EXEC: VF CEO Talks Altra, TNF, Timberland, Vans and the Dickies Sale at Investor Conference
SGB Executive | SEPT 17, 2025
Speaking Wednesday, September 17, at Wells Fargo’s 8th Annual Consumer Conference, Bracken Darrell, VF Corp.’s president and CEO, discussed The North Face’s efforts to sell more premium products in the U.S., Vans’ push to reach more girls and Timberland’s aim to ride the revival in the 6-inch boot, and offered some Dickies deal insight.
Darrell said The North Face’s America’s business “is not nearly as strong as it historically has been in Europe and APAC.” Overseas, The North Face has found greater success selling “better and best” product, while the U.S. business “tends to focus on good and better.”
He acknowledged that The North Face “can’t just flip a switch” in repositioning the U.S. toward better and best products but indicated that the brand aims to better balance offerings across price points, similar to other regions, in the coming seasons.
“I think everybody would like us to sell more in that better at best range, including our wholesale partners,” said Darrell. “I think we’ve got to prove that those higher-priced products will sell. And we’re not at all going to walk away from what we’ve got. We love where we are in this good range. It’s a healthy, profitable business, too.”
Other opportunities for The North Face include becoming a more well-rounded four-season brand with a balanced spring offering. Darrell believes The North Face has made” really good products” for warmer seasons, but “hasn’t had the courage to buy it.”
He noted that a big push into spring involves “gambling with hundreds of millions of dollars in inventory” and putting appropriate marketing investments behind it. He vowed to increase The North Face’s resources around spring selling in the coming seasons. Said Darrell, “As you go into the spring of next year and summer of next year, you’ll see us do better.”
Darrell also implied that The North Face has the potential to drive more steady growth from lifestyle offerings. “The North Face has a very strong performance heritage where we kind of win consistently. On the other end, I think we have an opportunity to be more culturally relevant, more fashion-forward, more beautiful and stylish, more consistently. And that’s one of the areas where I see a lot of growth. Women in general, we can do better there. Spring and summer, we will do better there,” said Darrell.
Darrell noted that Vans’ return to growth will be restrained by the “really aggressive actions” being taken to exit lower-value distribution channels. As reported, these actions are expected to continue to impact sales through the end of the calendar year.
In VF’s fiscal first quarter, which ended July 30, Vans’ sales were down 14 percent on a reported basis and 15 percent on a currency-neutral basis, partly due to channel rationalization efforts. Excluding the impact of rationalization actions, revenue decreased in the high single digits.
Darrell said the actions will impact VF’s current fiscal second quarter “pretty similar” to fiscal Q1, then impact fiscal Q3 results “maybe a little bit less” before anniversarying the moves in VF’s fiscal fourth quarter.
Darrell remains confident in the success of Vans’ repositioning efforts, now being led by former Lululemon executive Sun Choe, who became Vans’ president last June. He said, “She’s a super, super product person, and she’s got super product people working for her. So, you’ll just see more and more new product roll in as the quarters roll by — more in the holiday period and in the spring. You’ll see her fingerprints here and there. You’ll also start to see more on the marketing side as we go forward.”
He noted that Choe’s team is focused on reaching women better than the business has in the past. Darrell said, “The brand has a historical strength with guys. It grew up in skateboard and there were more guys skateboarding in the beginning; and it’s hung on to that for a very long time. Then it had a period where it kept that, but then it added a lot of women. That was during the real peak. And so, Sun’s strategy is to fuel the guys and bring back the girls.”
Darrell said the recruitment of SZA, the five-time Grammy-winning American singer and songwriter who has become a major figure in contemporary R&B and alternative R&B, as Vans’ first artistic director will be beneficial in fine-tuning Vans’ marketing message. Darrell said, “She’s helping us think through how to define ‘Off the Wall,’ and what that means, both from a marketing standpoint and from a product standpoint, especially for girls. But not just for girls, for a new generation. She’s going to be helpful and powerful.”
From a product standpoint, Darrell said Vans stands to benefit from two “counter trends” working in skinny and baggy jeans trends, as well as strength in slip-ons in general.
Darrell said Timberland is “growing strongest” among its three major brands, benefiting from renewed momentum around the 6-inch boot. Timberland’s sales in the fiscal first quarter grew 9 percent, building on a 13 percent hike in its fiscal fourth quarter.
Darrell believes the resurgence in the 6-inch boot was boosted by the 60th anniversary of hip hop in 2023, which resulted in “10 different collaborations” with fashion players. He said, “That sparked something at the very top of the tier zero, at the premium end, where cultural things move. And it probably touched a lot of the key players in the industry that affect us, such as Louis Vuitton or Pharrell (Pharrell Williams, Louis Vuitton’s creative director for men’s). And so that created another wave of interest at that level.”
Darrell added that Timberland is now also seeing strength in boat shoes and Euro hikers. Darrell said VF is working to sustain Timberland’s momentum in part through additional fashion collaborations. Darrell said, “We’re really trying to make sure we’ve got the fundamentals in place to drive that in a sustainable way.”
VF’s talk came two days after the company announced it agreed to sell Dickies to Blue Star Alliance, the owner of Hurley, Palm Angels, Off-White, Scotch & Soda, and other fashion labels, for $600 million in cash. The sale is expected to close by the end of 2025.
Darrell noted that VF had no plans to sell the workwear brand, stating that the company would not have invested in relocating Dickies’ headquarters to California in Vans’ offices if a sale were planned. However, he said VF received “an inbound from Blue Star, and it was just really attractive.”
He also said that “roughly in order” in terms of priority, VF’s most important brand is Vans, followed by The North Face, Timberland, Altra, and then Dickie’s. He added, “When you look at where you’re really going to distort your attention and your investment, the Dickies was fifth in there. So, I think it probably wasn’t going to get the level of investment that it could have gotten over time.”
He noted that the deal will allow VF to pay down debt and reduce its leverage.
Asked about the growth potential for Altra, Darrell noted that the brand is tied for number one in trail shoes and among the “fastest growing” road running shoes, but awareness with runners is only around 10 percent. He said, “We’re going to walk before we run and keep growing this brand systematically. But I do think it has strong potential.”
On its first-quarter analyst call, the CEO noted that Altra grew over 20 percent in the quarter and is on track to exceed $250 million in sales this year, up from $60 million when the brand was acquired in 2018.
Darrell also stated that VF had no plans to sell any of its “pack” brands, which include JanSport, Eastpak and Kipling. VF had announced in February 2023 that it was exploring a sale of the brands but ultimately decided to keep all three.
Darrell said each brand is “quite different” and largely does not compete against the other. He also described the packs category as a “nice business” for VF. He elaborated, “It’s relatively small, but it’s got very consistent growth, very profitable, nice cash generator…It doesn’t interrupt all the other businesses and operates very independently in its own way. So, unlike some of the other brands, it really does operate in a way that can kind of fuel itself.”
He also said the packs category has “elastic potential” for growth.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw anybody carry a briefcase…And a lot of women are carrying backpacks instead of purses. So, it just feels like there’s a lot of potential there to elevate. It’s a cool, fashionable item. If you do it right, it’s a great category.”
Images courtesy VF Corp.
