Designer Brands, Inc. (DBI) CEO Doug Howe hit the nail on the head when it comes to a key differentiation point that sets DBI apart from many other retailers. The market has seen this play out over the last few weeks as one-trick ponies are disappointing the market while those with two or more clear business opportunities are seeing almost a hedge effect to the business. On Thursday, September 10, it was DBI making the point that while its Retail segment, led by by DSW, was a drag on the overall business, it was the company’s Brand Portfolio, led by Topo Athletic and Keds (see articles at bottom) that ruled the day and gave the company enough energy to raise guidance for the fiscal year.
Similar stories played out at Caleres in Q2, with its Brand Portfolio, led by Stuart Weitzman, offsetting the weakness in the company’s Famous Footwear business. Even in retail pure-plays, the upside created by diversity was evident, whether it was Journeys playing up the unique nature of its product mix, or Academy Sports and Outdoors getting a lift from the Sports and Outdoors part of its name, as footwear became a drag for the second quarter. Conversely, its arch-rival, Dick’s Sporting Goods, could do nothing about the anchor it acquired in the form of Foot Locker, another pure-play sneaker retailer with no where to go but down.
“I want to take a moment to reinforce what we believe is a key differentiator of our business model and central to our long-term value creation opportunity,” offered Howe on a conference call with analysts. “The combination of our Brand Portfolio and scaled physical retail footprint creates a unique model that we internally call the power of the pair. The strength of our store base gives our brands reach, visibility, and support as we leverage our scale, sourcing, and logistics capabilities.”
The differentiator appears to have made a difference as DBI shares were up 14.75 percent for the day on Thursday, to close at $5.99 per share.
Second Quarter 2026 Summary
Second quarter consolidated net sales were $730.6 million, down ~1 percent year-over-year (y/y), with comparable store sales down 2.4 percent y/y.
Retail Segment Summary
In the Retail segment, which reflects the aggregation of the DBI’s U.S. retail and Canada retail operating segments, led by DSW, second quarter sales decreased ~2 percent y/y, with comparable store sales down 2.6 percent, said to be “exacerbated by softness in seasonal categories.”
“While top-line performance was slightly below our expectations, average unit retail and average dollars per sale remained strong as we focused on driving margin dollar expansion while navigating a sequential traffic headwind during the quarter,” shared company CFO Seamus Toal In our brand portfolio segment, second quarter sales increased approximately 18 percent compared to last year, reflecting continued growth across the portfolio. As Doug mentioned, this was supported by intercompany sales up double digits for the quarter.
Howe said the company’s store base is its largest channel of new customer acquisition, providing a scaled platform to introduce and build its brands. At the same time, he said the brands DBI produces provide their stores with differentiated product and greater control over our assortment, creating opportunities to drive greater customer relevance at DSW.
Sandals, the segment’s largest seasonal category, were reportedly pressured by early weather-related headwinds and never fully rebounded.
“Given their high seasonal penetration, this accounted for approximately 200 basis points of the Retail sales decline,” Howe detailed. “Excluding the impact from sandals, retail sales in Q2 were approximately flat versus last year.”
Howe said the DBI Retail segment ended the quarter with sandals inventory in a healthy position. He said they are confident in the team’s plans to enhance the assortment for next year’s peak selling season.
The Athletic business was also said to be softer overall in the quarter.
“That said, performance was materially stronger with brands that leaned into innovation and where we had greater access to lifestyle and premium product,” the CEO continued. “Within the category overall, we remain disciplined in our markdown cadence and delivered margin improvement amidst a very promotional environment.”
Not unlike others in DSW’s family footwear retail channel peer group, the CEO said that Athletic demand improved sequentially by 400 basis points in August to kick off the fiscal third quarter.
“We see a clear opportunity to improve our top-line retail performance and are continuing to take actions intended to strengthen the business, further improve our customer value proposition, and drive more consistent, profitable growth,” he envisioned. “These include delivering focused and differentiated benefits for our customers through compelling assortment, engaging marketing, and a distinctive in-store experience.” That was a sentence heard elsewhere during the week.
He said they are seeing signs of progress, with retail trends improving and their stores returning to positive comps quarter to-date.
Again, pulling from a somewhat common thesis in the channel, he said that, from an assortment perspective, DBI is being much more deliberate about where they invest, “concentrating on the brands, categories, and key styles where we see the greatest customer response, while also narrowing the breadth of our assortment.”
Howe said the Retail segment’s Top 10 brands improved sequentially versus the 2026 first quarter and outperformed the balance of the assortment during the quarter.
“Importantly, we drove this performance with meaningfully less promotional activity than last year, reflecting the progress we are making toward a healthier and more productive assortment,” the CEO shared. “We also built momentum in Women’s Dress, posting sales growth in the high-single digits for the quarter.”
He said the DBI Retail segment’s affordable luxury assortment continued to resonate, nearly doubling last year’s volume.
Categories “adjacent to footwear” reportedly remained an area of strength, with sales up approximately 10 percent in the quarter.
I would just remind you specifically in retail, the merchandise margin expanded by 140 basis points in the quarter. About 40 points of that was due to IMU, but 100 basis points of improvement was related to less markdown. In a very promotional environment, our team has done an amazing job of pulling back on the promotions, managing the inventory very effectively. We are encouraged by that.
Outlook
Looking at the current fiscal third quarter, Howe said they are seeing encouraging trends in both the Dress and Boots categories quarter-to-date.
“Importantly, we entered the season with healthy boots inventory, which should better position us to capture demand following the tariff-related inventory delays we experienced last year in the third quarter,” he noted.
While CFO Toal said DBI is now anticipating sales for the fiscal year to be “flat to up 1 percent,” compared to the company’s previous guidance of negative 1 percent to positive 1 percent, he also affirmed that they continue to expect retail sales to be “flat to down slightly” year-over-year, while also expecting double-digit sales growth in the Brand Portfolio segment for fiscal 2026.
Image courtesy DSW/Designer Brands, Inc.
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