THE EDIT. Click to hide summary.
- Refocusing on Core Identity: Vans acknowledges past missteps—chasing trends, aging up with consumers and overreliance on discount channels. The brand is now realigning with its skate and youth culture roots through initiatives like the “Always Pushing” campaign and the Checkerboard Union program.
- Strategic Retail & Product Moves: The company is cutting discount partnerships (1,800 stores dropped) while expanding into premium retailers.
- Women & Youth Engagement: With women’s sales at an eight-year low, Vans is revamping its approach to styling and marketing. The upcoming Vans Warped Tour revival underscores a broader effort to reconnect with younger consumers and drive cultural relevance.
Listen and there was not much in the way of new from Vans Global Brand President Sun Choe’s address to VF Corp. investors on the key turnaround of its multi-billion-dollar business.
Moving away from skate, aging up and leaving behind the youth, overreliance on off-price and chasing trends have been the steady drumbeat offered as the diagnosis for three straight years of waning global revenue from Vans.
That’s a painful statistic after 10x growth between 2004 and 2019.
“Since [2019], the business has declined,” Choe told investors last week. “The brand wandered away in pursuit of chasing trends at the expense of core consumer focus. We missed major consumer moments. We expanded into value channels and devalued the brand itself. We aged up with the consumer who adopted us early in their life. We lost sight of who we were.”
Those are all sentiments that have been stated in recent years by a suite of executives past and present. Choe acknowledged about as much.
“We don’t need to post-mortem it forever,” she said. “It was a mistake and we’re fixing it.”
What VF Corp. hopes to be the difference from Choe’s two predecessors is embedded in her resume. She’s a product guru and merchant over branding sage or career executive.
Interestingly, after delivering her first public remarks on what to do about Vans, Choe mostly leaned on what the market’s heard before rather than touting her accomplishments. She was most recently Lululemon chief product officer. Before that were years spent as a merchant at West Elm, Madewell, Guess, Levi Strauss & Co. and Old Navy.
It’s on-the-ground, focused expertise that may just help give Vans a leg up on expanded product assortments and more excitement around its store experience.
Core Ambitions
On brand, Choe dropped Bad Brains, Dischord Records and Washington D.C.’s punk scene at the onset of her presentation last week in a bid to make clear she understands Vans’ roots.
That could help win over workers, some of whom have seen Vans during better times.
Last year’s “Always Pushing” campaign, which Choe said “reclaimed skate” and helped “reset our focus on youth,” is viewed as one example of getting back to the company’s roots.
Working with more athletes has also been a focus in addition to core skate shops, who she said were left in the dust with the company’s move away from the sport.
The company’s Checkerboard Union program focuses on product exclusives for specialty retailers.
Perhaps more important to the specialty channel is the axe taken to the off-price distribution channel.
Vans severed ties with 1,800 discount doors over the past year and added 800 non-value doors, according to Choe.
The value channel is now about one-third of the business. Vans’ actions around off-price will be “strategic and deft,” Choe added.
Aspirational Moves
Even with all the moves in favor of the core, it’s a balancing act with a more directional posturing for the mainstream consumer.
For as much as chasing trends has been partially blamed for Vans downfall, a company doesn’t get to be a multi-billion-dollar business without tapping a broader base.
OTW by Vans launched in 2023 under the previous regime in response to fashion’s “drop culture.”
It’s led to collaborations with HommeGirls, Satoshi, Undercover, Proenza Schouler and Sterling Ruby. Choe said all of those launches sold out immediately.
Those collaborations also led to expansion into higher-end boutiques, such as Undefeated, Bodega, Dover Street Market, Concepts and Beams.
“We are getting noticed,” Choe said.
A recently opened Vans stores in London and the existing New York door are helping the company test new ways of presenting its assortment.
Later this year, the Vans Warped Tour returns for a nostalgic nod to its 30th anniversary. It’ll be three cities at over $200 for a general admission ticket.
“We need to reposition the brand. We’re thrilled that consumers who adopt Vans in their youth maintain brand allegiance forever, but we cannot perpetually age up with them,” Choe explained. “Each new generation embraces Vans as its own. Our focus should perennially target the bracket that has always had an outsized impact on culture.”
And, then there’s women, who Choe said “need to be a critical part of the Vans community.”
The executive said revenue from the women’s side of the business is at an eight-year low and didn’t mince words, calling the photography “flat” and styling “missing the mark” with the youth.
VF Corp.’s next quarterly results release could offer any indication of whether the flurry of activity is moving the needle.
In women’s, similar to much of what was laid out in her address, Choe suggested the matter has been settled and results are forthcoming: “It’s been addressed, and you’ll see that.”
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