Completes Acquisition of Iconic Brand, Keds,
Cementing Diverse Owned Brand Portfolio in Casual &
Athleisure
Announces Future Expansion of Agreement with
Hush Puppies to Include US & Canadian Licensing
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 8, 2023
/PRNewswire/ -- Designer Brands Inc. (NYSE: DBI) (the "Company" and
"Designer Brands"), one of the world's largest designers,
producers and retailers of footwear and accessories, today
announced several actions to strengthen its Owned Brands
strategy.
The Company has completed the acquisition of Keds – "The
Greatest Shoes Known" – from Wolverine Worldwide. Keds is an iconic
brand for women, men and kids alike, with a legacy of being
versatile, comfortable and fashionable. From a place in the
wardrobes of Marilyn Monroe and
Audrey Hepburn, to a central role in
the 1980s classic movie, Dirty Dancing, Keds has been at the
center of cultural conversation for decades.
The announced transaction includes all Keds' products, including
Pro-Keds, as well as the brand's large ecommerce business. This
expands Designer Brands' Owned Brands' reach into casual and
athleisure footwear in the direct-to-consumer and wholesale
channels, supplementing the recent additions of Le Tigre and Topo Athletic. This acquisition
also marks Designer Brands' first Owned Brand wholesale business
within the kids footwear segment.
Keds and Designer Brands have a long-tenured relationship,
with DSW already positioned as the largest wholesale customer of
the brand. Bringing Keds into the Designer Brands' Owned Brands
portfolio, supported by a world-class design and sourcing
organization, will bring this quintessential footwear brand to new
heights, with a wealth of opportunities to expand beyond the
beloved and classic Keds silhouette. Furthermore, this acquisition
brings a large international distribution network into the Designer
Brands ecosystem, which will continue to serve as a vital growth
engine for Keds. This will enable Designer Brands to explore future
opportunities to leverage this expertise and infrastructure across
other brands in its Owned Brands portfolio.
"Our growing strength in Owned Brands is evident, given that
just twelve months ago, the athleisure category was a massive white
space opportunity for us, and we now control high-quality brands
across multiple price points," said Doug
Howe, incoming Chief Executive Officer and President of DSW.
"Our acquisition of Keds, which has an important presence in the
athleisure space, is particularly exciting as it is an iconic brand
with broad appeal for our customers and their families that gives
us the potential to explore new opportunities both online and
internationally."
Designer Brands also announced that the Company is working to
finalize an agreement to become the exclusive licensee for the Hush
Puppies brand in the US and Canada. Designer Brands currently has a unique
arrangement with Wolverine that began in 2022, naming DSW as the
exclusive in-store distributor of Hush Puppies in the United States, while also serving as a
physical return center for HushPuppies.com customers. This
relationship demonstrated the strong appeal the brand has with the
DSW customer and informed the decision to formalize the
relationship with this license agreement. This new licensee
relationship will grant exclusivity of the Hush Puppies brand to
Designer Brands across all channels in the US and Canada including potential wholesaling of the
brand and management of the HushPuppies.com DTC business. The
licensing agreement is targeted to take effect later in 2023.
"Today's announcements serve as proof of both the incredible
progress we have made on our strategy to double sales of our Owned
Brands by 2026 as well as the ongoing benefits of our relationships
with top National Brands," said Roger
Rawlins, Chief Executive Officer. "I am incredibly excited
to welcome the Keds brand into the Designer Brands' family and to
continue our journey with Hush Puppies. This next phase in our Hush
Puppies relationship is yet another example of how we are
continuing to build on our existing Owned Brand strategy. It will
allow us to directly benefit from designing and sourcing product
for the US and Canadian markets."
Designer Brands' unique business model, incorporating a
portfolio of world-class owned brands and a market leading store
and digital retail business powered by 30 million loyalty
customers, allows the Company to work with highly valued brand
partners like Wolverine Worldwide in ways only Designer Brands is
able to do. This is demonstrated not only by the acquisition of
Keds, but by overall growth with Wolverine across most of their
brands including special buys and new concept testing such as Hush
Puppies.
Solomon Partners served as financial advisor, and Thompson
Hine LLP served as legal advisor to Designer Brands. Honigman
LLP and Warner, Norcross + Judd LLP served as legal advisors to
Wolverine Worldwide.
About Designer Brands
Designer Brands is one of the
world's largest designers, producers and retailers of the most
recognizable footwear brands and accessories, transforming and
defining the footwear industry by inspiring self-expression across
every facet of its enterprise. Through its portfolio of world-class
owned brands, led by the industry-setting Vince Camuto brand,
Designer Brands delivers on-trend footwear and accessories through
its robust direct-to-consumer omni-channel infrastructure,
featuring a billion-dollar digital commerce business and nearly 650
stores across the US and Canada. Its retailing operations
under the DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse and The Shoe Company banners
deliver current, in-line footwear and accessories from most of the
largest national brands in the industry and hold leading market
share positions in key product categories across Women's, Men's and
Kid's in the US and Canada. Designer Brands also distributes
its owned brands through select wholesale relationships while
leveraging its design and sourcing expertise to build private label
product for national retailers. Designer Brands Inc. is also
committed to being a difference maker in the world, taking steps
forward to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the footwear
industry and supporting our global community and the health of our
planet through donating more than six million pairs of shoes to the
global non-profit Soles4Souls. More information can be found
at www.designerbrands.com.
About Keds
For over 100 years, Keds has been making
timeless, comfortable, accessible footwear for consumers to step
out into the world their way. Ever since the creation of the iconic
Keds Champion "sneaker" back in 1916, Keds has held the belief that
when we feel comfortable inside and out, we can leap forward and
make our marks on the world. This belief continues to inspire and
drive us every day. We design every product to support everyone— to
give them the versatility, comfort, and style they need to
confidently live as their truest selves.
Keds. Wear Yours.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995
Certain statements in this press release may constitute
forward-looking statements and are made pursuant to the safe harbor
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of
forward-looking words such as "outlook," "could," "believes,"
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Company's current views and expectations and involve known and
unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause
actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially
different from any future results, performance, or achievements
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These
factors include, but are not limited to: our ability to
successfully integrate acquired businesses; risks and uncertainties
related to the ongoing coronavirus ("COVID-19") pandemic, any
future COVID-19 resurgence, and any other adverse public health
developments; risks that recent inflationary pressures, including
higher freight costs, could have on our results of operations and
customer demand based on pricing actions and operating measures
taken to mitigate the impact of inflation; uncertain general
economic conditions, including inflation and supply chain
pressures, domestic and global political and social conditions and
the potential impact of geopolitical turmoil or conflict, and the
related impacts to consumer discretionary spending; our ability to
execute on our long-term strategic plans; our ability to anticipate
and respond to fashion trends, consumer preferences, and changing
customer expectations; our ability to maintain strong relationships
with our vendors, manufacturers, licensors, and retailer customers;
risks related to losses or disruptions associated with our
distribution systems, including our distribution centers and
fulfillment center and stores, whether as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic, reliance on third-party providers, or otherwise; our
reliance on our loyalty programs and marketing to drive traffic,
sales, and customer loyalty; risks related to cyber security
threats and privacy or data security breaches or the potential loss
or disruption of our information systems; our ability to protect
our reputation and to maintain the brands we license; our
competitiveness with respect to style, price, brand availability,
and customer service; risks related to our international
operations, including international trade, our reliance on foreign
sources for merchandise, exposure to political, economic,
operational, and compliance and other risks, and fluctuations in
foreign currency exchange rates; our ability to comply with privacy
laws and regulations, as well as other legal obligations; risks
associated with climate change and other corporate responsibility
issues; and uncertainties related to future legislation, regulatory
reform, policy changes, or interpretive guidance on existing
legislation. Risks and other factors that could cause our actual
results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements
are described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended January 29, 2022
and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the
time when made. Except as may be required by law, the Company
undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking
statements included in this press release to reflect any future
events or circumstances.
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SOURCE Designer Brands Inc.