Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/1531127
HEARD AROUND THE INDUSTRY… 18 Footwear Insight Business Report Quarterly ~ Q4 January 6, 2025 footwearinsight.com THEY SAID IT... November 7, 2024 Chris Hufnagel, President and CEO of Wolverine Worldwide "While the macro environment remains choppy and the consumer outlook is still a bit murky, our teams continue to manage the variables they can control. Focusing on our global brand building model and prioritizing, designing awesome products that are innovative, trend-right, place strike and price strike, telling amazing stories that not only convey the functional benefits of our brand's products, but also resonate with consumers on an emotional level and driving the business every day. The third quarter was another positive chapter in our turnaround and transformation story." November 6, 2024 Arne Freundt, CEO of Puma SE "When you look at the product newness which we are bringing into the market, you see that we have clearly structured our offer according to four major trends on the terrace and the football-inspired trend, court and skate, low-profile and the progressive vis-techs. And all of them, we already have newness in the market and are continuing to fuel new franchises to further support the trends in their respective silos." November 7, 2024 Kevin Plank, President and CEO of Under Armour "In footwear, we're making some of the greatest strides with our enhanced product team having an impact. ere's much work to do as we're experiencing challenging results in the near-term, particularly in our good level products. While it will be a couple of seasons until it hits the market, we've taken a different tact here with good level, refining and eliminating redundant SKUs, assigning our best footwear designers to work on some of our lower ASP products, but that have big volumes like the UA Assert, whose volume is in the millions of payers with updated designs that focus on the price to value perception and winning consumers to the brand with just simply better looking and performing product at great value. Just because the shoe costs less than $100 does not mean that it does not deserve to be beautiful." December 19, 2024 Elliot Hill, President, and CEO of Nike Inc. "We're optimistic about the actions that are already underway in product and brand, but we're still in the early innings of elevating the marketplace, both in Nike Direct and with our wholesale partners. What I've seen is traffic in Nike Direct, digital and physical has soened because we've lacked newness in product and we're not delivering inspiring stories. e result is we've become far too promotional." November 6, 2024 Joe Vernachio, Chief Executive Officer, Allbirds "We're returning to our roots as a modern lifestyle footwear brand, refocusing on our core tenets of comfort and versatility that have always defined us. Our future product lineup brings a new level of modern sophistication that pays homage to our origin story of comfort and sustainability. is next generation offering will begin to hit the market in the second half of 2025." November 12, 2024 Martin Hoffmann, CFO and Co-CEO for On Holdings "…We are focused on our mission to ignite the human spirit for movement. Our efforts are centered around the goal to live, educate and enable movement. A marathon in New York always offers a particularly powerful reminder of the transformative impact of movement. But it also highlights the fact that access to sports and physical activity is not a given." n