Wolverine World Wide Inc /De/ Q2 FY2024 Earnings Call

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Wolverine Worldwide Inc. Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. Please note that this call is being recorded. I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Alex Wiseman, Vice President of Finance.

Good morning, and welcome to our Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 Conference Call. On the call today are Chris Hufnagle, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Taryn Miller, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued our press release and announced our financial results for the second quarter of 2024. The press release is available on many news sites and can be viewed on our corporate website at wolverineworldwide.com. This morning's earnings press release and comments made during today's earnings call include non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures were reconciled to the most comparable GAAP financial measures and attached tables within the body of the release. References made regarding financial results and the outlook for 2024 and comparable results from 2023 in each case for our ongoing business exclude the impact of Keds, Wolverine Leathers, and Sperry. I'd also like to remind you that statements describing the company's expectations, plans, predictions, and projections, such as those regarding the company's outlook for fiscal 2024, growth opportunities and trends expected to affect the company's future performance made during today's conference call are forward-looking statements under U.S. securities laws. As a result, we must caution you that there are a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements. These important risk factors are identified in the company's SEC filings and in our press releases. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Chris Hufnagel.

Thanks, Alex. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's call. For the second quarter, we exceeded our revenue and earnings expectations with broad-based contributions from across the portfolio. We saw sequential revenue improvement, again drove meaningful gross margin expansion year-on-year, and further reduced our inventory and debt. Perhaps more importantly, we continue to strengthen our brand's positioning in the marketplace with improved product pipelines, more effective demand creation initiatives, and better brand management. While the macro environment remains dynamic and challenges no doubt remain on the horizon, we've seen key elements of our turnaround effort continue to build momentum, and we're encouraged that our strategies continue to gain traction. As a result, we're raising the midpoint of our revenue and earnings guidance for the year. Taryn Miller, our new CFO, will provide more details on our second quarter results and update outlook for the year in a few minutes. But first, I want to provide an update on our turnaround journey. Just under 365 days ago, on my first earnings call as CEO, I shared a picture of the company and the situation our company faced at the time. Wolverine Worldwide was in a precarious position, and the state of the business was extraordinarily difficult, requiring decisive action. In the weeks following that call, we outlined an ambitious turnaround plan to first stabilize the business and then transform the organization, ultimately leading to an inflection to growth, all premised on Wolverine Worldwide becoming great global brand builders. While our work is not yet finished, one year in, I'm proud of what our team has accomplished. We've done exactly what we said we'd plan to do. Our fast and bold actions have stabilized the company, streamlining our cost structure and materially expanding our gross margins. We've significantly reduced the debt that constrained our ability to invest, and we've attacked the inventory issues that undermined our brands' positions in the market and impeded our pipeline of new product innovation. At the same time we were doing this essential work, we also made great strides in transforming Wolverine Worldwide for the future. Building a new culture aligned with our vision of being consumer-obsessed global brand builders, shaping our portfolio to focus on brands with the unique potential to win in attractive performance and lifestyle categories, developing key capabilities to execute our strategy, including the collective, a center of excellence specialized in consumer and trend insight, along with new in-house creative and PR resources for today's always-on consumer. We've implemented brand protection measures to help clean up the marketplace, fostered stronger relationships with our wholesale and distribution partners here in the U.S. and around the world, fast-tracked new trend-right innovative products to market, well ahead of our traditional development timelines. We've invested a greater portion of our dollars in demand creation to help drive our brands' awareness and affinity with consumers, and we've enhanced our team with new talent, keenly focused on growth and modern brand-building skill sets. Thanks to our team's hard work and grit, combined with a clear vision and bold call to action, we find the company in a much better place today. But be assured, no one is content with where we stand. We've done the work necessary to position the company to turn the page to the next chapter in its 141-year history, driving the business into the inflection phase of our turnaround to begin to generate profitable growth, and doing it on a sustained basis, quarter-after-quarter, year-after-year. This next chapter in our story begins with our brands. Our brands have tremendous potential, possessing true authenticity and highly desirable categories that represent significant addressable markets today, and we believe are strongly aligned with consumer trends moving forward. More and more people are seeking to better their lives every day, gravitating towards activities that help them live healthier, more productive, and more fulfilled lives, physically and mentally. Our brands are well respected for making great innovative products that enable consumers to run, hike, exercise, move, and work faster, longer, and more comfortably, award-winning products that are simply better and have disrupted the market over time. Our brands are recognized as originals, trailblazers, innovators, and leaders in their categories and possess unique and compelling DNA. Their product design credibility presents amazing advantages to excel in performance categories and build lasting lifestyle businesses. Today, however, the marketplace requires more than well-positioned brands and great products. Brands need to resonate beyond function, and their products need to deliver style and trend as well as performance and innovation. Brands need to tell differentiated relevant stories that only they can credibly tell. And those stories need to engage our consumers where and when they want to be engaged. In short, our brands need to build awesome products and tell amazing stories that make every day of our consumers' lives better. Our team is energized by the opportunity we have in front of us to drive for better: better brands, better products, better storytelling, and ultimately better performance, culminating in greater returns for our shareholders. Our brand-building model focused squarely on the intersection of awesome products, amazing storytelling, and driving the business is beginning to produce better performance. Before I hand it over to Taryn, I'd like to take a few minutes to share some concrete examples from our brands related to each aspect of our model. Beginning with building awesome products. From the very start of our turnaround effort, we prioritized bolstering our brands' product pipelines as quickly as possible to inject newness with compelling innovation and trend-right design. Saucony is the furthest along on this journey. Its accelerated product life cycles in the run category drove a 900 basis point increase in revenue contribution year-over-year in the second quarter from new product introductions. On the heels of introducing the Ride and Guide 17 and Endorphin 4 collections earlier this year, the brand recently launched its award-winning premium runner, the Triumph 22, delivering strong double-digit growth for the collection and run specialty and on saucony.com. The brand followed the strong debut with the launch last month of its most premium max cushion franchise, the Hurricane 24, featuring wearable styling for performance and lifestyle use, and sell-through is off to a strong start. Finally, as an early preview of the planned 2025 introduction in advance of the Olympics, the brand offered a limited release of its pinnacle franchise, the Endorphin Elite 2, a few weeks ago, selling out in just an hour. The super shoe is built on a credit run, the brand's most advanced foam developed through years of lab testing, and will be worn by Olympic marathoner Melinda Elmore in Paris this weekend. On the lifestyle side, Saucony has authentically leveraged its deep product archive along with influential collaborations tapped into the fast-growing retro tech trend, with styles like the ProGrid Omni, ProGrid Triumph, and Ride Millennium driving strong sell-throughs and opening future distribution with the best retailers in tier zero through tier two. While Saucony is building strong momentum here in the U.S., its best expression today may just be in London, as part of the company's and brand's new key city approach. Saucony.com grew 40% in the UK during Q2, contributing to an increase of over 20% in the brand's e-commerce channel globally in the quarter. In July, Saucony was the title sponsor for the London 10K, the centerpiece of a host of activations that propelled the brand to record search interest in the UK. Saucony is just beginning to hit its stride around the world. Moving on to telling amazing stories. As I shared earlier, I believe brands need to do more than just have great products that perform well to succeed. They also need to engage consumers with timely stories that only they can tell, leveraging their unique DNA. In the second quarter, based on insights from one of its consumers that women at times feel insecure about wearing shorts, Sweaty Betty inspired its history to embrace their bodies with its Wear the Damn Shorts campaign. The campaign featured full-funnel messaging and activations, nearly doubling the sale of shorts versus last year, and helped the brand deepen its emotional connections with its consumers. During the second quarter, Sweaty Betty saw double-digit growth of its important leggings category driven by its hero franchise, Power. Earlier this year, the brand expanded its trend-right explorer collection, a light and wrinkle-free casual collection for warm weather and travel that allows the brand to further diversify its assortment, resulting in very strong double-digit growth year-to-date. The Sweaty Betty team remains intensely focused on its consumer and is beginning to influence our broader portfolio's thinking in this critical way. Finishing with driving the business, an intense focus on the health of the marketplace and driving sell-through performance every day has been a critical component of our turnaround as well. We've taken action to shut down rogue selling, optimize distribution, and elevate branded shopping experiences. Merrell, for example, has cultivated a much cleaner selling environment this past season and successfully reset several of its key accounts in the U.S. with more modern assortments to position the brand more appropriately. As a result, in the second quarter, Merrell drove growth at retail in the hiking category, despite the category headwinds, and achieved its third straight quarter of acceleration and market share gains. Merrell's push to modernize the trail through key award-winning product franchises like the Moab Speed 2 and Agility Peak 5, faster and lighter styles at elevated price points, continues to drive sell-through and create momentum. The brand fueled energy and reached new consumers with several collaborations in the second quarter as well, including with Grayson, a premium golf brand that quickly sold out and generated 500 million earned media impressions in the process. Internationally, Merrell, together with its partner in Japan, opened several key stores in Tokyo over the last year. The stores are performing well ahead of their plan while also helping position Merrell as a relevant outdoor lifestyle brand with younger consumers in a highly influential city. As a leader in outdoor footwear, Merrell is stepping into the opportunity it has to reinvigorate the category through innovative and trend-right products and building the brand in key markets around the world. With that, I'm very pleased to hand the call over to Taryn Miller, our new CFO. Today marks her 90th day with the company. She'll take you through our second-quarter results and update guidance in much more detail.

Thank you, Chris, and welcome everyone. I joined Wolverine Worldwide three months ago with a strong belief in the potential of our brands, our strategy to drive profitable growth, and our commitment to improve the financial health of the business and ultimately deliver greater and more consistent value to our shareholders. We are beginning to see traction from the actions taken to become a new and better company and are pleased with how we are performing at this stage of our transformation. Turning to our financial results this quarter and the outlook for 2024, we are encouraged by the sequential revenue and earnings growth our teams delivered in the second quarter, and we made further progress towards building the foundation to drive sustained profitable growth. Second-quarter revenue for our ongoing business of $424.8 million was above our outlook of approximately $410 million as demand trends and supply chain execution continue to improve. Approximately $10 million of the over-delivery was a timing shift between the second and third quarters. The transition of our Saucony inventory from our Louisville Distribution Center to our California Center was completed with minimal disruption, therefore avoiding the previously expected shift of approximately $5 million to the third quarter. In addition, there was approximately $5 million of wholesale orders that shipped earlier than originally expected. Revenue trends for our ongoing business improved sequentially from a year-over-year decline of 24.5% in the first quarter to a decline of 18.4% in the second quarter. We're seeing increased demand for our brands and products as we execute our consumer-focused strategy. The year-over-year comparison includes more than $55 million of revenue in the second quarter of 2023 that did not repeat in the second quarter of this year, including excess end-of-life inventory liquidation and business model changes. Adjusted gross margin of 43.1% increased 400 basis points versus last year. Gross margins were in line with our expectations and reflect a healthier sales mix, lower promotional activity, and the benefit of supply chain cost initiatives. Adjusted operating margin of 6.3% exceeded our outlook for the quarter driven by operating cost leverage on the stronger revenue performance. As a result of the improvement in revenue and operating margin, adjusted diluted earnings per share improved from $0.05 in the first quarter to $0.15 in the second quarter, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.19 in the second quarter of last year. We continue to make progress on strengthening the balance sheet. Inventory was $297 million, down 44% from last year for the ongoing business as we further optimize inventory levels and benefit from improved planning and execution. Net debt was $666 million, down approximately $270 million versus last year. Now turning to our updated outlook for 2024. We are raising the midpoint of our revenue and earnings guidance. While we continue to operate in a dynamic environment, our solid first half results, combined with the development of the order book for our global wholesale and distributor business have strengthened our confidence in our outlook. Fiscal 2024 revenue from our ongoing business is now expected in the range of $1.71 billion to $1.73 billion, an increase of $15 million at the midpoint versus our May outlook. This compares to 2023 revenue from our ongoing business of $1.99 billion and represents a decline of 13.7% at the midpoint of the range. As we shared in our first-quarter call, there were discrete items in 2023 that will not recur in 2024 related to end-of-life inventory liquidation, business model changes, and a timing shift of international distributor shipments. The total revenue generated by these items was $185 million, which was heavily weighted to the first half of the year. Excluding the discrete items, full-year 2024 revenue at the midpoint is expected to decline approximately 4.8%. We expect revenue to improve sequentially throughout the second half as our brands continue to build momentum behind new products and strengthening market activations. In addition, the discrete headwinds that I shared earlier will ease in the second half. We continue to expect full-year 2024 active group revenue to decline by a mid-teens percentage year-over-year, and work group revenue to decline by a percentage in the high single digits year-over-year. Brand performance expectations are consistent with what we shared in May and can be found in our investor presentation on our website. Turning to gross margin. As a result of the actions we've taken over the last year, we continue to expect strong expansion compared to 2023. These include supply chain and product cost savings as well as brand protection actions, the benefit of healthier inventory levels, and a better mix of full-price sales. Adjusted gross margin is expected to be approximately 44.5% at the midpoint of the outlook range, a record for our company, up approximately 460 basis points compared to 2023. Adjusted selling, general, and administrative expenses are expected to be approximately $640 million at the midpoint of the outlook range, or approximately 37% of revenue compared to $716 million in 2023, or 36% of revenue. The lower operating cost structure includes restructuring savings partially offset by incremental investment in our business, normalized incentive compensation, and inflation. Adjusted operating margin is expected to be approximately 7.4% at the midpoint of the outlook range, compared to 3.9% in 2023. Interest and other expenses are projected to be approximately $40 million, down from $63 million in 2023, which reflects the benefit from the significant debt reduction over the last year. The effective tax rate is projected to be approximately 18.5%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share is now expected to be in the range of $0.75 to $0.85, including a $0.10 negative impact from foreign currency exchange. This compares to adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.15 in 2023. Working capital and cash flow optimization remains a priority in 2024. We expect inventory to decline by at least $75 million during the year as we continue to work through specific areas of excess inventory. Operating free cash flow is expected in the range of $110 million to $130 million, with approximately $35 million of capital expenditures. We expect net debt to improve by nearly $175 million to $565 million at year-end. Shifting to our outlook for the third quarter, we expect third-quarter revenue of approximately $420 million, a year-over-year decline of approximately 11%, reflecting continued improvement in revenue performance compared to the prior two quarters. Third-quarter gross margin is expected to be approximately 45%, an increase of 300 basis points from last year and in line with our first-half performance. We expect improvements in operating margin and earnings with third-quarter adjusted operating margins of approximately 7% and adjusted diluted earnings per share of approximately $0.20. In summary, the clarity and execution of our strategy are strengthening our brands and driving improvements in Wolverine's financial position. The transformation to more consistent and profitable revenue growth coupled with strong cash flow will enable us to invest in our brands and new capabilities to become consumer-obsessed global brand builders. And with that, let me hand the call back to Chris before we open it up for questions.

Thanks, Taryn. For concluding our prepared remarks and as I reflect on my one year anniversary in this role tomorrow, I want to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to our global teams. I've asked a lot of you, and you've delivered. You've been simply great. Thanks for your work and your support this past year. You've helped write the first chapter in what I believe will be a great turnaround story. Over the last 364 days, our team has executed an extensive list of initiatives as part of a comprehensive plan to stabilize and begin to transform the company. I'm inspired by what we've accomplished as one Wolverine, but I believe there's so much more in front of us. While we're excited by our brands' positioning and potential and motivated by the early proof points we've seen that give us confidence in our strategy, we know we must strive for better. Better brands, better products and storytelling, and better performance, all leading to greater returns for our shareholders. That's our next chapter and time for us to turn the page. Thank you for taking the time to be with us this morning.

We'll take our first question from Jim Duffy with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, Chris, Taryn, and Alex. I want to start big picture.

Good morning, Jim.

Hi, Chris. Good to speak with you. Chris, there's good evidence you're executing the plan. There are some tangible proof points of brand elevation in the marketplace. I guess firstly, is the marketplace reset complete? And then secondly, can you give us an update on the dialogue you're having with channel partners and speak to how your efforts are translating to forward visibility?

Yes, for sure. Thanks for the question. I would not say that the resets are fully complete. I mean, I think we are still working hard as part of the transformation phase of our turnaround plan. So I don't want to get ahead of ourselves and say that it's done, that there is still certainly more work to do. At the same time, I think we've accomplished a tremendous amount in a very short period of time. And its efforts from just re-engaging our wholesale partners, both domestically and our distributor partners around the world in a very constructive manner over the past year. I think it's becoming more thoughtful about segmentation and distribution. I think it's about attacking rogue selling and really working to bring our inventory levels down and really not work so hard to push product out, but really begin to pivot to a stronger pull model. The feedback and the results are early proof points that we're doing the right things. At the same time, no one here is declaring victory or that we're all the way through. I think the feedback from key partners on where the product pipeline is in demand creation is certainly positive. I think Saucony is certainly out in front of that. We've made a pretty hard pivot as we think about Saucony's strategy, the product line, where we want to sell and how we want to talk about those products. I'm really encouraged by the reception that Saucony has had in the marketplace. We're doing the same thing with Merrell, really modernizing that hike lighter and faster away from that traditional hike business, which you know, that outdoor category has been challenged. At the same time, I'm encouraged that Merrell is leading from a market share gain perspective, really accelerating its market share gains in what continues to be a volatile market. From a work standpoint, I'm encouraged by the progress our work group has made, really getting more product from a trend-right standpoint, really working with the wholesale partners on what that distribution looks like. I would not say the reset is complete, but I think the early actions we've taken have proven successful and we're going to keep driving that business forward each day.

Thank you. I'll jump back in the queue.

Thanks, Jim.

Our next question comes from Mauricio Serna with UBS. Please go ahead.

Great. Good morning and thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations on the results. It's nice to see also the progress on the overall direct-to-consumer growth of the company flat year-over-year on a recurring basis. Maybe could you talk a little bit more about the direct-to-consumer trends by brand? And maybe also could you help us out, maybe bridge out the EPS implications for the second half? I'm just looking at the guidance. I think it implies for the fourth quarter, you will be making like more than at the higher end; you would be making more earnings there than in all the three previous quarters combined. So just want to understand what are the drivers behind that? Thank you.

Sure. I'll take the first DTC question and then I'll hand it over to Taryn to touch on the EPS. We did see a nice inflection in the second quarter from an e-commerce perspective and both an inflection to growth from where we were in the first quarter, which we talked about, which is encouraging, also working to be more thoughtful in how we manage those sites in the promotional cadence. So I think we have seen a nice pivot in that business. Obviously, we have a big couple of quarters ahead of us from a DTC perspective, but specifically, Saucony's e-commerce business was up over 20% in the quarter, which we were certainly encouraged by. We've seen other businesses tick improvement as well. So it's a business we're spending a lot of time on. We think it's a very good expression of the brand. Obviously, as we think about proof points for the broader wholesale business, it's important that we get traction there. So encouraged by the DTC work, although we have two big quarters ahead of us, but certainly progress from where we had been in the first quarter and certainly at the latter part of last year. Over to Taryn to talk about the EPS expectations.

Yes, thank you. You're right. At the midpoint, earnings per share will increase from $0.20 in the first half to $0.60 in the second half of the year. This is really the higher revenue that we're expecting to be the primary driver of that step up in the second half. Supply chain cost savings and SG&A reductions are also driving a step up. Those are already in place and we're starting to see them, but we see a bigger impact from those in the back half. The revenue, we're executing our plan and we're seeing the momentum in the brands from the increased new product introductions that we have in the market, improvements in our product design, and a cleaner and lower inventories at retail. That momentum is showing up in our wholesale and international order book as expected. So I think that revenue is the primary driver of that step up in the earnings in the second half of the year, and it's augmented by the supply chain cost savings and SG&A reductions.

Got it. Super helpful. And then, one last one. Maybe do you have any thoughts or any commentaries that you can give us on preliminary reviews on the spring 2025 order books? Thank you.

Yes, I appreciate that question. Obviously, it's still very, very early in those order windows for the first half of '25. But I can say we're really encouraged by where the product pipelines are. The innovation we brought specifically in Saucony, I think is very strong. Reactions have been positive there. The same things can be said in Merrell around the evolution of that brand from a traditional outdoor brand to a modern outdoor brand. Even some of the pivots we've made in the workgroup. It's too early to provide any color on the first half order book other than to say that I am encouraged by where the pipeline sits. The early reads we've gotten from how we've shown that product to the wholesale partners are encouraging. We'll have a much clearer picture when we speak to you in November.

Understood. Thank you very much and congrats on the results again.

The next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Group. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, everyone. Welcome, Taryn, and nice to see the progress.

I am encouraged by where the pipeline sits. The early reads we've gotten from how we've shown that product to the wholesale partners are encouraging. We'll have a much clearer picture when we speak to you in November. Thank you very much and congrats on the results again. The next question comes from Dana Telsey with Telsey Group. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning, everyone. Welcome, Taryn, and nice to see the progress.

You too. As you think about the wholesale channel of distribution, what did you see domestically? What did you see internationally? Does it break down differently by types of wholesale accounts? And then with inventory levels coming down as they have, how do you think about inventories going forward down by at least $75 million for year-end? Any differences in puts and takes? And also anything on supply chain or freight costs that you're seeing? Thank you.

Yes, of course, Dana. I'll hand over the first part and I'll let Taryn speak to the supply chain costs and what we're expecting for the back half of the year. Certainly, we run a very large global business, and it's different both by region and certainly different both by channel in which we operate. Our inventory health in the U.S. market has come down materially, and Wolverine inventory at retail today is down materially, which is a key part of this turnaround phase, as we've cleaned up the marketplace. I think it varies a little bit by brand and certainly a little bit by channel. Some of the challenges in the U.S. wholesale marketplace are well-documented, and I don't think we are immune from all of those challenges. At the same time, there are winners in every market. Where we are bringing innovative products with strong storytelling, we are getting really strong reactions, which we're encouraged by. That’s why it was so important to work through the inventory as fast as we did because it was impeding the innovation in our product pipeline. Where we have been successful, specifically a brand like Saucony, there is appetite both for new product introductions as things begin to check, and then even expansion of door count in new retailers as we bring products that satisfy their needs. I don’t want to underestimate the challenges that are in the U.S. wholesale landscape, and we don’t necessarily see those abating in the short term, certainly from where the consumer is and what’s on the horizon. Around the world, I think the brands are in a little bit different place as well, but we’re encouraged, particularly by what we’re seeing out of EMA, really led by Merrell and Saucony, with strong reactions. I was just in London a couple of weeks ago and met with some key customers, getting ready for the London Saucony 10K, which was a fantastic event. Again, when brands can bring innovative products that solve consumers' needs and package them with compelling storytelling, there is an appetite there, certainly in categories like run, which has some momentum. It’s hard to paint with a broad stroke given how diversified our portfolio is and the regions of the world we operate in. But, again, U.S. wholesale is not the easiest marketplace right now, but when brands can deliver, there is receptivity. I think the consumer continues to buy things that inspire them, and they have shown a remarkable level of resilience given some of the headwinds they face. I’ll hand it over to Taryn to talk about the supply chain question.

Yes, on the supply chain point, I would say we don't have a lot of new news to share based on what we've talked about in the May guidance. As I shared earlier, we do expect in the second half to benefit from cost initiatives, both in terms of our logistics as well as on our sourcing that we have in place to benefit us in the second half. We are closely monitoring the supply chain dynamics and the volatility that’s happening right now in ocean freight in terms of could it have an impact in terms of deliveries or costs based on the contracts we have in place and based on how the supply chain is operating right now. We aren’t anticipating a meaningful impact from that.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dana.

We'll take our next question from Sam Poser with Williams Trading. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my questions. Good morning, everybody. I'd like to know a couple of things. One, on Saucony, how are you seeing the breakout between performance and lifestyle? You brought up both. And I'll stop there and move on in a moment. Let's start there.

Sure. Good morning, Sam. I think on both fronts, we're encouraged by the progress we've made in short order in Saucony. I think there certainly is the performance run piece of Saucony, there's a performance run lifestyle piece of Saucony, and then I think there's a broader lifestyle related to the retro tech. Congratulations to that brand in very short order. We brought great innovation to that performance run piece. We have introduced the Ride and Guide 17, the Hurricane 24, and the Triumph 22, and those sell-throughs are very strong. It has really been a pivot in how we used to manage the Saucony brand. I really give the team credit for approaching the product line architecture and how they're thinking about distribution, colors, and materials. I’m really pleased about the innovation in the Endorphin collection. We have a marathon runner in the Olympics running next weekend in the Elite 2 on a new and credit run platform, which has been years in the making, and we sold out in just a couple of hours when we dropped it early just a month ago. We’re encouraged by that. Saucony also benefits from a large archive, and certainly retro tech is having a moment now. We think about what we've done around collaborations to build brand heat and how that can extend down in the business. We're seeing a really nice pickup that is being led by selectively opening additional distribution that we’ve largely not played in before and having strong sell-throughs. It also speaks to the nimbleness of what we’re trying to adjust from a supply chain standpoint, really beginning to chase opportunities in a way that we probably wouldn’t have been able to chase before. As we work to pivot to become a more consumer-obsessed organization, nimbleness and agility are key to that. I’m encouraged by the way the supply chain has been able to react. Honestly, there are lots of categories right now and product lines within Saucony that we’re actually chasing, trying to expedite that supply chain right now. That is a good problem to have considering where we were just a year ago. So, I’m encouraged by the progress in Saucony, and I can't say it's one or the other; it's a little bit of both.

I'm more of a focus on Saucony.

Yes, I think nimbleness is relative too. I would say we have not always been the fastest organization, and we're working to become a faster organization and be more reactive and chase more opportunities. I think we're evaluating all of that. And again, I think also, Sam, you’ve been thoughtful on this with us before, we’re going to try to manage our brands a little bit differently. We’re not just going to jam sell-in. We’re going to focus on sell-through and have some level of selectivity on how fast we want to grow. We ultimately want to pivot to drive long-term sustainable growth and returns for the shareholders, and not just obsess about immediate sell-in to the detriment of how we manage our brands. So we will chase responsibly, we will open responsibly, and we’re also working to ensure we can be more reactive. The world certainly is moving quicker. Wholesalers are behaving differently, consumers are behaving differently, and we have to build a better company that can react to how the world has moved.

I'm sorry to bother you for two more. One, on Wolverine, on the boot business, that was significantly better than anticipated, but you really didn't adjust the numbers that much. So I was wondering why, and was part of that the pull-forwards or whatever? And then secondly, when you look at Merrell, Saucony, Sweaty Betty, and Wolverine, I guess, but really the boot business overall, which of those do you think is farthest along? It sounds like it's Saucony, but which of those with progress being made do you think has the longest way to go to right there?

Yes, good question. I'll answer the latter part of that first. I'm really pleased by the progress Saucony has made in a very short order. Some significant shifts in how we've managed that brand from a strategy standpoint, but also really, really quick execution. Saucony also benefits from operating in a category that has tailwinds, and I think in that market that has fragmented, there is space for brands to grow. That is just a structural shift in that category, and Saucony is benefiting from that. Sweaty Betty deserves a ton of credit. We've worked really hard with Sweaty Betty over the past half a year. We have a new leader in place, and I've spent a lot of time with Sweaty Betty. I’m really encouraged by how they're running that business, the largely direct consumer business, which is where I grew up and what I love, because every single day the consumer votes, and you have a lot of control over how the business goes. There's a nice foundation for that Sweaty Betty team. I'm encouraged by the progress we've made along with really getting that integration done after the acquisition. Merrell, I’m encouraged by the progress we’ve made in Merrell, but certainly that category is facing some headwinds. It's incumbent upon the market share leader. We gained another 210 basis points last quarter to really innovate. That’s what Merrell is hard at work to do. You've seen us get after lighter and faster, more athletic trail styles, whether it's the Agility Peak 5 or the Moab Speed 2. We're seeing positive sell-throughs, and I'm encouraged. There are headwinds there, and when Merrell is at its best, it’s not just a trail brand, it’s an outdoor lifestyle brand. We have more work to do there, specifically for her, and that’s what that team is focused on. From a work perspective, I think we missed a couple of trends in work. We honestly assessed where those brands were. I think we had a model that we didn’t pivot fast enough to consumer sentiment, particularly around the Western boot trend. We've made some progress there. We've worked hard on the marketplace. To answer your question, I think Saucony is the furthest along, albeit benefiting from tailwinds. Meanwhile, I think there's broad-based advancement from a product pipeline standpoint that encourages us in our back half guide, as well as into the first half and second half of '25.

Our next question comes from Laurent Vasilescu with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question and congratulations on the ongoing execution of the business. Chris, I wanted to ask about the $5 million shift from the third quarter to the second quarter that you mentioned in your prepared remarks. Are you expecting a similar shift in revenues from the third quarter to the fourth quarter? If so, what numbers should we anticipate?

At the headline, certainly there are disruptions in the supply chain, whether it’s what's happening in the Red Sea with shipping, whether it’s where containers are, or what's happening in Bangladesh right now, where we do source footwear from. I think we have our eyes wide open to all of those realities and working to manage them, at the same time, really working to control what we can control. As it currently stands based on how Q3 and Q4 play out, we're not expecting any sort of material shifts between those quarters due to that disruption, at the same time, it's something that we're monitoring extraordinarily closely. We talk about every single week. I think one of the things we've done as an organization is really work hard over the past year to tie all parts of the organization together much more closely. This notion of working together as one Wolverine. Our supply chain, brands, and corporate functions are working as closely as they ever have. It doesn’t mean we’re immune from some of those macro challenges. I think we’ve got visibility to them and we’re working collectively to solve them as best as we can. We're paying attention. We've got a great leader in the global supply chain, and we’re very connected to the brands. We'll do our very best to navigate through those challenges.

Chris, that's very helpful. And maybe on the supply chain, on Bangladesh, can you maybe quantify? I think your last impact report was from 2022. Can you quantify how big is Bangladesh as a percentage of your sourcing? And then, if we think about China tariffs potentially for 2025, I think the last impact report showed that China was about 20% to 30% of your mix. Maybe can you give us some updates on those exposures for both countries?

Bangladesh is about 19% as it sits today, and China is less.

Okay, very helpful. And then, as we think about gross margins, it's great to see the 44.5 for the year. Absent of any increase in tariffs or shipping rates, how do you think about longer term the gross margin? Is there a new ceiling that we should contemplate longer term for the business?

I think that we're pleased with where we're at in the first half. The midpoint of our guidance, gross margins in the second half are consistent with the first half, so right at that 44.5, 44.7 in the first half, 44.4 in the second half. The expected benefit from that being, as I called out earlier, in terms of those supply chain savings and the SG&A reductions. I would say in terms of thinking longer term, the range we have put out there that we're targeting is in that 45% to 47% range. Based on what we see right now, I think that's still a range that we're looking at for the business in terms of gross margins.

Okay, very helpful. Thank you very much and best of luck.

Thanks, Laurent.

The next question comes from Mitch Kummetz with Seaport Research.

Yes, thanks for taking my questions. Chris, if I heard you correctly, I think you said that Saucony's e-com business was up 20% or over 20%. So correct me if I'm wrong there. But I guess my real question is, what can you say about wholesale sell-through? I know you're probably constrained in terms of your inventory and the sell-in, but what do you see at retail with your wholesale partners in terms of how the brand is performing? Is it comparable to what you're seeing on the e-com business, or do you have much intel on that?

Yes, good question. Thanks, Mitch. Yes, Saucony.com on the quarter was up, I said over 20%. It was actually 21% year-on-year, which we're encouraged by. It could have probably been better. We certainly have holes in the assortment today because things have sold out faster than we anticipated. We really went into this year with a very mindful thought on how we wanted to manage inventory. Given where the company was a year ago, we all sort of held hands and said that we would chase opportunity versus the risk of continuing some of the inventory challenges we had. So we're encouraged by the progress there. We're encouraged by where that business is. I wish we had a little bit more inventory today to chase more of that demand. It certainly is a better place than we were a year ago. Wholesale sell-throughs, I think specifically in run specialty, which has been a core part of that Saucony business for so long. I think we're encouraged by the sell-through rates we're hearing and the feedback we're getting from that run specialty channel. Again, when Saucony delivers innovation, it's over a hundred-year-old brand, and it is a favorite. We clearly know we deliver something that works because the initial reactions are strong. We're encouraged by sell-throughs, Triumph 22, Ride and Guide 17, which I talked about. Hurricane 24 just dropped last month, and we're seeing high single-digit or better sell-throughs in the first couple of weeks. From a Saucony perspective, I talked about this in the February call; we were in the throes of the turnaround then. I said I was bullish on Saucony's prospects. I think Saucony continues to elevate its product line. The changes we've made give us very early initial stages that we're on the right path.

And then maybe last question. On the wholesale order shift. I think it was $5 million. How much of that is like a true order shift versus maybe just pulled forward demand? And if demand were to stay strong through the third quarter, kind of what's your ability to supply that just given some of your inventory constraints and supply chain considerations?

Yes, I think the $5 million that we said really wasn't shipped earlier than we had expected. We've been working to become, as Chris talked about, to strengthen the execution in our supply chain. I think that as we've been able to do that, then as the customer orders come in, we're more able to respond to that. In terms of the broader point on our ability to respond, I think Chris really hit that point earlier in terms of we're getting better. I would say the environment we're in though, is probably getting a little choppier in terms of supply chain. So I think we're looking to balance the strength in our execution with the overall market backdrop that we're in.

All right, thank you and good luck.

Thank you, Mitch.

We will take our final question from Ashley Owens with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Hi, good morning. So, just a few from me. One, can you help us unpack and kind of what led to the results versus the outlined expectations from last quarter for Sweaty Betty? I think it was flat versus low single digits. And then on Merrell, the plans to inflect looks like 4Q could be the turning point there given the guidance today. Was this always the expectation or just any shifts relative to three months ago that you're seeing or expect to play out?

In terms of Sweaty Betty, being roughly flat this quarter was in line with our expectations for the team. While store performance has been somewhat softer, e-commerce has made up for that. Overall, this aligns with what we anticipated for Sweaty Betty. Regarding Merrell, we expected an inflection in growth for Q4, and we are executing the plan we established in February. We have observed momentum across our brands, including Saucony, but also in Merrell. This momentum is driven by the new products we discussed and healthier inventory levels across the entire portfolio.

Okay, great. And then just one more. So with the new product collaborations, any early learnings? We saw the Jae Tips come out. Merrell's been doing some with new colorways and more to come next year, obviously. Are you starting to see that intended effect of expanding beyond just specialty into more lifestyle wear occasions?

Yes, good question. I'm really encouraged by some of the progress we've made around the collaborations. Saucony has done a fantastic job. The Jae Tips collaboration last year was named collaboration of the year, which was fantastic. We're doing more this year, which we're encouraged by. Those drops are critically important. We did a minted ProGrid Triumph collection with Saucony as well. It was a three-hour line for the launch event, and it sold out in just about 10 minutes. Those special moments capture a consumer's attention, build brand heat, brand love, brand affinity, and keep us on the radar with that consumer. The same can be said for Wolverine, which just dropped a great thousand-mile collection with the University of Michigan celebrating this year's team. Even in Merrell, whether it’s the Parks project, which was a great collaboration, or something that I love, which is the Grayson collaboration. We make fantastic shoes for the trail, and those shoes are equally good for the course. A great collaboration with another Michigan-based brand, Grayson, drove tremendous interest. It’s very polarizing, which we loved. That kind of work is important as we manage these brands. It's not just about building awesome products; we also need to package them with great storytelling and give consumers a reason to pay attention. You’ll see only more of that from us in the future, and we’re excited about where we can go from here.

Great. Thanks so much.

We will take our last question from Jonathan Komp of RW Baird. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks. Good morning. Hoping, Taryn or Chris, you might be willing to give a little more color on the channel assumptions embedded in the fourth-quarter inflection to growth. And then, Chris, just curious as you look forward, I know it's early, but are there scenarios already next year you might be approaching your aspirational revenue growth targets or any other directional color as you look forward?

Yes. Thanks, John. I think there are no material changes in how we're thinking about channel assumptions. Taryn said it well a little bit ago. We set out an ambitious plan as part of the turnaround. We talked about the full year and what our expectations were for 2024. We’re very much on that plan right now and sort of doing what we said we would do. So there are no material changes as we think about Q3 and Q4. At the same time, as I think about 2025, we’re focused on continuing to strengthen innovation in the product pipeline and trying to generate that brand heat as wholesalers consider their plans, both domestically and in the U.S. The 2025 order book will be coming together in the next handful of months. Every brand is different from an order window standpoint, and every region and channel is actually a little different, too, based on when those orders are placed. That said, I’m encouraged by the innovation we’ve seen and certainly the reactions from the marketplace, as well as the sell-through. I can’t underscore enough; we still have a lot of work to do. No one is declaring victory. We’re happy with where we stand. The efforts over the past year have only given us the privilege to drive the company forward and keep driving for growth. Thank you. I believe we got disconnected, but I think Taryn addressed John's last question unless there's a follow-up. Okay, operator, I think we're good.

All right. This does conclude today's question-and-answer period. I will now turn the call back over to our presenters for any additional or closing remarks.

Thanks very much. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate the questions and look forward to the follow-ups. Looking forward to speaking to you in November. Thanks, everyone. Be well. Be safe.

This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.