much. I mean, we have so much in our control. You know, we started by talking about Vans, you know. We have so much in our control to make sure we're really executing well, and we have a lot of things we're improving right now in all three brands. You know, I think generally speaking, you know, I think I said this six months ago or something, that the U.S. consumer's been stubbornly positive, you know? you know i think generally speaking you know i think i said this six months ago or something that the u.s consumer's been stubbornly positive you know I don't know, you know, the best predictor of the future is usually the past, and I think that's probably gonna continue. i don't know you know the best predictor of the future is usually the past and i think that's probably gonna continue We don't expect robust, you know, consumer growth ahead, but, you know, we don't need much. we don't expect robust you know consumer growth ahead but you know we don't need much I mean, we have so much in our control. i mean we have so much in our control You know, we started by talking about Vans, you know. you know we started by talking about vans you know We have so much in our control to make sure we're really executing well, and we have a lot of things we're improving right now in all three brands. we have so much in our control to make sure we're really executing well and we have a lot of things we're improving right now in all three brands I don't think we're very dependent on how good or bad the macro is in the U.S. to have a good business. We should have a good business regardless. I'm not saying no matter what. I mean, if things got really bad for some reason, it would be different, but they haven't, and it feels like we're probably going to keep going about the same way. We'll see. You know, nobody can really predict with this war right now in Iran. It's really unpredictable. I'm quite optimistic. You know, I think we have a lot of things in our control. I don't think we're very dependent on how good or bad the macro is in the U.S. to have a good business. i don't think we're very dependent on how good or bad the macro is in the u.s to have a good business We should have a good business regardless. we should have a good business regardless I'm not saying no matter what. i'm not saying no matter what I mean, if things got really bad for some reason, it would be different, but they haven't, and it feels like we're probably going to keep going about the same way. i mean if things got really bad for some reason it would be different but they haven't and it feels like we're probably going to keep going about the same way We'll see. we'll see You know, nobody can really predict with this war right now in Iran. you know nobody can really predict with this war right now in iran It's really unpredictable. it's really unpredictable I'm quite optimistic. i'm quite optimistic You know, I think we have a lot of things in our control. you know i think we have a lot of things in our control

Speaker 4: How about some of the other geographies? Obviously, you're a global business. Can you talk to us about Europe, talk to us about Asia, how you're looking at the macro, the backdrop that you're playing under. How about some of the other geographies? how about some of the other geographies Obviously, you're a global business. obviously you're a global business Can you talk to us about Europe, talk to us about Asia, how you're looking at the macro, the backdrop that you're playing under. can you talk to us about europe talk to us about asia how you're looking at the macro the backdrop that you're playing under

Speaker 2: Yeah, I think EMEA is tougher. You know, now I generalize, and I apologize to all the Europeans out there for having another American talk about Europe. I think Europe is always a little more, takes things a little harder and takes good news a little softer, you know? I think probably the challenge over there is, you know, the Middle East is closer there, and I think they probably feel it more every day than we do a little bit. They've got two wars happening in the Middle East right now, or two battlegrounds happening in the Middle East. Three in Europe and the Middle East put together if you add Ukraine, which of course you have to. Yeah, I think EMEA is tougher. yeah i think emea is tougher You know, now I generalize, and I apologize to all the Europeans out there for having another American talk about Europe. you know now i generalize and i apologize to all the europeans out there for having another american talk about europe I think Europe is always a little more, takes things a little harder and takes good news a little softer, you know? i think europe is always a little more takes things a little harder and takes good news a little softer you know I think probably the challenge over there is, you know, the Middle East is closer there, and I think they probably feel it more every day than we do a little bit. i think probably the challenge over there is you know the middle east is closer there and i think they probably feel it more every day than we do a little bit They've got two wars happening in the Middle East right now, or two battlegrounds happening in the Middle East. they've got two wars happening in the middle east right now or two battlegrounds happening in the middle east Three in Europe and the Middle East put together if you add Ukraine, which of course you have to. three in europe and the middle east put together if you add ukraine which of course you have to There's just a lot going on over there, so I think it's a little rougher over there. Again, you know, our business is okay over there. You know, there's nothing too alarming, and I think it's been okay. I think we're almost, and maybe Europeans too, almost desensitized to all the challenging news, you know, which in a way from a business standpoint is kind of a good thing. APAC's different. APAC, it feels like it operates more in isolation, and it's a much smaller part of our business. The one thing you do know is there is nothing happening in the Middle East right now from a business standpoint, you know. Now, the good news for us is. There's just a lot going on over there, so I think it's a little rougher over there. there's just a lot going on over there so i think it's a little rougher over there Again, you know, our business is okay over there. again you know our business is okay over there You know, there's nothing too alarming, and I think it's been okay. you know there's nothing too alarming and i think it's been okay I think we're almost, and maybe Europeans too, almost desensitized to all the challenging news, you know, which in a way from a business standpoint is kind of a good thing. i think we're almost and maybe europeans too almost desensitized to all the challenging news you know which in a way from a business standpoint is kind of a good thing APAC's different. apac's different APAC, it feels like it operates more in isolation, and it's a much smaller part of our business. apac it feels like it operates more in isolation and it's a much smaller part of our business The one thing you do know is there is nothing happening in the Middle East right now from a business standpoint, you know. the one thing you do know is there is nothing happening in the middle east right now from a business standpoint you know Now, the good news for us is. now the good news for us is The good news right now for us is that's a really small part of our business, but it's a lot of potential out there, so one day we'll get that back. Yeah, I think generally speaking, you know, outside of, especially Europe, probably will feel it more. The good news right now for us is that's a really small part of our business, but it's a lot of potential out there, so one day we'll get that back. the good news right now for us is that's a really small part of our business but it's a lot of potential out there so one day we'll get that back Yeah, I think generally speaking, you know, outside of, especially Europe, probably will feel it more. yeah i think generally speaking you know outside of especially europe probably will feel it more

Speaker 4: Maybe talk to us about tariffs. You know, we've obviously had some fluctuations, right, with recent in recent weeks. Maybe talk to us about how you kind of changed and adjusted to the higher tariff world and what sort of changes you might be making now if, you know, if any. I'd love to hear also, you know, what your plan is if we are operating in a lower tariff environment. Does it mean anything for you in terms of pricing and how you think about, you know, what you put in front of the customer from a price point perspective? How did that change? Maybe talk to us about tariffs. maybe talk to us about tariffs You know, we've obviously had some fluctuations, right, with recent in recent weeks. you know we've obviously had some fluctuations right with recent in recent weeks Maybe talk to us about how you kind of changed and adjusted to the higher tariff world and what sort of changes you might be making now if, you know, if any. maybe talk to us about how you kind of changed and adjusted to the higher tariff world and what sort of changes you might be making now if you know if any I'd love to hear also, you know, what your plan is if we are operating in a lower tariff environment. i'd love to hear also you know what your plan is if we are operating in a lower tariff environment Does it mean anything for you in terms of pricing and how you think about, you know, what you put in front of the customer from a price point perspective? does it mean anything for you in terms of pricing and how you think about you know what you put in front of the customer from a price point perspective How did that change? how did that change

Speaker 2: I'll go first and then Paul, why don't you pick it up from here. You know, I think first of all, we adjusted very fast to the tariffs. I mean, we, as I think you all know, we've been very practical and said, you know, "Well, the tariffs just aren't gonna affect our business as imposed before the Supreme Court decision. You know, they're not going to impact our business by the middle of next fiscal year 'cause we're going to offset them between cost reductions and pricing," and we're well on track to do that. Now after the Supreme Court decision, we're operating as if that Supreme Court decision didn't happen because we're not going to count on anything. We don't believe in luck, you know. We'll see. You know, if that happens, it'll be great. I'll go first and then Paul, why don't you pick it up from here. i'll go first and then paul why don't you pick it up from here You know, I think first of all, we adjusted very fast to the tariffs. you know i think first of all we adjusted very fast to the tariffs I mean, we, as I think you all know, we've been very practical and said, you know, "Well, the tariffs just aren't gonna affect our business as imposed before the Supreme Court decision. i mean we as i think you all know we've been very practical and said you know "well the tariffs just aren't gonna affect our business as imposed before the supreme court decision You know, they're not going to impact our business by the middle of next fiscal year 'cause we're going to offset them between cost reductions and pricing," and we're well on track to do that. you know they're not going to impact our business by the middle of next fiscal year 'cause we're going to offset them between cost reductions and pricing," and we're well on track to do that Now after the Supreme Court decision, we're operating as if that Supreme Court decision didn't happen because we're not going to count on anything. now after the supreme court decision we're operating as if that supreme court decision didn't happen because we're not going to count on anything We don't believe in luck, you know. we don't believe in luck you know We'll see. we'll see You know, if that happens, it'll be great. you know if that happens it'll be great If it doesn't, we'll be fine. If it doesn't, we'll be fine. if it doesn't we'll be fine

Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't know there's much more to add on that. I think, we're operating as if nothing's changed, right? In terms of we, you know, and if things change down the line, we'll adjust. You know, we've acted very quickly. We work closely with our suppliers. We've been very thoughtful about how we're gonna raise prices, and it's very different by brand. It's very different by product by brand. For us, it's just sort of status quo. You know, I think when there's this level of uncertainty, you just kind of stay the course and unless something, you know, is definitively changing. Yeah, I mean, I don't know there's much more to add on that. yeah i mean i don't know there's much more to add on that I think, we're operating as if nothing's changed, right? i think we're operating as if nothing's changed right In terms of we, you know, and if things change down the line, we'll adjust. in terms of we you know and if things change down the line we'll adjust You know, we've acted very quickly. you know we've acted very quickly We work closely with our suppliers. we work closely with our suppliers We've been very thoughtful about how we're gonna raise prices, and it's very different by brand. we've been very thoughtful about how we're gonna raise prices and it's very different by brand It's very different by product by brand. it's very different by product by brand For us, it's just sort of status quo. for us it's just sort of status quo You know, I think when there's this level of uncertainty, you just kind of stay the course and unless something, you know, is definitively changing. you know i think when there's this level of uncertainty you just kind of stay the course and unless something you know is definitively changing

Speaker 4: If we were in a refund situation where you would actually get something back, what is that number? What did you pay under IEEPA tariffs? You know, if you do have some money coming back to you, what is the- If we were in a refund situation where you would actually get something back, what is that number? if we were in a refund situation where you would actually get something back what is that number What did you pay under IEEPA tariffs? what did you pay under ieepa tariffs You know, if you do have some money coming back to you, what is the- you know if you do have some money coming back to you what is the-

Speaker 3: Yeah, we haven't disclosed that number. I don't think we have, right, Allegra? We probably can. I just, we haven't done it, so it'd have to be. I don't know the exact number. It's, I mean, look, it's not immaterial. I mean, it's real money. Again, we're at this point, we're not counting on it. If everything goes through and it turns out that we get the money back, great. At this point, we're assuming, again, no change to anything. Yeah, we haven't disclosed that number. yeah we haven't disclosed that number I don't think we have, right, Allegra? i don't think we have right allegra We probably can. we probably can I just, we haven't done it, so it'd have to be. i just we haven't done it so it'd have to be I don't know the exact number. i don't know the exact number It's, I mean, look, it's not immaterial. it's i mean look it's not immaterial I mean, it's real money. i mean it's real money Again, we're at this point, we're not counting on it. again we're at this point we're not counting on it If everything goes through and it turns out that we get the money back, great. if everything goes through and it turns out that we get the money back great At this point, we're assuming, again, no change to anything. at this point we're assuming again no change to anything

Speaker 2: We're also not assuming, going back to your first question, that this decision's going to have any material effect on pricing in absolute terms or relative to other companies. We're also not assuming, going back to your first question, that this decision's going to have any material effect on pricing in absolute terms or relative to other companies. we're also not assuming going back to your first question that this decision's going to have any material effect on pricing in absolute terms or relative to other companies

Speaker 4: Got it. You've made some changes from an organizational structure. Maybe you can talk to us about those, how it's allowed you maybe to be a little bit faster, speed to market, the positives and the benefits from those changes. Got it. got it You've made some changes from an organizational structure. you've made some changes from an organizational structure Maybe you can talk to us about those, how it's allowed you maybe to be a little bit faster, speed to market, the positives and the benefits from those changes. maybe you can talk to us about those how it's allowed you maybe to be a little bit faster speed to market the positives and the benefits from those changes

Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I kinda opened with that. We've made a series of changes, and we're going to continue to make changes. You know, you know, I personally love being close to the brands and close to the commercial teams, and those are the two areas where I probably feel like I can add the most value. I always think about how I can make sure that I get to be close to those leaders who are leading those parts of the business, and some of these changes are directly on that. I also think, you know, you're never done. Yeah, you know, I kinda opened with that. yeah you know i kinda opened with that We've made a series of changes, and we're going to continue to make changes. we've made a series of changes and we're going to continue to make changes You know, you know, I personally love being close to the brands and close to the commercial teams, and those are the two areas where I probably feel like I can add the most value. you know you know i personally love being close to the brands and close to the commercial teams and those are the two areas where i probably feel like i can add the most value I always think about how I can make sure that I get to be close to those leaders who are leading those parts of the business, and some of these changes are directly on that. i always think about how i can make sure that i get to be close to those leaders who are leading those parts of the business and some of these changes are directly on that I also think, you know, you're never done. i also think you know you're never done You know, we have a very deep and rigorous succession planning process, so you've gotta always have a plan for, you know, where are you going next, who are you developing, who are those people? We've got such an ambitious program for developing people inside the company. That's a key part of every change we make. You know, I'm really excited about the path that our chief people officer Brent Hyder had and Tyler has. We've got a new chief people officer in place now. He was promoted internally, just like Chris Goble was into the North Bay. I'm really excited about you know, really the people development part of our model. You know, we have a very deep and rigorous succession planning process, so you've gotta always have a plan for, you know, where are you going next, who are you developing, who are those people? you know we have a very deep and rigorous succession planning process so you've gotta always have a plan for you know where are you going next who are you developing who are those people We've got such an ambitious program for developing people inside the company. we've got such an ambitious program for developing people inside the company That's a key part of every change we make. that's a key part of every change we make You know, I'm really excited about the path that our chief people officer Brent Hyder had and Tyler has. you know i'm really excited about the path that our chief people officer brent hyder had and tyler has We've got a new chief people officer in place now. we've got a new chief people officer in place now He was promoted internally, just like Chris Goble was into the North Bay. he was promoted internally just like chris goble was into the north bay I'm really excited about you know, really the people development part of our model. i'm really excited about you know really the people development part of our model It's going to get stronger and stronger, and we're already able to attract really great talent, and I think we're going to keep that talent and grow talent internally a lot more now. So yeah, overall the changes are, you know, they're beginning to be kinda table stakes every quarter, every year for us. It's just part of it, but it's a lot of internal promotion. It's going to get stronger and stronger, and we're already able to attract really great talent, and I think we're going to keep that talent and grow talent internally a lot more now. it's going to get stronger and stronger and we're already able to attract really great talent and i think we're going to keep that talent and grow talent internally a lot more now So yeah, overall the changes are, you know, they're beginning to be kinda table stakes every quarter, every year for us. so yeah overall the changes are you know they're beginning to be kinda table stakes every quarter every year for us It's just part of it, but it's a lot of internal promotion. it's just part of it but it's a lot of internal promotion

Speaker 4: AI is a hot topic. We're hosting a lunch today on that topic exactly. Curious how you're using AI in your business to find efficiencies, how are you using it today versus what you see in the future. How is it helping you, if at all, right now? What kind of changes do you expect on the AI front? AI is a hot topic. ai is a hot topic We're hosting a lunch today on that topic exactly. we're hosting a lunch today on that topic exactly Curious how you're using AI in your business to find efficiencies, how are you using it today versus what you see in the future. curious how you're using ai in your business to find efficiencies how are you using it today versus what you see in the future How is it helping you, if at all, right now? how is it helping you if at all right now What kind of changes do you expect on the AI front? what kind of changes do you expect on the ai front

Speaker 2: I'll start and again hand it off to you, Paul. You know, we've got a very ambitious agenda for AI like most companies do or should. You know, I mean, the obvious places you see it are in places like customer service where it's a direct cost reduction and efficiency play. But we probably have, I don't know, 14, 15, 16 different AI projects across virtually every part of our business. All of them are relatively small today. We're investing aggressively in AI across the board. We think it's the game changer people are thinking it is. We're also aware that, you know, we don't see anybody who's really done anything remarkably transformative yet in this industry. We're hesitant to talk too much about what we're doing until we have real proof, you know? I'll start and again hand it off to you, Paul. i'll start and again hand it off to you paul You know, we've got a very ambitious agenda for AI like most companies do or should. you know we've got a very ambitious agenda for ai like most companies do or should You know, I mean, the obvious places you see it are in places like customer service where it's a direct cost reduction and efficiency play. you know i mean the obvious places you see it are in places like customer service where it's a direct cost reduction and efficiency play But we probably have, I don't know, 14, 15, 16 different AI projects across virtually every part of our business. but we probably have i don't know 14 15 16 different ai projects across virtually every part of our business All of them are relatively small today. all of them are relatively small today We're investing aggressively in AI across the board. we're investing aggressively in ai across the board We think it's the game changer people are thinking it is. we think it's the game changer people are thinking it is We're also aware that, you know, we don't see anybody who's really done anything remarkably transformative yet in this industry. we're also aware that you know we don't see anybody who's really done anything remarkably transformative yet in this industry We're hesitant to talk too much about what we're doing until we have real proof, you know? we're hesitant to talk too much about what we're doing until we have real proof you know It's not skepticism on our side at all. It's practical reality. Like, we like to do things than talk about. We probably won't talk too much about what we're up to, but we're excited about what's possible. It's not skepticism on our side at all. it's not skepticism on our side at all It's practical reality. it's practical reality Like, we like to do things than talk about. like we like to do things than talk about We probably won't talk too much about what we're up to, but we're excited about what's possible. we probably won't talk too much about what we're up to but we're excited about what's possible

Speaker 3: Yeah. I would just add, you know, me and Bracken talked about the sort of the brand and the product side and marketing side and for us on the corporate overhead side, you know, there's obvious things there as well, right? Whether you think about finance or HR or the technology side. I mean, in finance in particular, there's just a ton of opportunity there, right? I mean, there's you know, there is a curve to get there, particularly when you've got, you know, as many brands as we do, making sure you've got sort of the data in a place that you can really analyze it the way you want. Yeah. yeah I would just add, you know, me and Bracken talked about the sort of the brand and the product side and marketing side and for us on the corporate overhead side, you know, there's obvious things there as well, right? i would just add you know me and bracken talked about the sort of the brand and the product side and marketing side and for us on the corporate overhead side you know there's obvious things there as well right Whether you think about finance or HR or the technology side. whether you think about finance or hr or the technology side I mean, in finance in particular, there's just a ton of opportunity there, right? i mean in finance in particular there's just a ton of opportunity there right I mean, there's you know, there is a curve to get there, particularly when you've got, you know, as many brands as we do, making sure you've got sort of the data in a place that you can really analyze it the way you want. i mean there's you know there is a curve to get there particularly when you've got you know as many brands as we do making sure you've got sort of the data in a place that you can really analyze it the way you want I mean, there's going to be semantic models where I'll literally, if you ask me a question, I'll just be able to type it right into the chat bot and get the exact answer you want, every number, every trend line, everything with a chart and a picture, and it'll happen automatically. So we're not there yet, but we're not, you know, we're not years and years away from that either. I mean, there's going to be semantic models where I'll literally, if you ask me a question, I'll just be able to type it right into the chat bot and get the exact answer you want, every number, every trend line, everything with a chart and a picture, and it'll happen automatically. i mean there's going to be semantic models where i'll literally if you ask me a question i'll just be able to type it right into the chat bot and get the exact answer you want every number every trend line everything with a chart and a picture and it'll happen automatically So we're not there yet, but we're not, you know, we're not years and years away from that either. so we're not there yet but we're not you know we're not years and years away from that either

Speaker 2: I'll give you one little example of something we just. We have so much going on. This is one tiny example we just introduced last week, a portal, where you can just go in and depending on what kind of thing you're trying to solve, you didn't have to go into the AI engine itself. You go into our portal, you decide what kind of question am I asking. Is it about creativity or is it about analysis? You just go into that, you hit the portal, you ask the question, you get the answer, it goes to the appropriate engine. That's so that we can make sure we shield our data from the broad AI models data, but also that we give people super frictionless access to AI across our company. I'll give you one little example of something we just. i'll give you one little example of something we just We have so much going on. we have so much going on This is one tiny example we just introduced last week, a portal, where you can just go in and depending on what kind of thing you're trying to solve, you didn't have to go into the AI engine itself. this is one tiny example we just introduced last week a portal where you can just go in and depending on what kind of thing you're trying to solve you didn't have to go into the ai engine itself You go into our portal, you decide what kind of question am I asking. you go into our portal you decide what kind of question am i asking Is it about creativity or is it about analysis? is it about creativity or is it about analysis You just go into that, you hit the portal, you ask the question, you get the answer, it goes to the appropriate engine. you just go into that you hit the portal you ask the question you get the answer it goes to the appropriate engine That's so that we can make sure we shield our data from the broad AI models data, but also that we give people super frictionless access to AI across our company. that's so that we can make sure we shield our data from the broad ai models data but also that we give people super frictionless access to ai across our company That's just one tiny example of what we're up to. We're doing a whole bunch of things like that. That's just one tiny example of what we're up to. that's just one tiny example of what we're up to We're doing a whole bunch of things like that. we're doing a whole bunch of things like that

Speaker 4: Yeah. On the AI topic, it kind of moves into just the discussion overall of cash, right? CapEx. Like how much investment, you know, are you having to make on AI? Is that more of a CapEx investment? Does it run through the P&L? Maybe talk about cash flow and priorities for cash in that context. Yeah. yeah On the AI topic, it kind of moves into just the discussion overall of cash, right? on the ai topic it kind of moves into just the discussion overall of cash right CapEx. capex Like how much investment, you know, are you having to make on AI? like how much investment you know are you having to make on ai Is that more of a CapEx investment? is that more of a capex investment Does it run through the P&L? does it run through the p&l Maybe talk about cash flow and priorities for cash in that context. maybe talk about cash flow and priorities for cash in that context

Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, it's not that big right now. I think it'll probably be a combination of both, if I'm being honest. There'll be some long-term projects that we'll capitalize and there'll be some short-term things that'll be just expenses. We're trying to figure out how they are. The numbers right now are not that big, but they will obviously get bigger. That just goes into the broader CapEx strategy we have in general, which is, you know, balancing, you know, our free cash flow with our CapEx, which, you know, within CapEx, the two biggest ones for us are really on the technology side, on the store opening side. Just making sure that as we open stores, we're doing them effectively with a good ROI. Yeah. yeah I mean, it's not that big right now. i mean it's not that big right now I think it'll probably be a combination of both, if I'm being honest. i think it'll probably be a combination of both if i'm being honest There'll be some long-term projects that we'll capitalize and there'll be some short-term things that'll be just expenses. there'll be some long-term projects that we'll capitalize and there'll be some short-term things that'll be just expenses We're trying to figure out how they are. we're trying to figure out how they are The numbers right now are not that big, but they will obviously get bigger. the numbers right now are not that big but they will obviously get bigger That just goes into the broader CapEx strategy we have in general, which is, you know, balancing, you know, our free cash flow with our CapEx, which, you know, within CapEx, the two biggest ones for us are really on the technology side, on the store opening side. that just goes into the broader capex strategy we have in general which is you know balancing you know our free cash flow with our capex which you know within capex the two biggest ones for us are really on the technology side on the store opening side Just making sure that as we open stores, we're doing them effectively with a good ROI. just making sure that as we open stores we're doing them effectively with a good roi As we're building out technology, we're doing it, you know, smartly and efficiently, and then having room to add in the next-gen stuff like AI or other investments we wanna make in other areas where we think there's long-term growth. As we're building out technology, we're doing it, you know, smartly and efficiently, and then having room to add in the next-gen stuff like AI or other investments we wanna make in other areas where we think there's long-term growth. as we're building out technology we're doing it you know smartly and efficiently and then having room to add in the next-gen stuff like ai or other investments we wanna make in other areas where we think there's long-term growth

Speaker 2: I also suspect that the bigger expense long-term is not going to be CapEx, it's going to be expense. The great thing about that is there's so much efficiency in the application of AI to offset that expense and deliver, you know, significant savings on top of it that I think we're going to be really successful in lowering our costs as we invest more in AI. It's a little early to say that with 100% confidence, but say 99%. I feel really strongly about that. There's a sweet spot ahead on this. I also suspect that the bigger expense long-term is not going to be CapEx, it's going to be expense. i also suspect that the bigger expense long-term is not going to be capex it's going to be expense The great thing about that is there's so much efficiency in the application of AI to offset that expense and deliver, you know, significant savings on top of it that I think we're going to be really successful in lowering our costs as we invest more in AI. the great thing about that is there's so much efficiency in the application of ai to offset that expense and deliver you know significant savings on top of it that i think we're going to be really successful in lowering our costs as we invest more in ai It's a little early to say that with 100% confidence, but say 99%. it's a little early to say that with 100% confidence but say 99% I feel really strongly about that. i feel really strongly about that There's a sweet spot ahead on this. there's a sweet spot ahead on this

Speaker 4: I'm curious. Again, it's capital allocation to a certain extent. You've got a history of buying brands. You've got a history of, you know, disposing of brands. Where are you now just in that thought process? What's next, if anything at all? I'm curious. i'm curious Again, it's capital allocation to a certain extent. again it's capital allocation to a certain extent You've got a history of buying brands. you've got a history of buying brands You've got a history of, you know, disposing of brands. you've got a history of you know disposing of brands Where are you now just in that thought process? where are you now just in that thought process What's next, if anything at all? what's next if anything at all

Speaker 2: I'm dominating that one. I'm dominating that one. i'm dominating that one

Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all good. Look, I think a couple things. I think one is we're very committed to getting our leverage down, right? Which we've talked about. You can think of our, from a capital allocation standpoint, any excess cash is going to go towards bringing that leverage ratio down, and that's, you know, we're on that track. We've given you kind of where we're at. You know, until we're, you know, 2.5x or below, I think that probably kinda limits some of where we may go. I'll steal a line that Bracken always uses, we're all here for growth, right? We all wanna grow, and we wanna get this business back to growing. Yeah, it's all good. yeah it's all good Look, I think a couple things. look i think a couple things I think one is we're very committed to getting our leverage down, right? i think one is we're very committed to getting our leverage down right Which we've talked about. which we've talked about You can think of our, from a capital allocation standpoint, any excess cash is going to go towards bringing that leverage ratio down, and that's, you know, we're on that track. you can think of our from a capital allocation standpoint any excess cash is going to go towards bringing that leverage ratio down and that's you know we're on that track We've given you kind of where we're at. we've given you kind of where we're at You know, until we're, you know, 2.5x or below, I think that probably kinda limits some of where we may go. you know until we're you know 2.5x or below i think that probably kinda limits some of where we may go I'll steal a line that Bracken always uses, we're all here for growth, right? i'll steal a line that bracken always uses we're all here for growth right We all wanna grow, and we wanna get this business back to growing. we all wanna grow and we wanna get this business back to growing Growth obviously comes from organic growth, but eventually it also can come from M&A growth, and so we're not there yet. We've said all along our number one priority is to get our leverage in the spot we want it to get in, and then from there, you know, we'll see. I think about it purely from optionality, right? And what we're trying to do is get this business back to a place where we have maximum optionality to do what we wanna do to grow the business. Growth obviously comes from organic growth, but eventually it also can come from M&A growth, and so we're not there yet. growth obviously comes from organic growth but eventually it also can come from m&a growth and so we're not there yet We've said all along our number one priority is to get our leverage in the spot we want it to get in, and then from there, you know, we'll see. we've said all along our number one priority is to get our leverage in the spot we want it to get in and then from there you know we'll see I think about it purely from optionality, right? i think about it purely from optionality right And what we're trying to do is get this business back to a place where we have maximum optionality to do what we wanna do to grow the business. and what we're trying to do is get this business back to a place where we have maximum optionality to do what we wanna do to grow the business

Speaker 2: I also think we're in this luxurious spot that may be hard for some investors to see today, where we have so much internal growth potential that we don't even need to worry at all about acquisitions. I mean, if I look just at those three large brands we talked about, all of them can grow strongly. If you add Altra, which, you know, we haven't talked about at all today, you know, Altra is a running brand that's last quarter grew, I think, over 20%. It's either between 20% and 35% the last few quarters, and I don't see any reason why that's going to let up. That's before we even expand its 'footprint' of what kind of business it can be. I also think we're in this luxurious spot that may be hard for some investors to see today, where we have so much internal growth potential that we don't even need to worry at all about acquisitions. i also think we're in this luxurious spot that may be hard for some investors to see today where we have so much internal growth potential that we don't even need to worry at all about acquisitions I mean, if I look just at those three large brands we talked about, all of them can grow strongly. i mean if i look just at those three large brands we talked about all of them can grow strongly If you add Altra, which, you know, we haven't talked about at all today, you know, Altra is a running brand that's last quarter grew, I think, over 20%. if you add altra which you know we haven't talked about at all today you know altra is a running brand that's last quarter grew i think over 20% It's either between 20% and 35% the last few quarters, and I don't see any reason why that's going to let up. it's either between 20% and 35% the last few quarters and i don't see any reason why that's going to let up That's before we even expand its 'footprint' of what kind of business it can be. that's before we even expand its 'footprint' of what kind of business it can be I think there's a lot of growth there. There are other small brands we never talk about that have lots of growth potential. We have a lot of potential here internally before we worry about acquisitions. You know, my general view of companies is that, you know, if you do nothing but just grow with the market, you're going to grow low single digits. That's your business. If you outperform the other people in your business by having a better innovation engine and a better marketing engine, that's always the goal. That's certainly our goal, and we're going to do that, then you grow mid-single digits. I think there's a lot of growth there. i think there's a lot of growth there There are other small brands we never talk about that have lots of growth potential. there are other small brands we never talk about that have lots of growth potential We have a lot of potential here internally before we worry about acquisitions. we have a lot of potential here internally before we worry about acquisitions You know, my general view of companies is that, you know, if you do nothing but just grow with the market, you're going to grow low single digits. That's your business. you know my general view of companies is that you know if you do nothing but just grow with the market you're going to grow low single digits. that's your business If you outperform the other people in your business by having a better innovation engine and a better marketing engine, that's always the goal. if you outperform the other people in your business by having a better innovation engine and a better marketing engine that's always the goal That's certainly our goal, and we're going to do that, then you grow mid-single digits. that's certainly our goal and we're going to do that then you grow mid-single digits If you do that and you're entering new categories, either by acquisition or through organic decisions to go into new categories within those brands you have, then you can grow upper single digits% or even touch double digits% on a consistent basis. That's the model that we're running. We're not at that mid-single digits% yet. We're on our way to lower single digits%, but one day, I think we'll get higher than that. If you do that and you're entering new categories, either by acquisition or through organic decisions to go into new categories within those brands you have, then you can grow upper single digits% or even touch double digits% on a consistent basis. if you do that and you're entering new categories either by acquisition or through organic decisions to go into new categories within those brands you have then you can grow upper single digits% or even touch double digits% on a consistent basis That's the model that we're running. that's the model that we're running We're not at that mid-single digits% yet. we're not at that mid-single digits% yet We're on our way to lower single digits%, but one day, I think we'll get higher than that. we're on our way to lower single digits% but one day i think we'll get higher than that

Speaker 4: Can you maybe talk on that growth topic? Can you maybe talk about the drivers when you think about DTC and retail. Can you maybe talk on that growth topic? can you maybe talk on that growth topic Can you maybe talk about the drivers when you think about DTC and retail. can you maybe talk about the drivers when you think about dtc and retail

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 4: Versus wholesale, maybe by brand, where you see the outsized growth opportunities. We've heard from a couple of folks at this conference that are saying things like, "Hey, stores are back." Right? Maybe e-com's losing a little bit of share. Some of the younger consumers like to go into stores, which can impact both your retail business and your wholesale business. I'd love to hear your thought on the drivers for each of those brands. Versus wholesale, maybe by brand, where you see the outsized growth opportunities. versus wholesale maybe by brand where you see the outsized growth opportunities We've heard from a couple of folks at this conference that are saying things like, "Hey, stores are back." Right? we've heard from a couple of folks at this conference that are saying things like "hey stores are back." right Maybe e-com's losing a little bit of share. maybe e-com's losing a little bit of share Some of the younger consumers like to go into stores, which can impact both your retail business and your wholesale business. some of the younger consumers like to go into stores which can impact both your retail business and your wholesale business I'd love to hear your thought on the drivers for each of those brands. i'd love to hear your thought on the drivers for each of those brands

Speaker 2: Well, I'll talk for just a second. I'll break it down by brands maybe one time, and then I'll ladder up. On Timberland, you know, it's really. We really need to expand our retail footprint because people wanna buy Timberland, they don't know where to go to buy it. You know, if you're going to buy a footwear, especially a boot, you kinda feel like you need to try it on. We've expressed this, we need to have more stores for Timberland, especially in the U.S. market where there's really not enough obvious places to go buy it. Well, I'll talk for just a second. well i'll talk for just a second I'll break it down by brands maybe one time, and then I'll ladder up. i'll break it down by brands maybe one time and then i'll ladder up On Timberland, you know, it's really. on timberland you know it's really We really need to expand our retail footprint because people wanna buy Timberland, they don't know where to go to buy it. we really need to expand our retail footprint because people wanna buy timberland they don't know where to go to buy it You know, if you're going to buy a footwear, especially a boot, you kinda feel like you need to try it on. you know if you're going to buy a footwear especially a boot you kinda feel like you need to try it on We've expressed this, we need to have more stores for Timberland, especially in the U.S. market where there's really not enough obvious places to go buy it. we've expressed this we need to have more stores for timberland especially in the u.s market where there's really not enough obvious places to go buy it Now, that said, if I step back up again, all three of those channels are super important, and I think they're all going to play a really important role for us. You know, the cool thing about DTC, as I said earlier, is that you can bring your products to market in an unfiltered way, and you don't have to convince somebody else that they're going to sell. You just have to convince yourself, you know? We haven't always taken advantage of that, by the way. Our own processes got in the way of us doing that, so we're changing that right now. The cool thing about wholesale, which I just love, is it's the most competitive environment there is to sell in. Now, that said, if I step back up again, all three of those channels are super important, and I think they're all going to play a really important role for us. now that said if i step back up again all three of those channels are super important and i think they're all going to play a really important role for us You know, the cool thing about DTC, as I said earlier, is that you can bring your products to market in an unfiltered way, and you don't have to convince somebody else that they're going to sell. you know the cool thing about dtc as i said earlier is that you can bring your products to market in an unfiltered way and you don't have to convince somebody else that they're going to sell You just have to convince yourself, you know? you just have to convince yourself you know We haven't always taken advantage of that, by the way. we haven't always taken advantage of that by the way Our own processes got in the way of us doing that, so we're changing that right now. our own processes got in the way of us doing that so we're changing that right now The cool thing about wholesale, which I just love, is it's the most competitive environment there is to sell in. the cool thing about wholesale which i just love is it's the most competitive environment there is to sell in I mean, you go in there, the average person who walks into a wholesaler is not necessarily, and maybe not at all committed to your brand, but they're committed to buying something. They're in there to do something. It's a real torture test, and you must be in there, or we must be in there to make sure that we have compelling products and compelling marketing. If we're not winning in there, then we have to ask ourselves what's wrong with us. I love being kinda equally distributed among the three. You know, a little larger on wholesale, I like having half the business be wholesale, 'cause man, oh, man, if you're not winning there, you gotta soul search. I love the e-commerce business 'cause it's so fast and we can do things so lightning fast there. I mean, you go in there, the average person who walks into a wholesaler is not necessarily, and maybe not at all committed to your brand, but they're committed to buying something. i mean you go in there the average person who walks into a wholesaler is not necessarily and maybe not at all committed to your brand but they're committed to buying something They're in there to do something. they're in there to do something It's a real torture test, and you must be in there, or we must be in there to make sure that we have compelling products and compelling marketing. it's a real torture test and you must be in there or we must be in there to make sure that we have compelling products and compelling marketing If we're not winning in there, then we have to ask ourselves what's wrong with us. if we're not winning in there then we have to ask ourselves what's wrong with us I love being kinda equally distributed among the three. i love being kinda equally distributed among the three You know, a little larger on wholesale, I like having half the business be wholesale, 'cause man, oh, man, if you're not winning there, you gotta soul search. you know a little larger on wholesale i like having half the business be wholesale 'cause man oh man if you're not winning there you gotta soul search I love the e-commerce business 'cause it's so fast and we can do things so lightning fast there. i love the e-commerce business 'cause it's so fast and we can do things so lightning fast there Bricks and mortar is where you really get to experience your customer, and you get to find out, you know, are we doing everything we can to give them everything they might need in that shopping trip? I like all three, and I think we're going to do well in all three over time. Bricks and mortar is where you really get to experience your customer, and you get to find out, you know, are we doing everything we can to give them everything they might need in that shopping trip? bricks and mortar is where you really get to experience your customer and you get to find out you know are we doing everything we can to give them everything they might need in that shopping trip I like all three, and I think we're going to do well in all three over time. i like all three and i think we're going to do well in all three over time

Speaker 4: Maybe talk a little bit more about the wholesale channel and where you're seeing the greatest receptivity to product. Which brands are you just having great conversations and seeing great traction with those wholesale accounts? 'Cause it is a challenging environment, right? To get that shelf space and. Maybe talk a little bit more about the wholesale channel and where you're seeing the greatest receptivity to product. maybe talk a little bit more about the wholesale channel and where you're seeing the greatest receptivity to product Which brands are you just having great conversations and seeing great traction with those wholesale accounts? 'Cause it is a challenging environment, right? which brands are you just having great conversations and seeing great traction with those wholesale accounts 'cause it is a challenging environment right To get that shelf space and. to get that shelf space and

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 4: Continue to have those partners order up every year. Continue to have those partners order up every year. continue to have those partners order up every year

Speaker 2: Well, you know, Timberland's like running through open doors right now because, you know, there's very strong demand and so we're. You know, I'd say there is the easiest discussions. The opportunity in The North Face is big because we had a period of several years ago where we didn't do as good a job with our wholesalers as partners. We didn't just didn't treat them well. We didn't serve them well, and we paid the ultimate price, which is our business shrunk in there. So we have the opportunity now to get that back and we're really working on that, and we're trying to be a really first class. Well, first of all, good and then great, wholesale partner for all those players that are so important to us. Well, you know, Timberland's like running through open doors right now because, you know, there's very strong demand and so we're. well you know timberland's like running through open doors right now because you know there's very strong demand and so we're You know, I'd say there is the easiest discussions. you know i'd say there is the easiest discussions The opportunity in The North Face is big because we had a period of several years ago where we didn't do as good a job with our wholesalers as partners. the opportunity in the north face is big because we had a period of several years ago where we didn't do as good a job with our wholesalers as partners We didn't just didn't treat them well. we didn't just didn't treat them well We didn't serve them well, and we paid the ultimate price, which is our business shrunk in there. we didn't serve them well and we paid the ultimate price which is our business shrunk in there So we have the opportunity now to get that back and we're really working on that, and we're trying to be a really first class. so we have the opportunity now to get that back and we're really working on that and we're trying to be a really first class Well, first of all, good and then great, wholesale partner for all those players that are so important to us. well first of all good and then great wholesale partner for all those players that are so important to us Vans is, you know, as I said, focused on the U.S., focused on DTC. Wholesale will follow that. We have some, a few key wholesalers who are really critical to that business long term, but honestly, we can do so much in DTC before we really are winning big with them. I think you'll see those come back. It'll be a sequential. We'll first win in DTC and Vans, and then we'll win in wholesale. For all those comments, I'm really focused on the Americas business, which is about half our business. Vans is, you know, as I said, focused on the U.S., focused on DTC. vans is you know as i said focused on the u.s focused on dtc Wholesale will follow that. wholesale will follow that We have some, a few key wholesalers who are really critical to that business long term, but honestly, we can do so much in DTC before we really are winning big with them. we have some a few key wholesalers who are really critical to that business long term but honestly we can do so much in dtc before we really are winning big with them I think you'll see those come back. i think you'll see those come back It'll be a sequential. it'll be a sequential We'll first win in DTC and Vans, and then we'll win in wholesale. we'll first win in dtc and vans and then we'll win in wholesale For all those comments, I'm really focused on the Americas business, which is about half our business. for all those comments i'm really focused on the americas business which is about half our business

Speaker 4: Got it. How about when you think about from a traffic and units perspective versus price? You know, what do you see as being the primary driver of growth, and how does that differ by brand? Got it. got it How about when you think about from a traffic and units perspective versus price? how about when you think about from a traffic and units perspective versus price You know, what do you see as being the primary driver of growth, and how does that differ by brand? you know what do you see as being the primary driver of growth and how does that differ by brand

Speaker 2: Maybe I'll step back and just say traffic in general is like the holy grail of retail, right? You know, getting people into stores is really key and, you know, the traffic in general has been more difficult, I would say, since I got here than it was before I got here. I suspect that's starting to change a little bit, you know, by brand, and we'll see. You know, I'm again focused on the U.S. market. I think we're starting to see that change by brand, and I think that's a good thing. There's so much beyond traffic that, you know, and this is one of the things I've really learned in this business. Maybe I'll step back and just say traffic in general is like the holy grail of retail, right? maybe i'll step back and just say traffic in general is like the holy grail of retail right You know, getting people into stores is really key and, you know, the traffic in general has been more difficult, I would say, since I got here than it was before I got here. you know getting people into stores is really key and you know the traffic in general has been more difficult i would say since i got here than it was before i got here I suspect that's starting to change a little bit, you know, by brand, and we'll see. i suspect that's starting to change a little bit you know by brand and we'll see You know, I'm again focused on the U.S. market. you know i'm again focused on the u.s market I think we're starting to see that change by brand, and I think that's a good thing. i think we're starting to see that change by brand and i think that's a good thing There's so much beyond traffic that, you know, and this is one of the things I've really learned in this business. there's so much beyond traffic that you know and this is one of the things i've really learned in this business How the execution in store is so critical to really the performance of a business, and we were not executing at the level we could have been. As of about three or four quarters ago, we're starting to see a change in that you know, we're getting more out of everybody who's walking in that store. That's great because when the traffic comes on top of that from brand heat, but brands like Timberland and The North Face and then ultimately Vans, you know, we're just going to be in a much better spot. Overall, I think traffic is the ultimate measure of brand heat and, you know, we've got a ways to go before I'll feel like, okay, we're really there. How the execution in store is so critical to really the performance of a business, and we were not executing at the level we could have been. how the execution in store is so critical to really the performance of a business and we were not executing at the level we could have been As of about three or four quarters ago, we're starting to see a change in that you know, we're getting more out of everybody who's walking in that store. as of about three or four quarters ago we're starting to see a change in that you know we're getting more out of everybody who's walking in that store That's great because when the traffic comes on top of that from brand heat, but brands like Timberland and The North Face and then ultimately Vans, you know, we're just going to be in a much better spot. that's great because when the traffic comes on top of that from brand heat but brands like timberland and the north face and then ultimately vans you know we're just going to be in a much better spot Overall, I think traffic is the ultimate measure of brand heat and, you know, we've got a ways to go before I'll feel like, okay, we're really there. overall i think traffic is the ultimate measure of brand heat and you know we've got a ways to go before i'll feel like okay we're really there

Speaker 4: Got it. With all this talk of growth, I guess we'll just come back to that 10% EBIT margin target. It was kind of put out there under a no growth scenario initially, but maybe can we talk about that and what does that potentially look like if you are in fact successful at achieving some of these growth levels that we're talking about? Got it. got it With all this talk of growth, I guess we'll just come back to that 10% EBIT margin target. with all this talk of growth i guess we'll just come back to that 10% ebit margin target It was kind of put out there under a no growth scenario initially, but maybe can we talk about that and what does that potentially look like if you are in fact successful at achieving some of these growth levels that we're talking about? it was kind of put out there under a no growth scenario initially but maybe can we talk about that and what does that potentially look like if you are in fact successful at achieving some of these growth levels that we're talking about

Speaker 3: Yeah. I think we had said that at the initial Investor Day that the targets we had were sort of a base, like this is what we wanna get to. It didn't mean that was where we're going to stop, right? I think we've always believed that 10% was a good starting point for saying, "Hey, here's what we can get back to. Here's what we think a well-run, well-executing business should perform at, and we can get there by this period of time." That was the 10%. I think we also said that we believe we can get above that, and then the question is how far above that is really just dependent on where we want to invest, how much we wanna spend to continue to grow the business, where the opportunities are. Yeah. yeah I think we had said that at the initial Investor Day that the targets we had were sort of a base, like this is what we wanna get to. i think we had said that at the initial investor day that the targets we had were sort of a base like this is what we wanna get to It didn't mean that was where we're going to stop, right? it didn't mean that was where we're going to stop right I think we've always believed that 10% was a good starting point for saying, "Hey, here's what we can get back to. i think we've always believed that 10% was a good starting point for saying "hey here's what we can get back to Here's what we think a well-run, well-executing business should perform at, and we can get there by this period of time." That was the 10%. here's what we think a well-run well-executing business should perform at and we can get there by this period of time." that was the 10% I think we also said that we believe we can get above that, and then the question is how far above that is really just dependent on where we want to invest, how much we wanna spend to continue to grow the business, where the opportunities are. i think we also said that we believe we can get above that and then the question is how far above that is really just dependent on where we want to invest how much we wanna spend to continue to grow the business where the opportunities are You know, as I said before, I think we're really confident in the numbers we put out, the targets, we think we'll hit them. You know, if growth starts to really accelerate, yes, I think there's probably upside from there, again, if that happens. The question is how much of that upside do we, you know, do we use to reinvest either into the current businesses or something else, or how much we let flow to the bottom line. It'll be a great problem to have when we have it. You know, as I said before, I think we're really confident in the numbers we put out, the targets, we think we'll hit them. you know as i said before i think we're really confident in the numbers we put out the targets we think we'll hit them You know, if growth starts to really accelerate, yes, I think there's probably upside from there, again, if that happens. you know if growth starts to really accelerate yes i think there's probably upside from there again if that happens The question is how much of that upside do we, you know, do we use to reinvest either into the current businesses or something else, or how much we let flow to the bottom line. the question is how much of that upside do we you know do we use to reinvest either into the current businesses or something else or how much we let flow to the bottom line It'll be a great problem to have when we have it. it'll be a great problem to have when we have it

Speaker 4: We're almost at time, but maybe Bracken just to close up, what's got you most excited within the business right now? We're almost at time, but maybe Bracken just to close up, what's got you most excited within the business right now? we're almost at time but maybe bracken just to close up what's got you most excited within the business right now

Speaker 2: You know, I don't think I've ever been as excited as I am right now. Last week we had 800 of our leaders in a big meeting we do every year to plan out next year. We really celebrate this year and then plan next year and I think I can safely say, man, there, people were walking out of there super pumped, and I was. I just feel really good about our plans. I feel really good about our teams. You know, I think we're just committed, you know? I think there's nobody who working in our business now who doesn't see that we can be a really strong long-term growth business. That's what I came for. That's what everybody came for. You know, I don't think I've ever been as excited as I am right now. you know i don't think i've ever been as excited as i am right now Last week we had 800 of our leaders in a big meeting we do every year to plan out next year. last week we had 800 of our leaders in a big meeting we do every year to plan out next year We really celebrate this year and then plan next year and I think I can safely say, man, there, people were walking out of there super pumped, and I was. we really celebrate this year and then plan next year and i think i can safely say man there people were walking out of there super pumped and i was I just feel really good about our plans. i just feel really good about our plans I feel really good about our teams. i feel really good about our teams You know, I think we're just committed, you know? you know i think we're just committed you know I think there's nobody who working in our business now who doesn't see that we can be a really strong long-term growth business. i think there's nobody who working in our business now who doesn't see that we can be a really strong long-term growth business That's what I came for. that's what i came for That's what everybody came for. that's what everybody came for

Speaker 4: Appreciate it, Bracken. Paul, thank you for doing this, and thanks everybody for joining. Appreciate it, Bracken. appreciate it bracken Paul, thank you for doing this, and thanks everybody for joining. paul thank you for doing this and thanks everybody for joining

Speaker 2: Thanks so much. Thanks so much. thanks so much

Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. thank you