Speaking Tuesday, March 10, at Citi’s 2026 Global Consumer & Retail Conference, Bracken Darrell, VF Corporation’s president and CEO, announced that Caroline Brown, the company’s president since June 2024, is stepping down as part of a planned transition. Chris Goble, VF Corp.’s president of Emerging Brands and the former president of Dickie’s, was named her successor.
At the conference, Darrell insisted The North Face is “in good shape,” referencing recent growth that includes a currency-neutral gain of 5 percent in both the fiscal third quarter and the nine months ended December 27.
Darrell said the transition of Brown, who was formerly CEO of Donna Karan International and DKNY and president of Carolina Herrera, has been in the works “for a while.”
He also noted that Brown had been on VF’s board, and Darrell, who joined VF in July 2023, asked her in 2024 to “step in to help us get The North Face going again.”
Darrell elaborated, “We had a lot of political challenges inside the company. There was a lot of strife, and the morale was terribly low. Caroline came in. I thought I’d keep her for a couple of years. She’s come in and done a super job.”
Darrell said Brown, who, prior to joining VF, was managing director at Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based investment firm and innovation center focused on the development of the circular economy, will be able to pursue a new opportunity “she really wants to do,” while Goble will be promoted and lead The North Face.
Goble joined VF as president of Dickie’s in October 2024 and stayed in the role until November 2025, when VF completed the sale of Dickies to Bluestar Alliance. Since January 2026, he has been president of VF’s Emerging Brands division, which includes Altra, Eastpak, Icebreaker, JanSport, Kipling, Napapijri, and Smartwool.
Prior to joining VF, Goble spent 7 years at Gap, Inc., most recently serving as chief product officer & general manager of Gap North America. Prior to that role, he was at Old Navy, also owned by Gap, Inc., for just over 11 years, where he held his last role as VP of merchandising.
Darrell said VF “held him back” from joining the new owners of Dickie’s “because we knew we were going to make this move.”
He said Goble “led the turnaround of the Gap brand” during his time there, and he believes The North Face will benefit from his strong merchandise and commercial expertise.
“What I do think we’ll get from Chris, which is exciting, is he is someone who comes in with a direct commercial background and a direct merchandising background, which is a little different from a lot of the presidents that go into these jobs,” said Darrell. “Many of them in this industry don’t have both of that combination of practical commercial experience, delivering the numbers, making sure the assortment is how they ought to be by channel, even by retailer. And at the same time, have a strong merchandising background in this business. It’s a product business. If you don’t have great product, you’re not going to win. So, he’s got that rare combination of both, and I think he’s going to bring a good touch to that, probably a simplifying touch to that.”
He stressed that The North Face would continue its recent efforts to streamline processes. He said, “The North Face is a big, healthy brand, but it’s also complex, and I want to keep simplifying it, even as we expand into 365 days a year, expand into more women’s product, elevate more of our product…You know, it’s working. We’re doing that now, but we can do that and make it more transparent to consumers.”
The North Face’s 5 percent gain on a currency-neutral basis in the holiday quarter was led by a 15 percent jump in the Americas with double-digit growth across both wholesale and DTC channels. Currency-neutral sales grew 5 percent in EMEA in the quarter and declined 1 percent in the APAC region.
Among its other major brands, Darrell said Vans has a “great team,” led by former Lululemon executive Sun Choe, and the new product is resonating with customers. He said, “We’ve got fantastic products that are out there. We’ve got even better ones coming.”
However, he cautioned that turnarounds take time, and VF is committing to positioning the brand for long-term growth.
Darrell said, “The exciting thing for me to be able to say today is we have so many cool things out there and so many more coming. So I’m really, really excited about the brand. I’m also very patient — probably more patient than some investors would like.”
He added, “I think it’s more important to get the brand sturdy and healthy and then grow it through elevation, through innovation and through great marketing in a systematic, long-term way than it is to try to get it quickly turned around. I think some people would love for me to just wave a magic wand and get it turned around. I’ve seen people do that. It does turn around. It’s easy to do that and then it goes the other way pretty quickly, or the next year or two. I’m not here for that. We want this thing to be a long-term sustainable growth engine again, and it can be a really strong one.”
Asked about any “green shoots” from Vans, Darrell noted that Vans, over the holiday quarter, delivered its first positive growth in performance in the digital channel, led by the Americas. Darrell said Vans is ‘really fixated on the U.S.,” with the region representing more than half of the brand’s business. Darrell also expects signs of Vans’ progress to show up initially in the U.S. direct-to-consumer, as Vans can bring a broader assortment of new products to its own channels and a more extensive apparel offering.
“I think you’re going to continue to see great progress in the U.S. market, both e-com and brick-and-mortar,” said Darrell of Vans. “The rest of the world is slow. I mean, I think APAC will be very slow because the brand was never well established there. So, I think, our sales there are really built on retail momentum and e-com momentum more than fundamentals. And so, I don’t expect magic in APAC. I think EMEA will be somewhere in between. In EMEA, we do have a strong brand there, but not as strong as the U.S. So, keep your eyes on the U.S. That’s where the action is.”
Vans’ sales were down 10 percent in the third quarter, with the Americas down 8 percent, and 12 percent in the fiscal nine months.
Darrell added on Vans, “We’re selling out of more and more of the new products. All of the new products are working — almost all. There are very few exceptions. When we launch something, it sells out. We’ve got to be a little bolder on our buys.”
Asked about Timberland, Darrell said the boot brand is seeing “incredibly strong momentum,” but needs to extend Timberland’s appeal well beyond the iconic yellow boot.
“We’ve got a great plan and a great team to do it,” said Darrell. “If you keep an eye on our Instagram [account], you’ll see how we’re doing it. We’re not going to let up on making sure that we’re selling that yellow boot and the black boot, but we’re going to keep bringing it into new things in both footwear and apparel. So that’s a challenge. I feel good about it. That’s another place where we have a fantastic team, great marketing, great products. Just stay tuned. It’s going to be fun to watch.”
Currency-neutral sales at Timberland grew 5 percent in both the fiscal third quarter and nine months.
Images courtesy VF Corp.
