Vans Faces Athletic Shoe Dilemma

Vans, a division of VF
VFC
Corp is facing big problems. Research by Circana predicts that U.S. footwear sales will further decline in the coming quarter, continuing this year’s softness in casual shoe sales. Among the reasons is the fact that people are returning to work and need more formal shoes. They are also said to be shopping for special occasions. Footwear sales declined about 3% from January 2023 to August 2023.

Research shows that people are buying seasonless footwear like sneakers, loafers and ballerinas. Sales for running shoes have risen 6% in that period. None of the trends work out in Vans’ favor and the brand continues lag sales.

In August, VF Corp. reported in the second quarter that Vans quarterly sales dropped 22% to $737.5 million compared to $946.9 million in the previous year. Wholesale result in the Americas dropped a whopping 40% and direct sales dropped 7%.

The leadership team is making every effort to reverse the trend. They are reducing the number of stock-keeping units (SKU) in stores, a relaunch of Vance website is planned before the holidays and there is a sharper focus on bringing leading demand products.

There are many new athletic shoes companies vying for business. They include many with unusual names. Here are some of them with dates when they were founded: HOKA (2009), APL (2009), On Racing (2010), On Cloud 5 (2010), Topo Athletic (2013), No Bull (2015), Kizik (2017), The list goes on, and these companies were not selected for their size or quality.

Marathon Sports published a list of best running shoes. I list them as they were published. Brooks, HOKA, Asics, Nike
NKE
, On Running, Adidas, Saucony, New Balance, Mizuno, Topo Athletic, Puma. Many of the names are familiar and have been established in the mid-1900. Marathon did not mention Vans since they do not have running shoes. Vans produces casual athletic shoes.

The two lists of athletic shoes companies illustrate the intensity of competition that Vans faces. Obviously, many of the competitors manufacture shoes in China or India with lower labor costs that enables them to compete in the U.S. market.

One must ask if Vans’ management really understands current customer demand. Maybe the company should change, instead of selling less SKU’s.

POSTSCRIPT Athletic shoes continue to be popular, skate shoes that are Vans specialty are not in demand. However, the large choice of brands has a weakening effect. Vans has been popular in California, where there are special tracks to allow athletes to test the products on skateboards. It is very exciting to watch, and many athletes enjoy the opportunity to compete on these tracks.

I asked two experts about their use of athletic shoes. Miss “R” likes Vans shoes because of the reasonable price but she laments that there are no new designs, while other shoe companies have them. Mr. “F” sees Van’s as an old-fashioned brand, almost classic. He sees current running shoes as being lighter, cheaper with good new technology. Some of the brands are cheaper. The classic brand skate shoe is not in demand now.

If the demand for athletic shoes would now be as strong as it was during the pandemic, this article would be irrelevant. However, we fear that there may be fewer athletic shoes in our future with key lines like Nike, Adidas and Puma leading the way. Vans must change and add athletic shoes that the customer wants.