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It was a mixed bag for many companies this week as earnings season kicks into full swing.

Adidas, Allbirds, Steve Madden, Wolverine Worldwide, Under Armour, Tapestry, Capri Holdings, Tod’s and Ralph Lauren all reported earnings results this week. In some cases, these companies posted a positive outlook on the year, but most are dealing with several headwinds and internal challenges as the state of where the U.S. economy is heading remains top of mind.

As we look back on the week, here are top three takeaways from the most recent round of earnings reports.

More Trouble in North America

Under Armour, Adidas and Tapestry were among the companies this week reporting softening demand in the U.S. and North America as the market continues to cause anxiety.

For Adidas, the German sports brand said this week that the North American region was “problematic” in the third quarter, with sales there falling 8.8 percent to 1.48 billion euros.

Adidas said it’s dealing with higher inventory levels, and therefore increased discounting, in North America and is trying to reduce the level of goods it has there, the company explained. There was also consecutive improvement here: in the second quarter, sales in North America had fallen 16 percent.

As for Under Armour, president and CEO Stephanie Linnartz said on a conference call with analysts on Wednesday morning that driving U.S. sales is a priority for the company going forward. In fact, the company’s poor performance in the region led to Under Armour to revise its full year outlook – citing “several pressures” impacting its North American business like continued inflation, mixed consumer confidence and the effects of wholesale channel destocking having led to softness in future orders.

Capri Holdings is also feeling the sting from American consumers. The company took a big hit in the second quarter as softening consumer demand and a hitch with a new e-commerce system hurt sales ahead of the company’s planned takeover by Tapestry Inc. next year.

Every owned brand at Capri saw a dip in sales, each citing softening consumer demand in North America. Revenue in the Americas at Capri’s Versace label saw a 20 percent decline in the quarter, Jimmy Choo saw revenue drop 11.6 percent in the region — and Michael Kors declined 13.5 percent.

Wholesale Confusion

Under Armour, which once pulled back its wholesale distribution, is now revisiting the channel as it looks to grow its business.

CEO Stephanie Linnartz, who took over the helm of the company in February, said that the expected downturn in the second half is being driven by continued “pressures in our wholesale business,” due in part to inflation and lower consumer confidence, which have led to promotions and an “overall softness in our future wholesale order book.” In the third quarter, Under Armour’s wholesale revenue decreased 1 percent to $840 million.

To counteract these challenges, Linnartz said, the company is leaning into a more premium wholesale distribution strategy. As reported, Under Armour had made plans to exit 2,000 to 3,000 doors in North America to focus on more productive partnerships such as those with Dick’s Sporting Goods and Macy’s.

Steve Madden also reported declines in its wholesale channel. In the third quarter, the company said wholesale revenue declined 0.3 percent to $433.5 million. Wholesale footwear revenue decreased 7.5 percent, while accessories and apparel revenue in the segment increased 22.7 percent.

On a call with analysts this week, Steve Madden chairman and CEO Edward Rosenfeld said that strengthening the company’s core U.S. wholesale footwear business is a key priority.

“This business has been under significant pressure this year as our wholesale customers pulled back on orders across the board as they prioritize inventory control,” Rosenfeld said. “But while we are still not all the way back to where we’d like to be, we saw a significant improvement in the third quarter. U.S. wholesale footwear revenue decreased 6 percent in the quarter, and we expect to see sequential improvement again in the fourth quarter.”

The Era of Transformation Plans

Amid the economic uncertainty the industry is facing, several companies are forging ahead with transformation plans.

At Wolverine Worldwide on Thursday, the Rockford, Mich.-based footwear company revealed a new round of layoffs as it looks to streamline the company. While Wolverine did not disclosed the number of employees affected by this move, the company said in a press release that these reductions are part of a group of initiatives that are expected to deliver $215 million in annualized savings.

At the same time, newly appointed president and CEO Chris Hufnagel said the company would continue to pursue the sale of other non-core assets in the fourth quarter. This follows the company’s recent sale of Keds as well as the Hush Puppies intellectual property in China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and the sale of its North American Wolverine Leathers business to New Balance.

At Allbirds, which is in the middle of executing its own transformation plan, co-founder and CEO Joey Zwillinger said the company’s third quarter results represented progress with a new strategy meant to jumpstart growth and improve capital efficiency and profitability.

After some product missteps in 2022, Allbirds’ transformation plan has largely hinged on doubling down on core products, like the Wool Runner, and shifting away from newer styles that have not resonated as strongly with consumers. This strategy most recently came to life with the launch of the Wool Runner 2 earlier this month.

“When we enter 2024, we’ll have that recalibrated product assortment, less discounted product driving higher full price sell through and we’ll put marketing in a more prominent position to then enjoy the benefits of all the cost reduction that we did in 2023,” Zwillinger said.

After closing its 2022 fiscal year in March with net revenue of $1.8 billion — the company’s second-strongest revenue performance in history — L.L.Bean is focused on its omnichannel growth strategy.

This effort, L.L. Bean said in a statement, will have its products in more than 70 new storefronts, in addition to e-commerce platforms.

“Our omnichannel growth strategy continues to be an effective framework for our business, ensuring we’re able to meet customers where they are through a unique mix of channels and locations,” L.L.Bean president and CEO Stephen Smith said in a statement. “We’re grateful to be in a position to expand our retail presence and build new wholesale relationships in order to serve more customers. Everything we do is in support of our company purpose to enable people to experience the restorative power of being outside, and these new ventures will ensure we’re able to fulfill that purpose for years to come.”

L.L. Bean announced in a statement that it is set to debut four stores in North America, including two in Canada and two in the U.S. The Canada doors will be in Quebec, located in the greater Montreal region — Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville opening Aug. 25 and Boisbriand opening Sept. 29. These mark the brand’s first retail stores in Quebec. What’s more, L.L. Bean confirmed it will launch a French-language e-commerce site to coincide with the store openings.

After closing its 2022 fiscal year in March with net revenue of $1.8 billion — the company’s second-strongest revenue performance in history — L.L.Bean is focused on its omnichannel growth strategy.

This effort, L.L. Bean said in a statement, will have its products in more than 70 new storefronts, in addition to e-commerce platforms.

“Our omnichannel growth strategy continues to be an effective framework for our business, ensuring we’re able to meet customers where they are through a unique mix of channels and locations,” L.L.Bean president and CEO Stephen Smith said in a statement. “We’re grateful to be in a position to expand our retail presence and build new wholesale relationships in order to serve more customers. Everything we do is in support of our company purpose to enable people to experience the restorative power of being outside, and these new ventures will ensure we’re able to fulfill that purpose for years to come.”

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L.L. Bean announced in a statement that it is set to debut four stores in North America, including two in Canada and two in the U.S. The Canada doors will be in Quebec, located in the greater Montreal region — Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville opening Aug. 25 and Boisbriand opening Sept. 29. These mark the brand’s first retail stores in Quebec. What’s more, L.L. Bean confirmed it will launch a French-language e-commerce site to coincide with the store openings.

L.L. Bran’s stores in the U.S. will both be located in Massachusetts. Hanover will debut first, opening Sept. 8, followed by Peabody on Oct. 6.

At the moment, L.L. Bean has 56 stores in the U.S, another 25 stores in Japan and has 13 licensed retail store locations in Canada that are operated by Jaytex Group.

Aside from brick-and-mortar expansion, L.L. Bean confirmed it will add two key wholesale accounts to its U.S. roster: Dillard’s and Moosejaw. Also, the company will add 10 independent specialty retailers in the southeastern U.S.

“As a 110-year-old company, we have taken great care in ensuring we deliver exemplary customer service to everyone who visits an L.L. Bean store, shops with us online, orders through our famed catalog, or via any other touchpoint,” L.L. Bean chief retail officer Greg Elder said in a statement. “We are honored to be in a period of growth as a company, and that is a credit to our customers, employees and partners. We look forward to continuing to deliver industry-leading customer service and offer everyone who shops with us the goods they need for life, home, and any adventure that awaits.”

This back-to-school season, Zappos is kicking it old-school.

The online shoe retailer has rolled out a ’90s-style catalog to advertise its kids’ and teen merchandise. The catalog, which was sent out in mid-July to about 700,000 customers who typically purchase shoes for kids, includes product images, games and a shoe sizer.

The catalog is designed to pull on the heartstrings of parents who likely remember growing up in a simpler time before e-commerce reigned supreme, when shopping from catalogs was the norm and an exciting part of the back-to-school experience.

“This is kind of our ode to that nostalgia,” explained Zappos’ chief merchandising and marketing officer Joe Cano in an interview with FN. “We want to make sure that as these elder millennial parents are having their kids go to school, they actually have some fun and have something that they can share with their kids and can create that moment versus being stuck to the screen the entire time.”

Zappos rolled out its first back-to-school catalog in 2019, but put it on pause throughout the pandemic. Now, the shoe retailer has brought back its successful initiative and has already seen a bump in traffic, according to early reads from the company.

In line with Zappos’ commitment to the adaptive category, the catalog also includes adaptive products from brands such as Billy Footwear.

“Adaptive will always be at the core of Zappos,” Cano said. “We want to make sure that someone can find the most amazing pair of shoes on our site, no matter what age or stage they’re at.”

The shoe retailer has utilized nostalgia for other campaigns in the past as well. For its 20th anniversary in 2019, Zappos turned its website back to what it looked like when it launched in 1999 for one day. And next year, Zappos plans to launch a similar series of nostalgia-focused campaigns for its 25th anniversary and is currently in talks with vendors to highlight and bring back shoes that were popular in the 1990s.

“Some of this nostalgia, as you’re seeing across the board, I think it’s resonating not only with parents, but with kids,” Cano said. “If you look at the current trends right now, they’re very much coming back to that ’90s nostalgia, which plays in perfectly with what this catalog represents.”

Other brands have also seen recent success with throwback campaigns. McDonald’s saw a surge in engagement when it offered a Grimace Birthday Meal special in honor of the purple mascot’s 52nd anniversary. Among footwear brands, consumers are increasingly opting for ‘90’s retro styles like the Adidas Samba.

For Zappos, the key is balancing this nostalgia factor with modern elements for shopping ease. For example, the catalogs include QR codes for people to be able to quickly make their way to the Zappos website.

“I want to make it fun and nostalgic, but I don’t want us to try to reinvent what ordering was back in 1999,” Cano said. “I want to make it very seamless.”

The catalog campaign is a part of Zappos’ continued push in the kids category, which involves a broader emphasis on the growing back-to-school business.

“Back-to-school is becoming a bigger and bigger portion for us,” Cano said. “For us, we want to make this a bigger portion of our business as we go forward.”

Speciality shoe retailers are seeing serious wins when it comes to traffic in their physical stores.

Visits to shoe stores were up 36.2 percent in June 2023 from a January 2020 baseline, which outpaces visit growth in apparel stores, at 8.2 percent. That’s according to a recent report from foot traffic data analytics firm Placer.ai, which found that shoe stores could enter the second half of 2023 with a strong bump in traffic, thanks to traffic-driving events like back-to-school and the winter holidays later in the year.

The report highlighted three shoe stores that have seen outstanding year-over-year traffic increases: Boot Barn, WSS and Nike.

“As retail gears up for the back-to-school season, Nike, WSS and Boot Barn appear to be in position to build on their recent success and drive traffic from back-to-school shoppers,” read the report, written by Placer.ai content writer Ezra Carmel.

Last year, between July and December, all three of these chains experienced a higher share of visits from households with kids compared to the national average, which suggests a preference for these stores during the back-to-school season.

According to Coresight Research’s U.S. Back-to-School 2023 report, consumers expressed a strong preference toward shopping among specialty retailers such as Foot Locker, Shoe Carnival and Famous Footwear, all three of which saw double-digit shares of shopper preference.

After a relatively slow Q1, a robust back-to-school season could give retailers a much-needed boost to make up for lost ground. Various shoe chains have already spoken confidently about their plans for back-to-school, with some rolling out new campaigns to capture demand.

Across the board, shoe retailers appear to be prioritizing their physical stores to attract demand this season, as consumers overwhelmingly plan to shop in stores, Coresight found. Almost four in five shoppers plan to shop in stores this season, up 4.1 percentage points from the prior year and more than 8 percentage points higher those who plan to purchase online.

Foot Locker recently launched its back-to-school campaign, which ties in a community focus with in-store events aimed at giving back. And the Caleres-owned Famous Footwear expects to surpass its best ever back-to-school performance from 2022 this year with a new marketing campaign that will target the millennial family.