Genesco, Inc. (GCO) Chair, President & CEO Mimi Vaughn told participants on the company’s conference call with analysts that improving Journeys’ performance has been GCO’s top priority, and that priority appears to be paying off, as fiscal second-quarter comps at Journeys Group increased 9 percent year-over-year. The Journeys performance proved to be the lift the company needed to keep total GCO comps in positive territory for the three-month period ended August 2 (Q2).

Total Journeys Group sales increased 6.5 percent to $318.2 million in the fiscal second quarter, compared to $298.8 million in the prior-year Q2 period. Journeys Group represented 58.3 percent of total GCO sales for the quarter, compared to 56.9 percent of total sales in the year-ago second quarter as the sales trend outpaced the parent company’s trend for the period.

Vaughn noted that comp sales at Journeys are up just over 10 percent for the trailing 12-month period as Journeys continues to gain market share and also added that the positive trends are continuing into the third quarter (Q3).

“While the second quarter in general is a lower volume quarter for us as consumers pursue summer activities and devote less time to shopping, we’re further encouraged by the strong performance of the back-to-school and tax-free shopping period that began at the end of the quarter in July and accelerated into August,” she said.

“Notably, Journeys’ comps are up double digits in the third quarter to date on top of double-digit comps for the same period last year, which marked the inflection of Journeys’ comps as the next wave of Journeys’ transformational initiatives gain considerable traction,” the GCO chief explained.

“While we continue efforts to elevate and strengthen the product offering, we have in place a robust plan focused on brand and customer to extend these gains, reach a wider audience of teens and drive significant additional growth for Journeys,” offered Vaughn. “Our strategic efforts are achieving tremendous results as the first phase of our strategic growth plan focused primarily on product and injecting the assortment with more newness, excitement and storytelling delivered its fourth consecutive quarter of high-single or double-digit comps this quarter.”

Comp sales strength at Journeys in Q2 was again reported to be broad-based as the retail brand’s teen consumers’ preferences have been shifting in favor of a more diversified product offering. Vaughn said six brands across both casual and athletic posted double-digit gains, with other brands demonstrating strong growth as well.

Vaughn said sandals trended positively along with low-profile and “2000s running-inspired styles.”

“And although we’re still in the middle of summer, we’re seeing green shoots in certain boot brands as well,” she added.

Vaughn said the company expects growth in both the casual and athletic categories again in Q3, and the assortment remains well-balanced among athletic, casual and campus styles.

“We continue to be excited about some new brands we’ve been introducing or reintroducing at Journeys,” she noted, but also stressed that Journeys was not dependent on those new brands to drive results.

“Our store initiatives delivered especially strong impact at Journeys, where the teen purchases at the mall more frequently during back-to-school.

“Journeys store teams drove double-digit store comps with noteworthy increases in conversion and much higher transaction size,” Vaughn highlighted.

She said this reflected both the shift in investment into this channel and the results of strategic initiatives, including doubling down on selecting and training people to drive improved store conversion and sales.

“We know our store teams are a differentiator among the competition, and we’re strengthening the outstanding service that is a hallmark of our concepts,” she noted.

Vaughn also noted that consumers responded “vigorously” to tax-free holidays this year, and the Journeys 4.0 store remodels made a significant contribution to the gains as well.

“Our focus here is improvement in the top volume stores, and our top 250 stores outpaced the gains elsewhere in the chain,” she said, giving a nod to Andy Gray and his team.

“The consumer environment remains much the same with customer shopping when there’s a reason and retreating when there’s not,” Vaughn explained. “We saw this choppiness overall again in the quarter. However, our exceptional and experienced merchant teams were more than ready for our back-to-school teen and youth customers with newness and freshness and just the right brands and styles to satisfy exactly what this choosy customer is looking for [when shopping].”

Vaughn made one statement that may wrap up for the market what looks like a lack of (or limited) tariff impact on most retailers and brands so far, stating, “Importantly, when you have what our customer wants, they’re willing to pay for what they want, driving increased ASPs and higher average transaction size.”

Profitability and Expenses
A more promotional environment at Schuh, as well as the impact of higher tariffs and product liquidations at Genesco Brands Group in connection with the exit of licenses, was said to be partially offset by margin expansion at J&M and Journeys. This resulted in a 100 basis-point decline for GCO overall to 45.8 percent of sales.

Journeys Group delivered ~200 basis points of SG&A leverage on the strong comp sales results and store fleet optimization efforts, which Vaughn said demonstrated the “powerful leverage” inherent in GCO’s operating model. The favorable leverage at Journeys was partially offset by Schuh’s deleverage on its store comps decrease, as well as an increase in brand awareness marketing across all of GCO banners.

Journeys Group posted a $5.0 million operating loss, or negative 1.6 percent of sales, for the second quarter, compared to an $11.2 million, or negative 3.7 percent of sales, operating loss in Q2 last year.

Journeys Transformation Plan Progress
Vaughn updated the call participants on the progress in the Journeys transformation plan.

“While the teen, especially the teen girl, is well served with fashion apparel in the mall, no concept other than Journeys goes across athletic, casual and campus footwear for the style-led teen,” Vaughn stated.

“This is how we are differentiated and the white space we identified to build on the traditional strength of Journeys to serve a wider teen audience interested in style and trend that is 6x to 7x larger than the market we’ve historically served,” she continued.

Vaughn said Journeys is focused on four key areas to achieve this plan and become the destination where this consumer shops for the latest footwear for all versions of their style.

“First, we continue to drive product elevation and diversify footwear leadership with best-in-class premium footwear brands,” she said. “Premium is a key aspect of our strategy, more choice product to serve this wider group of customers. Product elevation is generating higher average selling prices highlighted by an increase in second quarter average transaction value into the double digits.”

She said they are reinforcing their core strengths in casual and canvas while “thoughtfully complementing” with premium athletic.

“This powerful balance of casual, canvas and athletic broadens our reach across segments and defines our footwear leadership. Increased allocations and access through brand partnership are key goals here,” she noted.

Second, Vaughn said they are investing in the Journeys brand, building momentum with refreshed positioning that is “style-led and aimed at building awareness” with the expanded group of teen customers.

“We’ve elevated and integrated our storytelling across journeys.com, our in-store digital network and social channels to build credibility with our core style-focused consumer,” she said.

Journeys continues to invest in content, influencers and social media, including long-form content with the brand’s Jazmine Bigfoot series, which has garnered almost 90 million views so far across social platforms. Vaughn said they are increasing brand partner activations this fall to drive more buzz and community engagement.

In September, Journeys is unveiling a new brand platform and campaign, “Life on Loud,” which Vaughn said has great energy, utilizes music to connect with customers, and is at a scale and with media spend that the company has never invested in at Journeys in the past.

“Third, we’re elevating the customer experience, especially in stores, through the ongoing rollout of our new impactful [Journeys] 4.0 store format,” Vaughn continued.

“We needed an elevated setting to attract new customers and call attention to our more premium products. These stores feature a more modern aesthetic, better product presentation and a fresh take on Journeys’ energetic brand DNA,” she explained. She said the results have exceeded expectations, with remodeled locations seeing stronger traffic, better conversion, higher transaction values, and more new customer acquisition, leading to a sales lift of more than 25 percent for stores remodeled to date in this format.

“With over 55 stores converted so far and more than 80 expected by [fiscal] year-end, this initiative is fast becoming a cornerstone and meaningful contributor to our transformation,” Vaughn stated.

Outlook
“We are encouraged by our results through the first half of the year, excited by the strong momentum during back-to-school, especially Journeys positively comping last year’s positive results, and focused on driving improved sales and profits, capitalizing on the larger volumes during the holidays,” the GCO chief shared. “Although we have performed at levels ahead of our expectations since the last time we gave guidance, we know we will have to absorb a second round of tariff increases and navigate through the uncertainty in the external consumer environment in the U.S. and especially in the UK.”

Vaughn acknowledged that overall GCO comps have accelerated into the third quarter, but she also said they are mindful of the slower period between back-to-school and holiday.

Stores
Journeys Group had 984 stores at quarter-end after closing 28 doors and opening six new stores in the first half of fiscal 2026.

Images courtesy Journeys Group/Genesco, Inc.