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Struggling sneaker brand Vans is trying to lure millennials away from Nike and other brands with nostalgia, high heat collabs, and better arch support

Danni Santana   

Struggling sneaker brand Vans is trying to lure millennials away from Nike and other brands with nostalgia, high heat collabs, and better arch support
Retail3 min read
  • Vans is working to return to the double-digit sales it had reached before the pandemic.
  • Key to that strategy is growing interest in its sneaker collaborations and classic silhouettes.

Vans, a retailer synonymous with teenagers and skaters of the '90s, is in the middle of a brand reset.

Key to bringing sales back to prepandemic levels is reigniting consumer interest in its sneaker collaborations and classic silhouettes. That would involve winning Gen X and millennial customers who might have aged out of buying Vans in favor of more comfortable shoes.

Kristin Harrer, Vans' chief marketing officer, said that returning Vans to double-digit sales growth starts with better communicating how Vans has updated its shoes, including ways it's made them more cushioned and weather-resistant.

"People love Vans. There's no urgency to buy Vans right now," Harrer told Insider in a recent sit-down interview. "I think we have won classic space for lots of consumers, especially in North America. But I don't think consumers know enough about the newness that we have in the line."

While the original canvas Vans offered little comfort and arch support, Vans' ComfyCush line, released in 2019, added cushioning to classic sneakers like the Authentic and the Sk8-Hi.

"I think part of the problem is that they, especially an older consumer, doesn't know or understand that there are other offerings for them now that are maybe a better fit than that skate shoe that actually doesn't offer great support for what they need at their age," she said.

But Harrer, who joined Vans from Dollar Shave Club in April 2021, noted that Vans wasn't reminding people about those classic shoes. Vans stopped marketing its classic sneakers for some time before resuming earlier this year with the "Classic Since Forever" campaign.

In October, Vans' parent company, VF Corporation, reported that the brand's sales had declined by 6% halfway through fiscal 2023. It attributed this to wholesale partners in North America canceling orders because of high inventory levels and to lower traffic in company stores. Comparably priced shoes such as Nike Dunks and Crocs have also become more popular.

VF Corporation announced last week that Benno Dorer would replace Steve Rendle, Vans' longtime chief executive.

It also revised down its outlook for the second half of fiscal 2023 to reflect weaker-than-anticipated consumer demand in North America, saying it now expects revenue growth of 3% to 4%.

In a note reacting to the CEO change, Tom Nikic, a senior analyst at Wedbush, said Rendle's tenure "started out strong, as the company was riding the wave of the Vans mega-trend," referring to a period in 2018 and 2019 when Vans was growing by double digits, uncommon for multibillion-dollar brands.

"But between the COVID disruption in 2020 and a slower-than-expected recovery from the pandemic (particularly at Vans), the last few years have been far more challenging," he added.

VF sends in the cavalry for Vans

VF Corporation, which also owns The North Face, Supreme, Timberland, and Dickies, has been moving talent to help speed up Vans' comeback. Marissa Pardini and Sarah Kleinman joined Vans this fall from The North Face, to head up merchandising and digital commerce among other responsiblities.

This spring, Kevin Bailey, Vans' former brand president, returned to the retailer in the same role after spending nearly two years leading VF Corporation's Asia-Pacific region, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Bailey told analysts in May that Vans had not emerged from the pandemic with as much velocity as expected because of a slowdown in "brand heat" and in its classics business.

"Our top-tier limited-distribution footwear, which you may know as Vans Vault, has previously met the needs of influential footwear-trend accounts in the past," he said. "As Vans has grown, our approach to this aspirational product and channel needed to evolve more quickly."

With Vans Vault, the company takes classic shoes and collaborates with popular designers and boutiques on new colorways. It often releases fewer shoes, generating more demand.

A recent collection in partnership with Bianca Chandôn, a brand started by the skateboarder Alex Olson, features sneakers with aged or distressed midsoles, a trend in the sneakers industry. Vans Vault releases compete with Nike, Adidas, Converse, and others for the general sneaker lover.

While new lines like its more rugged MTE line and the collabs coming out of Vans Vault are part of the company's future, promoting them has come at the expense of the classic shoes that make up about two-thirds of the Vans' global footwear business, Bailey has said.

"Consumers choose classics for specific reasons because they're casual, they're stylistically versatile and trendy," he said during an investor day in September. "That's really important to what this consumer wants, but they have gaps. The gaps are around comfort and functional versatility. Also, classics tend to age younger. We haven't done enough in product creation and communication about what classics can mean in your life."


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