Footwear Insight

Naot Opens NYC Flagship BRAND NEWS footwearinsight.com November/December 2022 ~ Footwear Insight • 7 negotiate for better costs, and deliver more on-time deliveries of its products next year. Additionally, Wolverine has established a new brand structure for its portfolio. e Active group, reporting to Chris Hufnagel, consists of Merrell, Saucony, Sweaty Betty and Chaco. is division realized a 13.0 percent increase in third quarter revenues to $398.2 million. A new Lifestyle group, which had a 6.9 percent sales drop in third quarter to $$117.7 million, consists of Sperry, Keds, and Hush Puppies. e group is being led by Katherine Cousins. Work, encompassing the Wolverine, Caterpillar, Hytest, Bates, and Harley Davidson brands, generated a 11.2 percent third quarter sales gain to $157.8 million. Tom Kennedy will lead the Work segment. In the third quarter, Wolverine suffered a 10 percent decline in adjusted operating profit to $62 million, mainly due to higher promotional sales in the Direct-To-Consumer channel, wholesale segment discount due to late product deliveries, and currency headwinds. FILA USA generated an operating loss equiv- alent to $11.6 million in the third quarter as it dealt with weakening pricing power caused by the market's excess inventory and faced a need to move excess inventory to better align with its five-year strategic plan. e net loss was $8.2 million in the period ended Sept. 30. Revenue declined 20 percent (-31.9% in constant currency) to the equiva- lent of $93.1 million as Fila also faced higher discounts from rival brands in the market and storage costs that eroded margins. e company's FY26 operational targets for its U.S. business include growing its Direct- To-Consumer business in the market to approximately 20 percent from about 5 percent currently. Fila, which has identified personal style-focused Millennials and Generation Z as its target consumer audience, has a new global campaign featuring Hailey Bieber. n Naot Footwear's first flagship store is now open in New York City's SoHo neighborhood at 436 W. Broadway. The boutique, open seven days a week, 11 am to 7 pm, has a minimalist feel and is designed to display the brand's current collections as "works of art." "The opening of this flagship store allows us to show the breadth of the line and tell the story of Naot on a deeper level," says Naot USA President Ayelet Lax Levy. "New York is my home and opening our flagship store here feels both exciting and personal. We will also be planning on donating shoes to a local charity as a way to embrace the local community." n

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