SZA is appearing in Vans'
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VF Corp. is ditching Dickies, its struggling workwear brand, for $600 million in cash to Bluestar Alliance. The deal will allow the Denver-based apparel giant — which also
owns The North Face, Timberland, JanSport and Vans — to pay down debt and double down on categories with brighter prospects.
For Bluestar, the acquisition adds another familiar name to
its $10 billion portfolio of global brands, which it sells through a platform of more than 500 stores worldwide. The company owns Bebe, Off-White, Brookstone, Tahari and Limited Too, and is known for
scooping up distressed but recognizable labels.
It’s the latest in a long pruning spree at VF. In 2019, it spun off fading denim names Wrangler and Lee into Kontoor Corp. Now, two years
into his tenure, CEO Bracken Darrell is racing to reignite the company and insists the turnaround is starting to take hold.
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Morningstar analyst David Swartz writes that the sale gives VF more
freedom to focus on key growth brands. He notes VF paid $820 million for Dickies in 2017, only to watch the workwear label slump with “double-digit percentage sales declines in each of
VF’s last three fiscal years.”
But Dickies isn’t VF’s only headache. The bigger crisis is Vans, a once-dominant brand now in spectacular implosion. Sales fell 15% in
the most recent quarter. “We don’t like the numbers on Vans any more than you,” Darrell told investors. “But we’re seeing some bright spots. We’ll get Vans back to
flat and then to healthy growth as fast as we can.”
VF has rolled out a new multiyear partnership with SZA, naming her artistic director. A new campaign casts her as “the emotional tone” of a new generation, reviving classics like the 1997 Knu Skool. Darrell concedes misguided
marketing hurt Vans. “Our approach simply hasn’t driven enough traffic,” he said. “While the whole industry is affected by slower traffic right now, we don’t accept that
and we’re changing our marketing approach.”
Elsewhere in the portfolio, The North Face climbed 5% in the most recent quarter, and Timberland gained 9%.