Clerical

Genesco launches Wrangler Footwear collection. MWN-AI** Summary. Genesco Inc. has unveiled its new Wrangler(R) footwear collection, a significant step in its multiyear licensing partnership with Kontoor Brands. This launch reflects the collaboration's aim to integrate Wrangler's iconic Western heritage into a diverse range of footwear for men, women, and children, spanning Western, work, and casual lifestyle categories. Scheduled for release on September 15, 2026, the collection will be available on Wrangler's online platform and select retailers across the U.S. Retail prices for the collection will range from $100 to $240. Rick Higgins, the president of Genesco Brands Group, highlighted the collection as a vital growth opportunity, emphasizing the blend of Wrangler's authentic style with Genesco's footwear expertise. This partnership aims to offer consumers high-quality, comfortable, and stylish footwear that echoes Wrangler's storied legacy. The collection showcases premium materials like full-grain leather and authentic denim textiles, ensuring a blend of durability and style. Specific styles even meet rigorous ASTM standards for safety-toe protection, in addition to slip- and oil-resistance capabilities, appealing to workwear consumers looking for both functionality and style. Steve Armus, Vice President of Licensing and Collaborations at Wrangler, noted that the footwear line serves as a natural extension of the brand's Western roots, enhancing the consumer experience by providing comprehensive style options from head to toe. Genesco, a footwear-focused company founded in 1924 and based in Nashville, offers various lifestyle brands through its extensive retail and e-commerce channels. The addition of the Wrangler footwear line is part of its strategy to expand engaging and relevant offerings for its customers. For more information, visit www.genesco.com. MWN-AI** Analysis. Genesco Inc.'s recent launch of the Wrangler footwear collection represents a strategic expansion into the lifestyle footwear market, promising substantial growth opportunities for investors. With the collection anchored in Wrangler's authentic Western heritage and Genesco's footwear expertise, this collaboration is likely to resonate with consumers seeking both style and quality. The Fall 2026 collection caters to a diverse audience, including men, women, and children, with a price range of $100 to $240. This pricing strategy positions the collection within a competitive landscape while also appealing to customers who prioritize durability and craftsmanship - a hallmark of both brands. Strengths such as premium materials, including full-grain leather and authentic denim, enhance the perceived value, making the collection attractive to both existing Wrangler fans and new customers. For investors, this launch signifies an essential growth platform within Genesco's brand portfolio. The introduction of the Wrangler footwear line bolsters Genesco's position in the lifestyle segment, an area with strong market potential as consumers increasingly shift towards brands that offer quality and heritage. Additionally, the collection strategically positions Genesco to tap into the Western lifestyle trend, a market segment that continues to gain traction. In terms of financial performance, Genesco has a solid base with strong omnichannel capabilities through its existing brands. As the company leverages its expertise and marketing infrastructure to promote the Wrangler collection, investors should watch for any corresponding increases in sales figures and brand loyalty metrics in upcoming quarters. Overall, Genesco's partnership with Kontoor Brands could yield significant returns if the collection performs well, driven by effective marketing and consumer engagement. Investors may consider this new product line a compelling opportunity, given its potential to enhance Genesco's growth trajectory and solidify its status as a leading player in the lifestyle footwear market. **MWN-AI Summary and Analysis is based on asking OpenAI to summarize and analyze this news release. September 15, 2026 06:50:00 am -Fall 2026 Collection Brings Wrangler's Iconic Heritage to Footwear- -Adds New Growth Platform to Genesco Brands Group- Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO) today announced the launch of its Wrangler(R) footwear collection, marking an important milestone in its multiyear licensing agreement with Kontoor Brands (NYSE: KTB) and its legendary denim and lifestyle brand. Wrangler Mens Fargo Timber Bark and Wrangler Womens Myrtle Saddle Tan Ivory The Fall 2026 collection brings Wrangler's authentic Western style to men's, women's and children's footwear across Western, work and casual lifestyle categories. The collection launches September 15 on Wrangler.com, with availability at select retailers across the United States rolling out later in the season. Retail prices range from $100 to $240. "Wrangler represents a significant growth opportunity for Genesco Brands Group and reflects our strategy to build and scale leading lifestyle brands in footwear," said Rick Higgins, president of Genesco Brands Group. "We've combined Wrangler's iconic heritage and deep connection with consumers with our footwear expertise to create a collection that is unmistakably Wrangler." "Footwear is a natural extension of Wrangler's authentic Western roots and rugged everyday style, allowing our consumers to embrace the brand from head to toe," said Steve Armus, Vice President of Licensing and Collaborations at Wrangler. "Genesco's proven footwear expertise makes them the ideal partner to translate our authentic style into a comprehensive collection. By pairing our legacy of durability and craftsmanship with Genesco's industry-leading capabilities, we are delivering the superior quality, comfort, and timeless design consumers expect for daily wear." The assortment features premium materials, including full-grain leather and authentic denim textiles, while select work styles meet ASTM standards for safety-toe protection and slip- and oil-resistant performance. About Genesco Inc. Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO) is a Footwear First company with distinctively positioned retail and lifestyle brands and proven omnichannel capabilities offering customers the footwear they desire in engaging shopping environments, including more than 1,180 retail stores and branded e-commerce websites. Its Journeys, Little Burgundy and Schuh brands serve teens, kids and young adults with on-trend fashion footwear that inspires youth culture in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Johnston & Murphy serves successful, affluent men and women with premium footwear, apparel and accessories in the U.S. and Canada, and Genesco Brands Group sells branded lifestyle footwear to leading retailers under licensed brands including Wrangler, Dockers and Starter. Founded in 1924, Genesco is based in Nashville, Tennessee. For more information on Genesco and its operating divisions, please visit www.genesco.com. About Wrangler(R) Wrangler(R), of Kontoor Brands (NYSE: KTB), has been an icon in authentic American style for 75 years. With a rich legacy rooted in the Western lifestyle, Wrangler is committed to offering superior quality and timeless design. Its collections for men, women, and children look and feel great, inspiring all those who wear them to be strong and ready for everyday life. Wrangler is available in retail stores worldwide, including flagship stores in Fort Worth and Greensboro, department stores, mass-market retailers, specialty shops, top western outfitters, and online. For more information, visit Wrangler.com. Genesco Media Contacts Claire S. McCall, Director, Genesco Corporate Relations (615) 308-2483 / [email protected] Ansley Deaton, Senior Marketing Manager, Genesco Brands Group (614) 726-2233 [email protected] Wrangler Media Contact Ashley Lutzker AMP3 Public Relations [email protected] FAQ**. How does Genesco Inc. GCO plan to leverage Wrangler's heritage to differentiate its new footwear collection in a competitive market? Genesco Inc. plans to leverage Wrangler's heritage by emphasizing its iconic brand legacy and rugged style, creating footwear that reflects authenticity and durability to stand out in a competitive market. What are the projected sales expectations for the Fall 20Wrangler footwear collection within Genesco Inc. GCO's overall brand strategy? Projected sales expectations for the Fall 2026 Wrangler footwear collection within Genesco Inc.'s GCO brand strategy aim to capitalize on growing consumer demand for rugged, stylish footwear, leveraging strategic marketing and distribution to enhance market presence. How does the pricing strategy of $100 to $240 for Wrangler footwear align with Genesco Inc. GCO's target consumer demographics? The pricing strategy of $100 to $240 for Wrangler footwear aligns with Genesco Inc.'s target demographics by appealing to middle-to-upper-income consumers who seek quality and value in durable, stylish footwear, particularly in outdoor and casual markets. What safety features are included in the Wrangler footwear collection, and how does Genesco Inc. GCO ensure compliance with ASTM standards? The Wrangler footwear collection includes features such as slip resistance, puncture resistance, and electrical hazard protection, while Genesco Inc. ensures compliance with ASTM standards through rigorous testing and adherence to industry safety guidelines. **MWN-AI FAQ is based on asking OpenAI questions about Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO).

Kontoor targets more than $1.1 billion of Helly Hansen revenue by 2030. Kontoor Brands said at Helly Hansen Investor Day that it expects the outdoor and workwear label to generate more than $1.1 billion in revenue by 2030, alongside higher margins and more than $500 million in cumulative cash generation. Published September 2, 2026 · 12:49 PM ET Kontoor Brands is telling investors that Helly Hansen is expected to become a much larger business by the end of the decade, setting a goal of more than $1.1 billion in annual revenue by 2030 as it lays out the next phase of growth for the outdoor and workwear label it acquired last year. The target, announced on Sept. 2 at Helly Hansen Investor Day in Oslo, starts from $675 million of pro-forma fiscal 2025 revenue and implies a compound annual growth rate of about 10%. Kontoor also said it wants the brand to reach gross margin in the mid to high 50% range, operating margin in the mid teens, and cumulative cash generation of more than $500 million through 2030. The announcement gives investors a clearer sense of how important Helly Hansen has become to Kontoor's long-term story. For years the company was defined mainly by Wrangler and Lee. After the Helly Hansen acquisition closed in May 2025, management began arguing that the Norwegian brand could lift Kontoor's growth rate, broaden its geographic footprint and deepen its exposure to outdoor and workwear categories that carry different demand patterns from denim. Wednesday's Investor Day turned that broader thesis into a set of operating goals, along with a more detailed explanation of where management thinks the gains can come from and what role Helly Hansen is expected to play in the reshaping of the portfolio. Targets set a larger financial role for Helly Hansen. According to Kontoor's Investor Day announcement, the 2030 revenue target is tied to a strategy designed to scale Helly Hansen globally while also lifting profitability. The company framed the targets as long-term financial objectives for the Helly Hansen reportable segment, not for Kontoor on a consolidated basis. That distinction matters. The headline number is not a companywide sales target, and management was explicit that the outlook is forward-looking. The revenue base used in the growth calculation is also a non-GAAP measure, with the company citing $675 million of pro-forma fiscal 2025 revenue as the starting point. In the release, Kontoor said that figure is the base period for the brand's expected compound annual growth rate. Still, the scale of the ambition is notable. A business that generates more than $1.1 billion in annual revenue would stand well above Helly Hansen's pre-acquisition size within Kontoor and would give the parent company a larger earnings contributor outside its legacy denim labels. The margin goals point to a second part of the plan: management is not simply chasing top-line growth, but trying to turn that expansion into a business with stronger structural profitability and meaningful cash generation. Kontoor also said it would not provide a reconciliation of forward-looking non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP figures because doing so would require forecasts for items that are inherently difficult to predict. That is standard language in corporate outlook materials, but it is also a reminder that these are management targets rather than guaranteed results. The strategy itself rests on three pillars. The first is a push to "supercharge" the U.S., which Kontoor described as Helly Hansen's largest growth opportunity. Management said that effort will depend on a mix of wholesale expansion and direct-to-consumer growth, with the goal of improving brand awareness and distribution in a market where Helly Hansen has room to expand from a smaller base. The second pillar is what the company calls winning in premium outdoor. Helly Hansen already has strong heritage positions in wintersports and sailing, two categories that give the brand technical credibility. The next step, according to the Investor Day release, is to compete more consistently across the broader premium outdoor market and extend into adjacent technical activities where the brand believes it already has a right to compete. The third pillar is workwear. Helly Hansen has an established European workwear business, and Kontoor's plan is to scale that business into North America by pairing the brand's product positioning with the parent's operating capabilities in the region. In practice, that means using Kontoor's infrastructure, sourcing reach and relationships to accelerate distribution and category penetration where management sees room for profitable expansion. Taken together, those pillars suggest that Kontoor is trying to grow Helly Hansen without diluting what made the brand attractive in the first place. Rather than present a broad lifestyle expansion story, the company is leaning on technical outdoor and professional-grade workwear, categories that can support premium positioning if consumer demand holds up. The U.S. emphasis is also consistent with what Kontoor has been signaling since the acquisition, namely that Helly Hansen's brand awareness there leaves headroom relative to its standing in Europe. Borre Hegbom, Helly Hansen's global head, said in the release that the brand is moving from a specialist European name to a leading global premium technical brand. That framing captures the central challenge in the plan. Helly Hansen has to scale meaningfully, especially in the U.S., without becoming too broad or losing the authenticity that management is using as one of the core reasons investors should believe the targets are achievable. Strategy arrives as Kontoor reshapes its portfolio. The Investor Day roadmap lands at a time when Kontoor is in the middle of broader strategic change. The company completed its acquisition of Helly Hansen on May 31, 2025, after announcing the deal in February of that year. In the original acquisition announcement, Kontoor said it agreed to buy the brand from Canadian Tire Corporation for C$1.276 billion, or about $900 million as of the agreement date, subject to closing adjustments. Since then, Helly Hansen has become increasingly visible in Kontoor's financial reporting. In its second-quarter 2026 earnings release, the company said revenue from continuing operations rose 19% to $584 million, helped by $114 million of Helly Hansen revenue in the quarter. In its 2025 annual report, Kontoor said Helly Hansen contributed $475.5 million of revenue during the year, reflecting the fact that 2025 included only a partial year of ownership after the acquisition closed near the end of May. Those figures help explain why the new 2030 targets matter. Investors are being asked to view Helly Hansen as more than a bolt-on addition. Management is presenting it as a growth engine that can influence Kontoor's mix, improve its international and outdoor exposure, and support a stronger earnings profile over time. Joe Alkire, the company's president and chief financial officer, said in the Sept. 2 release that the combination of revenue growth, margin expansion and cash generation is expected to strengthen Kontoor's earnings profile and widen capital allocation choices. The timing is notable for another reason. Kontoor has also been reshaping the rest of its brand portfolio, including its previously announced agreement to sell the Lee business. That places more strategic weight on the brands that remain, especially Wrangler and Helly Hansen. A successful buildout of Helly Hansen would therefore do more than add revenue. It would help define what Kontoor looks like after its portfolio changes are complete. There are still clear execution risks. The company itself cited macroeconomic conditions, uneven consumer demand, foreign exchange swings, inflation, supply chain pressures and tariffs among the factors that could affect results. Management also flagged the practical difficulty of integrating Helly Hansen and delivering the expected growth and cost benefits. For a brand with premium positioning, a weaker discretionary spending backdrop could make the path to the 2030 targets harder, particularly in newer markets where awareness still has to be built. Even so, the Investor Day presentation gives the market a more concrete benchmark for judging whether the acquisition is paying off. Over the next few years, investors will be able to compare Helly Hansen's reported revenue, margin progression, U.S. expansion and cash contribution against the outline Kontoor presented on Wednesday. Replay materials from the event were scheduled to be made available on Kontoor's investor relations site after the session concluded, with the company's next quarterly results likely to offer the next formal checkpoint on whether the brand is tracking toward management's longer-term goals.

Helly Hansen taps C.J. King as GM for sport business in North America. August 27, 2026 Kontoor Brands, Inc. has tapped C.J. King to join the company as general manager, Helly Hansen, North America, Sport, effective August 31. King will assume responsibility for leading all aspects of Helly Hansen's North America Sport business, including commercial strategy and marketplace execution. As a member of the Helly Hansen leadership team, he will report to Børre Hegbom, SVP, global head of Helly Hansen. "We are thrilled to welcome C.J. King to Helly Hansen," said Hegbom. "C.J. brings a proven ability to lead high-performing commercial organizations, build deep connections with technical outdoor consumers and translate premium brand strength into sustainable growth. His experience will be instrumental as we strengthen Helly Hansen's position in the U.S., the world's largest outdoor market. We are excited to partner with him as we unlock the next chapter of growth for Helly Hansen." King joins Helly Hansen from Arc'teryx, a global design company recognized for technical high-performance apparel and equipment. In the past ten years at Arc'teryx, King has served as VP North American Wholesale, VP/GM North America and VP Global Commercial. In those roles, he reportedly led the brand's wholesale and retail channels in North America and helped advance the brand's global commercial and omni-channel strategy, supporting its continued evolution into a balanced, consumer-led marketplace model. "Throughout his career, King has built a strong track record of translating product, merchandising and marketplace strategy into business results through progressively senior roles at outdoor and sport performance brands, including Smartwool, Pearl Izumi, and The North Face," Kontoor said in a media release announcing the hire. Prior to his nearly 10-year career at Arc'teryx, King spent over a year at SPRI Fitness after nine years at Smartwool, six years at Peral, a cup of coffee at Nike, and a couple of years at TNF dating back to 1998. Images courtesy Arc'teryx and C.J. King/LinkedIn