Wall Street’s seeing some good news at VF Corp.’s Vans brand — and its Timberland label is on the right track despite tougher comparisons from a year ago.
VF on Wednesday posted a fourth quarter net loss of $119.3 million, on revenues that rose 1 percent to $2.2 billion.
At Timberland, VF’s president and CEO Bracken P. Darrell said during a conference call that the “six-inch premium boot continues to be the key engine behind the brand’s momentum.” He added that the brand is also seeing momentum from the boat shoe trend, which the CEO said is growing across all regions with significant potential ahead.
“We’ll continue to both build on the strength of the iconic boot but also introduce more innovation across the rest of our assortment,” he said. “And starting this fall, we’re resetting our apparel proposition to create a better head-to-toe expression that matches our offering.”
For the quarter, growth at Timberland slowed to up 2 percent on a constant currency basis, but that the brand was up against a tough year-ago comparison when growth was up 13 percent for the same quarter.
The bigger focus was Vans, which is in the midst of a turnaround.
Bracken said he is “most excited about, by far, is [Vans]’ progress in Americas DTC (direct-to-consumer).” He said that DTC is where Vans is closest to the consumer and that Americas represents more than 50 percent of the brand’s total business, as well as also where the trends start for Vans.
“As Americas DTC continues to grow, its brand heat will start to show up elsewhere. These tangible green shoots are the result of our focus on product and brand energy advance,” Bracken said.
Tom Nikic at Needham wrote in a research note that inflection in the Americas for Vans is the real story for the brand: “The home region increased 3 percent, snapping a string of 14 consecutive declines, driven by new products [such as the Pearlized product drops], while apparel was also positive.”
Channel-wise, growth at Vans was driven by the direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel, which Nikic said is “key,” adding that Vans also benefited from a pull-forward of wholesale orders.
BTIG analyst Janine Stichter noted in a research note that the improving trends at Vans was led by moderating declines in icon product, including Authentic at up 80 percent year-over-year, the Pearlized Old Skool, and the return to growth in slip-ons.
Both Stichter and Nikic have a “Buy” rating on shares of VF Corp.
Also important for Vans has been the speed-to-market testing of product.
According to Abhishek Dalmia, executive vice president and chief operating officer at VF, Van’s pull forward product planned for fall 2026 was delivered in less than six months, roughly one-third of the standard delivery cycle time and this was accomplished through working with more closely with vendors.
“And that speed mattered. It allowed the team to test new silhouettes on smaller scale,” Dalmia said, explaining that allowed for learning from consumer responses on what product to scale, refine, or discontinue. He said that some styles were dropped by the fall 2026 line, while others were refined based on those insights.
“This kind of speed enabled improved Vans performance in Americas DTC,” he said. Dalmia also told investors during the call that Vans has been rebuilding its brand energy through a “more social-first content-led model.” That resulted in targeted product and content drops with artists, which is resetting the brand culture and driving consumer engagement.
“This combination of speed product newness and sharper marketing will be the building blocks we continue to execute into the next year and beyond,” Dalmia said, adding that also the “growth engine we are building across VF brands.”
