Crocs Reports Q2 Earnings

Welcome back to FN Daily, where we break down the biggest stories happening in footwear and retail.

Today, we delve into earnings for Crocs and take a look at a report about global footwear production . Plus, Naturalizer is launching its largest size inclusive footwear collection to date.

Here are the details:

Crocs Raises EPS Guidance After Q2 Earnings and Sales Beat

Crocs raised its earnings guidance for the year after reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter. However, Hey Dude sales were still in decline.

Altogether, the Broomfield, Colo.-based footwear company reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter, which included a 3.6 percent revenue increase from the prior year to $1.11 billion. This was slightly ahead of the $1.1 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance. Q2 adjusted diluted EPS was up 11.7 percent to $4.01, also ahead of the $3.56 expected by analysts.

Crocs brand revenues once again drove the strong results, with sales up 9.7 percent to $914 million. These results reflected a 12.5 percent increase in direct-to-consumer and a 6.9 increase in wholesale. Revenues for the Hey Dude brand decreased 17.5 percent to $198 million, which reflected declines in both DTC and wholesale.

The sneaker story: Crocs Inc. CEO Andrew Rees said that the company will continue to experiment with new sneaker styles after a successful inaugural launch in the category this past spring.

EXCLUSIVE: Naturalizer Launches Largest Size Inclusive Footwear Collection to Date

Naturalizer is doubling down on its inclusivity efforts this fall.

This month, the 97-year-old women’s footwear brand is expanding its Contoured Calf innovation with its largest offering to-date. According to Natelle Baddeley, chief product officer of the Brand Portfolio at Naturalizer parent company Caleres , the new fall 2024 Contoured Calf collection comes in a range of styles and sizes from 5M-12XW , plus extended calf sizing in narrow, medium, wide and extra wide.

The collection, which launched in fall 2023, also offers over 50 designs in XW shoe width, with plans to double that in spring 2025.

To achieve this new ambitious range of sizes, Caleres’ Cal-Lab held an insights study of over 500 wide-calf consumers and identified frustration in finding fashion-forward styles with the right fit. To solve the problems of gaps and fluting often associated with narrow and wide-calf boots, the team had to change how the boots are made, creating new molds based on the measurements from 170 women.

Going bigger: Caleres has started to offer an extended range of sizes in its other shoe brands including Veronica Beard, Vince, Franco Sarto, Vionic, Dr. Scholl’s and Lifestride.

Global Footwear Production Down by 1.5 Billion Pairs in 2023, According to New Data

Global footwear production slowed down considerably last year, according to new data published in the 2024 World Footwear Yearbook.

In the report , which is compiled and published annually by the Portuguese footwear association APICCAPS, global shoe production decreased by 1.5 billion pairs, or 6 percent, to 22.4 billion pairs in 2023 – the lowest point in a decade when omitting the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.

Overall, the report noted that the drop in production was due to a decline in consumption in key markets. This includes a decline of 749 million pairs in the United States, a drop of 398 million pairs in China and a decrease of 399 million pairs in the European Union.

This new data comes after the Italian footwear industry experienced a sharp slowdown in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Confindustria Moda Research Centre for Assocalzaturifici, the national association representing Italian shoemakers.

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