VF Corp. shocked the streetwear world when it introduced final month that it will promote Supreme to eyewear large EssilorLuxottica for $1.5 billion. It was extra the client than the vendor that got here as a shock; VF had struggled to implement its plan to scale Supreme after buying it in 2020, and badly wanted the money to pay down about $1 billion in loans coming due on the finish of the yr. Now, the corporate can give attention to turning round Vans, its largest model, the place gross sales have declined sharply.
VF employed former Lululemon chief product officer Solar Choe to head Vans in Might. The corporate has talked extra about trimming its portfolio than the way it will revive its manufacturers (The North Face and Timberland have additionally struggled to develop). It’s most likely too quickly to anticipate specifics on Choe’s affect at Vans, however even additional steering on the timing of a turnaround can be welcome information after so many bleak quarters.
Revolve’s acquisition of couture home Alexandre Vauthier, introduced on the finish of June, is sort of as odd a pairing as EssilorLuxottica and Supreme. True, the net retailer has a high-end offshoot, FWRD. But it surely’s finest identified for accessibly priced clothes that {photograph} properly for Instagram. As The Enterprise of Trend’s Robert Williams reported on the time of the deal, ties between FWRD and Vauthier run deep, and the couture label had entered into administration in February after struggling for years.
Revolve, too, is all the time looking forward to its subsequent act, a technique that’s taken on new urgency as social media-centric manufacturers have misplaced a few of their sheen. As CEO Michael Mente put it to BoF, “influencer advertising and marketing is only one arrow in our quiver.” One other potential pivot: bodily retail. Revolve transformed its Aspen pop-up right into a everlasting outpost in June. May extra shops observe?
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