The management of Vans has undergone a reshuffle.
Marissa Pardini, Chief Product Officer and Chief Sales Officer of Vans, confirmed to multiple media outlets this month that she will be leaving Vans at the end of March. According to insiders, in addition to Marissa Pardini, several executives will also leave Vans in the near future.
The relationship between Marissa Pardini and Vans can be traced back to 2010. She worked for Vans for ten consecutive years, and after reaching the level of Vice President of Marketing at DTC, she transferred to the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Americas Market for the THE NORTH FACE (North) brand.
But after Marissa Pardini left, Vans' overall performance showed a downward trend. In this situation, Vans parent company VF Corporation brought Marissa Pardini back to firefighting in September 2022.
However, Marissa Pardini's return has had little effect.
The third quarter financial report for the 2024 fiscal year released by Weifu Group on February 6 showed that in the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year ending on December 30, 2023, the group's revenue was $3 billion (approximately RMB 21.94 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 16%. Among them, Vans, which used to have the largest proportion of revenue in the group, experienced the most significant decline: sales in the quarter plummeted by 28% to $668 million, compared to $926 million in the same period last year, losing the group's top spot.
In fact, Vans' performance has not shown a significant improvement, and Marissa Pardini cannot be solely blamed. The sports trend market has cooled significantly both domestically and internationally in the past two years. The overseas trend oriented platform StockX and the well-known domestic trend trading platform Dewu have undergone multiple rounds of layoffs since 2020. A research report by the well-known market research company NPD shows that compared to the significant increase in sales in previous years, the global trend footwear market has slowed down significantly, which is undoubtedly a fatal blow to Vans, who started with trend skateboarding shoes.
It is worth mentioning that at the same time as Marissa Pardini's return, there was also a company veteran Kevin Bailey, both of whom were key figures leading Vans in a new round of reforms. Moreover, compared to Marissa Pardini, Kevin Bailey has more industry experience and holds a more critical position - Vans Global Brand President.
Kevin Bailey served as the Vice President of Retail at Vans in 2004, the President of Vans from 2009 to 2016, and later as the Executive Vice President of Asia Pacific Business at Weifu Group. When returning to Vans, Kevin Bailey mentioned that his two key tasks were to restore sales of classic skateboarding shoes and build the Chinese market.
But the financial data clearly shows that Kevin Bailey is also powerless against Vans' performance. Kevin Bailey himself also left Vans at the end of 2023.
After Marissa Pardini confirmed her resignation, Weifu has not received any official response yet. It is worth mentioning that, except for Vans, the management of most brands under the group has been busy lately, with poor stability.
In June 2022, Nicole Otto, the new Global Brand President, was welcomed to the North, responsible for DTC business and brand digital transformation. Prior to this, she served as Vice President of Nike's North American Digital Division. In April 2023, Altra, a running shoe brand under Weifu, and Dickies, a casual fashion brand, also received a change in appearance.
At the group level, in December 2022, Steve Rendle, then CEO of Weifu, suddenly announced his resignation. Previously, he had been leading Weifu Group as CEO for 5 years.
The unstable personnel situation has cast a shadow over the sales of the brand. Not only Vans, but also Weifu's other three major brands have been in a "stall" state in the recent fiscal quarter, including the growth of the group in the past few quarters. To the north, in the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, the quarterly revenue of 1.192 billion US dollars decreased by 10% year-on-year; Timberland and Dickes fell 21% and 16% respectively to $473 million and $147 million; Other brands achieved sales of $479 million this quarter, a decrease of 6%.
There is also great pressure on Weifu's debt: as of the end of 2023, Weifu Group still holds a net debt of up to 5.2 billion US dollars. Reducing costs and increasing efficiency has become something that Weifu has to do.
According to Interface News, Weifu has laid off over a thousand employees within two years. The last public layoff occurred in December 2023, when Weifu planned to lay off 500 employees, including 30 from the group headquarters.
At the same time, multiple investment institutions are urging Weifu Group to sell other non core assets, including the trendy brand Supreme, which the group purchased at a high price of $2.1 billion in 2020. This trendy brand's annual revenue for the 2023 fiscal year fell from $561 million to $523 million, and net profit fell from $82.4 million to $64.8 million.
The Global Packs department of backpack brands such as Jansport, Kipling, and Eastpak is also under review by the group. According to insiders, Jansport may be sold by the group for $500 million.