Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q4 in full year 2025 Steve Madden limited earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Danielle McCoy, VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Antoine, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call and webcast. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that our remarks that follow, including answers to your questions, contain statements that we believe to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks that support actual results to materially differ from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks include, among others, matters that we have described in our press release issued earlier today, and filings we make with the SEC. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which may not be updated until our next quarterly earnings conference call, if at all. The financial results discussed on today's call are on an adjusted basis unless otherwise noted. A reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other associated disclosures are contained in our earnings release. Joining me on the call today is Ed Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Zine Wizzuzzi, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Operations. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ed. Ed?

All right. Thank you, Danielle, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review Steve Madden's fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. Pleased to have delivered above-guidance earnings results for the fourth quarter, driven by improved performance in our core Steve Madden footwear business, as well as a strong contribution from the newly acquired Kurt Geiger. Overall, 2025 was a challenging year, driven largely by the disruption and negative impacts resulting from new tariffs on goods imported into the United States. I'm proud of how our team responded, acting quickly to mitigate the near-term impacts while staying focused on executing our strategy for long-term growth. At the center of that strategy is deepening connections with consumers through the combination of compelling product and effective marketing. And despite the difficult environment, our team made meaningful progress on those initiatives across our brand portfolio. In our flagship brand, Steve Madden, Steve and his design team created outstanding product assortments that resonated with consumers and led to a significant acceleration in demand in the back half, particularly in our core category of women's footwear. momentum that has continued into early 2026. We are encouraged by the breadth of this strength with robust demand across various silhouettes, materials, and trends. We've also elevated quality and materials, enabling higher average unit retails while maintaining a strong price value proposition. Our marketing team is amplifying these assortments with richer brand and product storytelling and an integrated, always-on, full funnel strategy designed to deepen emotional connections with our key Gen Z and millennial consumers. And our marketing investments, combined with our TrendRite product, are driving measurable brand heat. Online searches for Steve Madden increased 10% year-over-year in Q4 and have accelerated further in early 2026. And after revenue declines in Q2 and Q3, the Steve Madden brand returned to growth in Q4, and we expect to build on that momentum in 2026 with mid- to high single-digit revenue growth. A highlight in 2025 was our acquisition of Kirk Geiger, which closed on May 6th. In Kirk Geiger London, we added a brand with a unique brand image, distinctive design aesthetic, and compelling value proposition that have driven success across multiple categories, led by handbags. Its differentiated and elevated positioning and its alignment with our strategic initiatives of expanding in international markets, accessories, categories, and direct-to-consumer channels make it a highly attractive and complementary addition to our portfolio. Integration is progressing as planned, and we are more confident than ever in Kirk Geiger's potential to be a significant growth driver in the years ahead. Importantly, the Kirk Geiger London brand continues to have strong momentum. On a pro forma basis, revenue in the Kirk Geiger London brand grew 11% in 2025, and we expect similar growth in 2026. We also continue to make meaningful progress with our fastest-growing brand since the pandemic, Dolce Vita. In 2025, we built on the outstanding success we've had over the last several years in our U.S. footwear business by expanding in international markets and gaining traction in adjacent categories like handbags. Turning to 2026, consumers are responding favorably to our new spring products, and we expect high single-digit revenue growth in Dolce Vita for the year. In summary, all three of our lead brands are poised for growth, and as we look ahead to 2026, we are particularly encouraged by the momentum building in Steve Madden and the opportunity for growth in Kirk Geiger London. On the other hand, we anticipate significant pressure in our private label business, which is primarily conducted in the last channel. We believe the negative impact of tariffs on revenue has been most severe here, where price sensitivity is highest and we don't have the benefit of brand leverage for pricing actions. Private label revenue decreased 15% in 2025, and we expect a further decline of nearly 20% in 2026. We also expect higher SG&A driven by the normalization of incentive compensation and the restoration of senior executive salaries. But overall, while we continue to face pressure and uncertainty related to tariffs, we are heartened that the fundamentals of our business are strong. Our product assortments and marketing campaigns are resonating with consumers. Our brands are powerful and gaining relevance, and our strategy provides multiple levers for growth and long-term value creation. And now I'll turn over to Zim to review our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results in more detail and provide our initial revenue outlook for 2025.

Thanks, Ed, and good morning, everyone. In the fourth quarter, our consolidated revenue was $753.7 million, a 29.4% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Excluding the newly acquired Kurt Geiger, consolidated revenue decreased 1.4%. Our wholesale revenue was $433.3 million, up 7.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Excluding Kurt Geiger, our wholesale revenue decreased 2.6%. Wholesale footwear revenue was $252.4 million, an 11% increase from the comparable period in 2024, or up 5.5% excluding Kurt Geiger, driven by double-digit increases in Steve Madden and Dolce Vita, partially offset by a double-digit decline in our private label business. Wholesale accessories and apparel revenue was $180.9 million, up 3.1% compared to the fourth quarter in the prior year, or down 13%, excluding Kurt Geiger, due primarily to declines in Steve Madden handbags and private label. In our direct-to-consumer segment, revenue was $316.6 million, a 79.9% increase compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Excluding Kirk Geiger, our direct-to-consumer revenue increased 1.6%, with modest increases in both our brick-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses. Steve Madden U.S. DTC returned to comp growth in Q4, a strong performance in our full-price channels offset continued weakness in our outlets. We ended the year with 399 company-operated brick and mortar retail stores, including 98 outlets, as well as seven e-commerce websites, and 133 company-operated concessions in international markets. Our licensing royalty income was $3.9 million in the quarter compared to $3.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Consolidated worth margin was 43.8 percent in the quarter compared to 40.4 percent in the comparable period of 2024. Wholesale gross margin was 31.5 percent compared to 30.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024. Driven by the addition of Kirk Geiger business, partially offset by the impact of new tariffs on goods imported into the United States. Direct-to-consumer gross margin was 59.8 percent compared to 62% in the comparable period in 2024 as a result of the addition of the relatively lower margin per Geiger concession business and the impact of new tariffs on goods imported into the United States. Operating expenses were $278.9 million or 37% of revenue in the quarter compared to $182.9 million or 31.4% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024. Operating income for the quarter totaled $50.9 million, or 6.8% of revenue, compared to $52.6 million, or 9% of revenue in the comparable period in the prior year. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 23.1%, compared to 21.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Finally, net income attributable to Steve Madden Limited for the quarter was $34.3 million, or $0.48 per diluted share, compared to $39.3 million, or $0.55 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2024. Now I would like to touch briefly on our full-year results. Total revenue for 2025 increased 11% to $2.5 billion compared to $2.3 billion in 2024. Excluding Kurt Geiger, revenue declined 6.6% compared to 2024. Net income attributable to Steve Madden Limited was $120.9 million, or $1.70 per dilute share, for the full year of 2025, compared to $192.4 million, or $2.67 per daily share for 2024. Moving to the balance sheet, our financial foundation remained strong, and as of December 31, 2025, we had $234.2 million in top standing debt and $112.4 million in cash, cash equivalents, in short-term investment for a net debt of $121.7 million. Inventory at December 31, 2025 was $417 million compared to $257.6 million at the end of 2024. Excluding Kirk Geiger, inventory was $261.9 million, a 1.6% increase compared to the save time last year. Our CapEx in the fourth quarter was $10.3 million, and for the year was $42.6 million. The company did not purchase or repurchase any shares of its common stock in the open market in 2025. During the fourth quarter and full year 2025, the company spent $5.2 million and $13.5 million, respectively, on shares acquired through the Net Settlement of Employee Stock Awards. The company's board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.21 per share. The dividend will be payable on March 20, 2026, to stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 11, 2026. Turning to our outlook, we expect revenue for the full year 2026 to increase 9% to 11% compared to 2025. For the first quarter of 2026, we expect revenue to increase 15% to 17%. Due to the uncertainty related to recent developments with respect to tariff policy in the United States, the company is not providing earning guidance at this time. Now I would like to turn the poll over to the operator for questions.

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while I compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Paul Azuz from Citi. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks, guys. I'm curious if you were prepared to give guidance as of a week ago in the Supreme Court decision and actions of the administration caused too much uncertainty that made you take this approach of not giving EPS guidance, or was there already uncertainty? Was it still too high already where you didn't plan on giving guidance? Let me just start there.

Yeah, no, we did plan prior to Friday. We were planning on giving guidance for the year based on the policy that was in effect as of that time. But obviously, over the last few days, there's been an enormous amount that's changed and a number of important questions remain unanswered. And, you know, there's genuine uncertainty about where things go from here. And obviously, we're talking about tariffs, which are a factor that have a significant impact on our earnings. So, given that level of uncertainty, we just don't think it would be responsible to put out earnings guidance right now. And, you know, ultimately, we view guidance as a commitment to the investment community. And we only want to provide it when we have the information and clarity necessary to stand behind it. And at this moment, we just don't have that.

Yeah, got it. And then, I guess, is it just the tariff uncertainty? Obviously, there's an impact on your cost of goods, maybe where you source, or is it also a function of already hearing something from your retail partners since Friday that's resulted in higher uncertainty?

No, it's really the impact of tariffs and how that affects our cost structure and our earnings. That's why we did provide revenue guidance, because we still feel that we have nice visibility into demand trends.

Got it. And then just last one for me, if you could just give us an update on your sourcing dates, like how you ended the year in terms of country of origin, and if at this point you're planning any changes for 2017.

Yeah, and in the fall, typically we've talked about this with China versus other. As you know, China back in 2024 was over 70% of our sourcing footprint. And we got that into the high 30s in fall of 2025. Now, year to date, that's got a four in front of it. We're back in the 40s, given that towards the tail end of the year, China came essentially into parity with many of the other countries that we're sourcing from in terms of the tariff. And that continues to be how we're thinking about it, at least for the near term. But obviously, we're going to remain flexible.

Any other countries you can talk about?

Yeah, sure. Gene, you want to go through the big ones? The second one, I guess the first one that we diversify to is Cambodia, and Vietnam comes right after it, and obviously Mexico, as we always emphasize Mexico for the Steve Madden And given that Brazil now went from 50% to 10%, that really opens up the door for more production in Brazil as well for Steve Madden and Dolce Vita.

Thanks a lot, guys.

Thanks, Bob. Thank you. Our next question comes from Anna Andreeva from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Thanks so much for taking our question. The first one we have just on the 1Q revenue guide, you said 15 to 17, it's lower than the growth you guys guided for the holiday. And obviously you talked about strength in the core, you know, continuing here into 26. So is the difference there, private label or, you know, anything else going on? Maybe something with concessions that KG just wanted to follow up on that. And just as we think about the margin recapture back to low doubles achieved previously for the core business, can you talk about that? Kurt Geiger was a 9% margin business pre-tariff. I'm not sure if you mentioned what were margins in 25. and you talked about getting to high teens there over time. Can you maybe remind us on what revenue-based that would be?

Sure. In terms of the Q1 revenue, I think you were comparing it to what we just delivered in Q4. I think one important factor to understand is that Kirk Geiger, because it's primarily a DTC business, is much more Q4-weighted. So the impact of Kirk Geiger on the consolidated revenue growth rate is much more significant in Q4. So that's a big part of that. The other thing is we are expecting the business excluding Kirk Geiger to be down about mid-singles in Q1. We expect it to grow each quarter thereafter. And the headwinds there, you've hit the nail on the head, the biggest one is private label. About 95% of that decline is coming from private label, which we expect to be down about 30% in the quarter or maybe even a little bit more. And then, you know, obviously still pressure on Steve Madden handbags, which we've called out previously. And, again, that's a business that we expect to turn positive in terms of growth in Q2. In terms of KG operating margins, we came in at about, let's see, 6.8% for the period that we owned them in 2025. Obviously, we're not giving guidance for 26 on an earnings basis, so we're not going to provide an estimate of what that looks like in the near term. But as you pointed out, we have committed to getting that into, you know, initially the low doubles, and we certainly think that brands business has the potential to be a mid-teens operating margin business over time.

Okay, that's very helpful. And just to follow up on the core business, do you think getting back to low doubles, which you were, you know, just two years ago, is pretty realistic over time, or can you even do better?

Yeah, I think getting back to where we were is realistic. Obviously, the timing on that is in flux with all the uncertainty that we're facing right now.

Thank you so much. Best of luck.

Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Jay Sol from UBS. Please go ahead. Super.

Thank you so much. Ed, maybe if we talk about the fiscal 26 guidance, can you just help us understand the private label business? Can you size it for us, like where it finished the end of 2025 and kind of where you see it trending for 2026?

Yeah, that's clearly the biggest challenge that we're facing right now. So private label, just to take you back, was about $415 million in 2024. we had a pretty significant decline in 25, down to about $355 million, so around about $60 million decline. Where we sit today, we see an even bigger decline in 2026. I think that could approach a $70 million decline. So that's why I think we articulated it, you know, approaching 20% decline in 2026. And again, that's very different from what we're seeing in the branded business, where we are seeing a very nice recovery from the hit that we took in 2025. And as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, this is a business that has been affected much more severely by tariffs, because this is primarily done in those value channels, As you know, where our customers are most price sensitive and where, because it's private label and we don't have the benefit of our brands and the brand leverage, we don't have that power when we're looking to, you know, employ pricing actions. And so we have seen some of those customers pull back from us on a temporary basis. You know, we're confident that we'll be able to build that back over time. We still have good relationships with those customers. We still feel that we bring something very compelling to them in terms of our styling, our fashion, and the information that we have about what's working in other channels. But it's clearly a headwind for 2026.

Okay, that's clear and super helpful. Maybe if I can just ask a couple more. Can you also talk about the off-price business and kind of how you're viewing that for fiscal 26? And maybe, Gene, one for you. Just on SG&A, you called it out in the press release, some higher incentive comp. But also maybe can you just talk about maybe some other, you know, executive salaries with the impact of lower private label sales or, you know, some of the other, you know, some of the other costs in the business? Like, can you give us an idea of how you expect SGA dollar growth to be in fiscal 26 would be helpful?

I'll start with the OP and then I'll turn it over to Zine. So the off-price business is recovering. You know, we took a significant hit there in 25 as well with all the tariff disruption. And we will see, we should see nice growth in that channel in 26. I don't expect to get in that channel all the way back to where we were in 24, which is in contrast to our first tier retailers, our department stores, pure play e-commerce retailers, specialty stores, et cetera, where we expect the growth in 2026. to recapture everything we lost in $25 and then some. So essentially, first tier, we're going to be above $24 and $25. Off price will be below $24, but above $25. And mass will be below $24 and $25.

So Jay, from an APEX perspective, obviously in addition to the inclusion of Code Geiger for a full year versus just having them for eight months the prior year, We'll also see some pressure in our SG&A. I think we talked about the headwind from resetting the incentive compensation and restoring the salaries. That's about 14 to 15 pennies right there. And as you may recall, that was reduced for a good portion of fiscal 2025, the salary base. We're also expecting the warehouse and fulfillment cost pressures to continue into 2026. That's both from occupancy, from renewing two leases in two of our major warehouses, and labor costs. We still are seeing inefficiencies in labor and labor shortages that we have to react to on a daily basis in California. We also expect warehouse fulfillment costs to be high as our business increases and our DTC increases. And our plan is to maintain our investment in marketing to capitalize on the good trends we're seeing on the product side and further support our international expansion. And also we'll continue to invest in our IT system and store fleet, which has an impact on depreciation.

Got it. All right. Super helpful. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mernie Sapiro from The Retail Tracker. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. And I have to say, congrats, because the product in your stores looks absolutely outstanding. So I'm curious if we could just run through the tariff numbers. Based on, forgetting the Supreme Court changes, but based on where we were, were the hardest hits of tariffs that product came through during the holiday season through the first half of 26? Is that what it looked like prior to this? And then if you could just also talk a little bit about the sales trends. What percentage or what did it look like? How much were you able to pass through either to the consumer or mitigate with what you were doing internally?

Yeah, first of all, thank you for the comments on the product. That's ultimately the most important thing. The greatest driver of our financial performance is the strength of our product. So we appreciate that. I guess I could start on the tariff question, then Zine can fill in the gaps. In terms of when we were going to see the worst impact throughout this year, prior to the ruling, look, I think we would have seen on a gross impact a significant impact from tariffs in every quarter. On a year-over-year basis, the worst would have been in Q1 because we didn't have, you know, a lot of pressure last year in Q1. What was the last part of this, Cara, please?

That was the L's trying.

How much were we able to mitigate? Oh, and in terms of mitigate, yeah. Look, as you know, we have put through some price. In Steve Mann in particular, it's about, I would say, 10% on light categories, and we've been successful in getting that through and maintaining nice full-price selling. That's because we have the fashion right, I think, most importantly, and also because of what I mentioned earlier, which is that we have elevated quality and materials so that there's more perceived value in the product. Obviously, that was not enough to offset the full amount of the tariffs.

So from a flow of tariffs, Marnie, Q1 was definitely the highest. Q2, we started seeing that we're comping some of the tariffs from the prior year. And Q3 and Q4 had minimal impact.

Great. That's what I figured. I just wanted to confirm. And then could you just, I know it's a smaller part of the business, but I'm just curious how the apparel business has been going. It looks very good, particularly in Macy's and some of the other stores. I'm curious, have the results there been good? Is the customer, you know, excited about the brand?

Yeah, thank you for asking about that, because I'm really excited about what we're seeing in apparel. You know, we continue to do really well in that, you know, our largest category has been dresses, and we continue to perform well there. But I'm excited about some of the traction that we're seeing in outerwear, too. In Q4, we had a lot of success there, and anything with fur was really phenomenal for us. And even now, we're seeing some nice early reads on more lighter weight. outerwear pieces. So that's exciting. We're getting additional doors with some of our key department store customers like Dillard's and Macy's. And that's not only the contemporary sportswear departments, but also dress departments. And we're investing there. You know, we brought on some high-level, very experienced talent last year into the organization and really feel good about that and about the path that we're on there. So that should be a growth vehicle for us in the coming years.

Great. Thanks, guys. I'll leave it for someone else.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Sam Poser from Williams Trading. Please go ahead.

Thanks for taking my questions. You talked about the factors that you, you know, the thereof factors um the can you walk through sort of specifically what's concerning you because theoretically especially with you know you're you're a few base you know you're five percent four percent better in a lot of countries and you're a lot lot better in in in brazil than you anticipated for the time being um can you talk about sort of in detail in any details you can about, you know, the factors that have precluded you from giving guidance, maybe, you know, what may happen with 301 tariffs and things like that. And then I have one more.

I mean, Sam, we can talk about this all day, but I think the headline is there's just a tremendous amount of uncertainty. We don't have clarity or any stability in terms of the policy environment here. And so we don't know what it's going to look like from day to day. There have been multiple changes within the last five days. I think even yesterday we got some new information that we have not yet confirmed about where we are. So, you know, we obviously we have a responsibility to give information, investors information that's accurate and reliable.

And until there's more clarity around tariffs, we don't think earnings guidance would meet that standard no i understand i understand that so let me let me ask it another way if we take today versus thursday just in that factor it's better than you thought it would be but there's other factors that could make it coming possibly coming soon that could make it the same or worse than it was on thursday is that a fair way to think i think that's overall yes i think that's that okay yeah and then and then um with the weakness or with the plan with you know conceptually with the plan down business or not plan down the private label business that's going to be down um that that structurally sends your gross margin up but your s and and the other factors you've already talked about gross with sgna up as well as a percent of sales so because it doesn't use very much SG&A. So, conceptually, your gross margin is going up, and SG&A is going up a little bit more because of the incentive comp and the other factors that Zine just walked through. Is that a fair, like in dollars, it goes up because of those factors. As a percent, it would go up anyway because there's virtually no SG&A attached to the private label.

Yeah, it is. There was a lot there, but it is true that as private label shrinks, that that is a mixed benefit to our gross margin.

It's also true that there's not a lot of SG&A that goes away when that business comes down. and and what is the time frame between the orders written let's say by the mass by walmart target um uh versus everything else so like how what what is your um visibility right now on orders from them and and when does when does their you know you mentioned at one of the meetings that some of these guys are going to go direct. When do you think that product that they do themselves start hitting their shelves so they can see how well it did or does compared to what you've delivered over the years?

We're seeing declines throughout this year. We assume products coming from other places that they're filling in in spring and then some more in fall. So I think that's the answer. In terms of the timing, in terms of the visibility, it's not that different from what we see in the balance of the business. They do work a little farther out, but because of the first cost nature of the business, That means that, you know, where we're delivering the product earlier to them because they're picking it up overseas and then they're responsible to bring it to the United States and get it through the warehouse and to their floors, you know, we then are essentially the time between when we take the order and when we ship it is very similar to the brand of business.

Thanks very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Tom Nicky from Needham. Please go ahead.

Hey, thanks for taking my question. And I think you made a comment before about the decline in private label and you characterized it as temporary. Is that based on, you know, kind of conversations you've had with partners who've, you know, kind of told you that in a more normal environment, you know, you'd get that business back? Or, you know, is there any risk there that that chunk of the revenue base has kind of been structurally reduced?

Yeah. No, I think I hopefully what I said is that I hope it's temporary. We believe it will be temporary because we believe that we offer these customers something that they can't get from other folks. And that's why we've been able to build a very successful business with them over decades. And frankly, we have seen this movie before. There are periods where, you know, I think they get new management or whatever, and somebody comes in and says, hey, there's maybe a lower cost provider, or we could go direct or whatever, and we've seen our business contract. But typically, after a season or two, when maybe perhaps they don't get the fashion as right as we've got it for them in the past, we've seen them come back to us, and that business has come back. And certainly that's what we will be working very hard to make happen here.

I'm just saying very helpful. And a quick follow-up on SG&A. So I know there's a bunch of headwinds this year. You know, I think, Zane, you mentioned something like 15 cents from Incentive Comp, and I know that there's a wraparound of the Geiger acquisition. When we just kind of think of just when you layer it all together, like I guess what order of magnitude should we think about for SG&A growth for the year? I mean, I think you've got high single-digit revenue growth for the year. Should we think like something, you know, in the teens for SG&A growth this year?

Yeah, I'll step in there. I think given that we're not providing earnings guidance, we're not going to also guide all the line items down the P&L. So we had to postpone that one until we put out the earnings guidance.

Fair enough. All right. Thanks very much and best of luck this year.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Dana Talesy from Talesy Advisory Group. Please please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. As you think about the DTC business, any unpacking of how e-commerce did relative to stores, what you're seeing, full price and outlet and plans for opening stores this year and remodels and refreshes, and then also just touching on international, how did that do for the Kirk Geiger brand and how did it do for the Steve Madden brand. Thank you. Sure.

Yeah. So in terms of stores, you know, we saw a nice acceleration in or DTC overall, nice acceleration in Q4 in Steve Madden. Now that was driven by full price channels. We still had a double digit decline in outlets, but we had a nice, nice increase in our full price stores and an even stronger increase in our e-commerce business. And all of those businesses have actually improved further going into Q1. So feel good about the momentum there. Outlet is still running negative, although we've gotten that into the single digits according to date. And we actually even are positive for the month, which we haven't seen for a little while. So that's a positive story. Kirk Geiger, they had a very strong comp performance of high teams in Q4 in the Kirk Geiger brand, driven primarily by digital, but also a healthy performance in stores. And as we look ahead, yeah, we will have some store growth. In Geiger, as we've talked about, one of the initiatives is to open more stores in the United States. We view that as a revenue and profit opportunity, but also as a vehicle for us to build brand awareness and really tell the Kirk Geiger story, because as we've said, we think the stores are the best expression of the brand. So right now, I think we're looking at about five stores opening this year in the United States, and we're excited about those. One of those will be an outlet. The balance will be full price. In terms of Steve Madden, I think we'll probably open maybe 18 stores around the world, but we'll close a similar amount, maybe even a little bit more. So I think the store base there is not going to grow. And then we've got a handful of remodels as well. I don't know the number. I don't see if you have that off the top of your head.

No, I don't have the exact number, but for major remodels, we're probably over 10.

Got it. And then marketing spend this year, how are you thinking about it?

I think you'll see we're going to continue to invest in marketing. Obviously, we're growing the top line. Over the past several years, we've seen a really significant increase in the percentage of revenue. This year, I think we're planning that more flat as a percentage revenue. So up in dollars on the growing sales, but really pretty similar in terms of percentage of revenue.

Thank you.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one and wait for your name to be Our next question comes from Aubrey Teanillo from BNP. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to go back to the annual revenue guidance of 9 to 11 percent. Could you maybe break that down in terms of what you're expecting from the core business in wholesale footwear, accessories, apparel, DTC, and then also what you expect Kurt Geiger to contribute in terms of revenues?

Sure. Yeah, so I guess I'll start off by saying that the business excluding Kurt Geiger, we're looking to be up low singles. Um, uh, Kirk Geiger. And again, just to, just to point out that includes that private label, uh, pullback. So if you exclude private label, we're looking to be up, uh, around six to seven percent at the, uh, towards the middle of the guidance. Um, Kirk Geiger on a reported basis will be up, you know, 50%. Um, and then if you're looking at that on a pro forma basis, just so you can understand the underlying growth there. That's up really high singles with the brands growing in the low double digits and then concessions pulling down the overall consolidated number there. In terms of the segments, you know, branded wholesale footwear and wholesale accessories, excluding Kirk Geiger should show nice growth, kind of mid to high singles, positives there with, again, private label down significantly in each of wholesale footwear and wholesale accessories. And then DTC, I think we've got that, excluding Kirk Geiger, growing around 7.5% at the midpoint.

Perfect. Thank you. And then, Ed, I think you mentioned on the last call that for 4Q, there would be something like mid-teens AUR increases with about 10% of that coming from like-for-like and the rest from product mix. How should we be thinking about AURs going into 2026 and particularly on the product mix side of things?

Yeah, we continue to see nice benefit there. I think in the Steve Madden business, Steve Madden DTC business, I have the numbers in the U.S. in front of me, we were up about 18%, actually, is where we ended for Q4. And we're trending pretty similar to that in Q1. And, again, it's really three factors. It's roughly 10% price increases, and then you've got the mix, and then a little bit of reduced promo activity as well. You know, as we move throughout the year, I do expect that to moderate somewhat. I don't think we're going to provide specific guidance around AUR, but I still think it should be a tailwind in the coming quarters.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our last question comes from Janine Stichter from BTIG. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Can you talk a little bit more about your wholesale footwear business outside of the private label? It came in a bit better than expectations. Maybe just speak to what you're seeing in terms of initial orders and reorders. And given where your supply chain is in right now, Are you in a position to chase the traditional demand come through?

Yeah, we're really excited about the momentum that we have there. And again, specifically in that Steve Mann, of course, Steve Mann women's business, it feels better than it has in quite some time, frankly. You know, we saw a really significant acceleration in our sell-throughs in the back half of the year. They were actually negative in the first part of the 25, turned positive in Q3. We're up, and then a bit up sort of mid-teens. This is our sell-throughs to the end consumer, you know, in Q4 and so far in 2026. And our wholesale customers are really reacting, and so we're seeing, you know, we're seeing better initial orders. We're seeing chase activity. You know, as we look at sort of plans going forward, obviously those are getting better based on the momentum. I will say most of our big customers, they seem to want to really position themselves to chase stuff. You know, I think they're trying to leave a little bit of room in the way that they plan to chase hot items. And obviously, you know, we continue to have a speed advantage over our competitors. We have the right product right now. And so we feel like we should be well positioned to win in that environment.

Great. And then just quickly, you mentioned Dolce Vita in the beginning of the call. playing it up high single digits for the year. Maybe just remind us how big that business is and anything else you can speak to around the growth opportunity there.

Yeah, I mean, Dolce Vita has been a really great story for us over the last five years or so. And as we said, it's, I think, been the most, the strongest growing business for us in the company as a brand since the pandemic and most consistent. It's now finished the year over $240 million in revenue. and, you know, we feel like we just continue to, you know, to build that brand. As we said, you know, it was primarily all footwear in the U.S. You know, it was historically primarily a wholesale business. Then we built this very successful Dolce Vita.com business. Now we've opened a handful of stores which are performing well and we've started to now extend the brand into other categories. We're getting some nice traction in handbags and we're also seeing some growth in international markets. So it's a good story and one we want to keep feeling.

Great, thanks so much.

I am showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn it over to Mr. Rosenfeld for closing remarks.

Great, thank you so much for joining us on the call today. We hope you have a great day. We look forward to speaking with you on the Q1 call.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.