Famous Footwear Sees Beneficial properties From Jordan, Birkenstock, Brooks and Extra

Like Foot Locker and JD Sports, met the identical destiny within the second quarter, taking successful in gross sales as a consequence of weaker demand for way of life athletic sneakers.

But in line with Jay Schmidt, president and chief government officer of Famous Footwear father or mother firm Caleres, there have been some manufacturers and classes that labored for the retailer.

On the corporate’s second quarter 2026 earnings name on Wednesday, Schmidt advised analysts that Jordan, Birkenstock, Skechers, Brooks and Steve Madden have been “growth brands” within the interval. The CEO famous that these manufacturers noticed extra curiosity as a consequence of its vogue footwear enterprise strengthening within the quarter, including that that the class was “meaningfully better” than athletic sneakers.

“In August and quarter-to-date, our fashion comp was positive and outperformed athletic by over 10 points,” Schmidt stated. “With the stronger trend we are seeing in fashion, we are expanding our fashion assortment and increasing our inventory investment to support the demand. We also have two non-athletic brands planned for floor takeovers for the back half. Taken together, we believe these strategies will provide sales improvement for the back half relative to the second quarter.”

Still, regardless of the success of vogue sneakers at Famous Footwear, the retailer noticed web gross sales decline 6.3 % within the second quarter 2026 versus the year-ago interval, with comparable gross sales down 5.9 %.

Schmidt admitted on the decision that second quarter gross sales at Famous Footwear have been under the corporate’s expectations and attributed it to the enterprise being pressured by a later begin to back-to-school and a shift away from way of life athletic sneakers.

“This resulted in a worse than expected second quarter trend and third quarter slightly better than our previous expectations,” Schmidt stated. “As such, quarter to date through Labor Day, our Famous Footwear comp sales are flat.”

Along with the modifications to the merchandise combine, the CEO stated that the corporate is engaged on a number of different fast actions to enhance enterprise on the retail banner.

“We began taking action during the quarter to improve inventory positioning, including reducing receipts and increasing clearance events to address excess and aged inventory, investing in the categories of the business that are trending,” Schmidt famous. “These actions pressured gross margin but meaningfully improved our inventory position exiting the quarter. At Famous, our back-to-school is heavily driven by athletics.”

Further requested by analysts concerning the retailer’s reliance on athletic sneakers for back-to-school, the CEO famous that class accounted for over 60 % of the combo in the course of the promoting interval and ranges out to the mid-50s as soon as it ends, with non-athletic accounting for 40 % of gross sales.

“I’d like to just leave you with the idea that it’s right sizing,” Schmidt added when referring to the athletic shoe class. “We still have a very big athletic business. Performance athletic is doing very, very well and there are selected pockets, brands and products that continue to trend. But just getting [the assortment] right for that period, I think, will create a more healthy balance for Famous for the future.”