“I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was,” Grandpa Abe Simpson said in “The Simpsons” Season 7, Episode 24, titled Homepalooza. “Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore, and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you!”
Or, to put it into retail terms:
“If you’re trying to be cool, you’re already failing.”
AJ Lacouette, a managing partner at Global Advisory, said that to The Wall Street Journal about H&M, but it really applies to any retailer. Lacouette’s comment captures the broader challenge facing brands built around cultural relevance.
That’s the challenge facing Vans, a lifestyle brand built on skaters and skater-adjacent people finding the brand on trend and cool.
Vans has been a trendy brand
Back in 2019, Vans was a surging brand driven by teenage girls.
“It’s the grassroots brand that everyone loves,” 19-year-old Jacob Chang, director of trends at Jüv Consulting, a US consulting outfit run by teens, told British Vogue.
Vans’s collaborations with the likes of Nintendo, Disney, Marvel and Nasa have also hit “that sweet spot of nostalgia and passion that Generation Z lives for”, Chang added.
Brands come in and out of fashion trends, and Vans entered a difficult stretch in late 2024 as sales declined and consumers shifted toward other footwear trends.
The shoe company, best known for its signature slip-ons, is in a rut, and Bracken Darrell, CEO of Vans owner VF, is committed to bringing back the brand’s “cool,” according to a Wall Street Journal story.
Darrell said Vans got “too reliant” on a few styles, and consumers sought out comfier footwear, ultimately hurting revenue.
And, while he knows that you can’t manufacture cool, Darrell believes you can unlock it by putting the right people in charge of the creative process and giving them the tools needed to bring product to market quickly.
“This team’s freedom to innovate will be less and less constrained by the practicalities of the old product creation process as each quarter passes. So you’ll see more and more ahead,” he said during V.F. Corp’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call, approximately one year ago.
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He noted that Vans had a 50% increase in appointment bookings at Paris Fashion Week in June, including new accounts and accounts who have delisted Vans in recent years coming back.
“And if you didn’t notice, there was also a strong reaction to the sheer number of skate-inspired silhouettes featured by many luxury brands in Paris this year. These are the style centers and the taste makers. Trends start in the luxury market,” he added.
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Vans closed stores, but it’s a slow rebuild
As part of the Vans reboot, the company has made significant cuts to its store base.
“We’re already seeing some solid results in wholesale. Americas sell-out trends continue to improve as non-value accounts grew again this quarter. In DTC, over the last 2 years, we closed about 140 stores, about 20% of our global network. While it’s tough medicine affecting revenue, it’s improved our profitability,” Darrell said.
Now, a year later, he reported on the brand’s progress during VFC’s Q1 2027 earnings call.
Vans has not become an instant turnaround, but Darrell remains positive.
“Now let’s talk about Vans. Q1 revenue is down globally by 9% year-over-year. We expect a similar trend in Q2,” he said.
The CEO does, however, think that the comeback is on track.
“We began signaling a few quarters ago that the business would turn around first in DTC, then wholesale, and we focused on the Americas. And that’s exactly what continues to happen. We expect it to be a little bit better in Q1 than we were, but this quarter doesn’t at all change our indication of what we see for the full year,” he added.
Darrell also made a bold prediction.
In fact, for Vans as a whole, while their first half revenue will be down about 9% versus last year, we expect the second half to be down 2% or better versus last year,” he said.
Analysts are mixed on Vans’ comeback
There are signs that Vans has regained some of its mojo.
“Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser focused on one product: the LX Old Skool Pearlized Pack, a roughly $100 sneaker that has sold out repeatedly and traded above retail on resale platform StockX. He sees it as evidence that Vans can return to sales growth by the back-to-school shopping season later this year,” according to SGI Europe.
J.P. Morgan analyst Matthew Boss takes a more neutral approach.
He reduced his rating on VF Corp. to “Underweight” from “Neutral” due to a slower-than-expected turnaround at Vans and moderating revenue growth at The North Face across Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and Timberland overall, SGB Media reported.
But he does see some positive signs for the sneaker and lifestyle brand.
“In a note, Boss said that while Vans is seeing ‘green shoots,’ noting the management on its recent quarterly call cited product strength with the super low pro, Skate Loafer, and embellished Old Skool and Slip Ons silhouettes, as well as marketing/collaboration “wins” following partnerships with Valentino and K-Pop Demon Hunters, and with SZA as the brand’s artistic director,” he added.
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