By Thomas J. Ryan
<span style="color: #a6a6a6;">Underscoring its commitment to expanding athleisure assortments, DSW has partnered with Reebok to sell apparel for the first time. A collection was introduced Thursday on its website DSW.com.
The collaboration was introduced on Wednesday by Roger Rawlins, CEO at Designer Brands Inc., the parent of DSW, during a session at C.L. King’s 18th Annual Best Ideas Conference, although he did not identify the brand. Reebok apparel will be an online sale item only.
“For the first time, we’re going to try and accessorize our footwear with some apparel,” said Rawlins. “We’ve partnered with one of the big athletic brands to offer some of their apparel through our digital channel – again, a curated assortment to connect to that footwear. If our customer wants it, we’ve got to make it available for them.”
The Reebok partnership comes as Designer Brands on its second-quarter conference call on September 4 vowed to double-down on its efforts to expand its athletic assortments at DSW to better position the off-price chain as a “go-to sneaker headquarters.” The move comes as DSW’s core dressier styles are underperforming in today’s stay-at-home/play-at-home COVID-19 economy.
At C.L. King’s conference, Rawlins said COVID-19 had “accelerated actions that we’ve been planning for this year” at DSW. He noted that the athleisure trend in footwear has been developing for “seven years or more,” and DSW has been slowly expanding its athletic assortments over those years.
DSW first launched its acceleration to become a “sneaker headquarters” in 2019’s third quarter and began working closely with the big major athletic brands. The pandemic sped-up its initiative.
<span style="color: #a6a6a6;">Last year, Athletic represented around 20 percent of its merchandise. The company’s goal was to expand that percent to 30-to-35 percent of its mix this year. The mix is already slightly higher and Rawlins expects Athletic will range between 40-to-50 percent of the mix by the end of the year. In the second quarter, Athletic products drove “roughly half” of sales while generating margins “equal to or better than last year.”
Rawlins said athletic brands want to work with DSW because the chain has “30 million rewards members, of which 80 percent are female.” He continued, “As all of you know, the big athletic brands are looking for that female athlete, and we have her for her non-athletic purchases. We have an ability to bring her to the brand so that has been good for us.”
At the same time, DSW is significantly under-indexed in selling to males, and “those brands have a male consumer. That’s an opportunity for us to grow market share. We think that’s a nice marriage for us. But that 40-to-50 percent of the mix is where we’ve been headed and that was our plan as we go through the back half.”
Asked about how DSW is seeking to target the male shopper, Rawlins said “the best way is through her.” He noted that DSW data shows females have “significant influence” on male purchases. While traditionally just showing women in ads, DSW is emphasizing a more “holistic family” branded message for the chain to build on strong momentum in kids, a newer category for DSW, as well as connect with men.
Rawlins said on its commercials, “Talking about the things that the family will be doing together throughout the fall season —how they’re hiking together, how they’re sitting on the couch together — and showing all those things that both can wear. That’s how we’re able to connect. And using that rewards program to be able to go message that in a big way.”
Photo courtesy DSW/Reebok
