Famous Footwear parent taps retail veteran for men's brands

Dive Brief:

Caleres —which owns Sam Edelman, Allen Edmonds, Franco Sarto, Naturalizer and Dr. Scholl’s Shoes, among other brands, as well as shoe retailer Famous Footwear — on Friday said it has appointed Malcolm Robinson as president of its new men’s and international sales division.
Robinson will oversee the strategic growth initiatives for Caleres men’s brands and expand an international footprint across the company’s portfolio, according to a company press release.
He most recently served as executive vice president at One Jeanswear Group’s William Rast Division, where he was responsible for in-store marketing and sales strategy of the licensed William Rast denim lifestyle brand. Prior to that, he served as CEO and board member of Tommie Copper and president at Maidenform Brands. He spent much of his career as group president of wholesale sportswear at Phillips Van Heusen, the company said.

Dive Insight:

Caleres is trying to position itself to better capture the spending of men, who are slower to adopt new fashions but are generating interest from retailers and wholesalers alike.

Revenue from sales of new apparel products, (on the market for a year or less), accounts for 80.5% of spending in the category. Nearly one third of all spending on women’s clothes goes towards products that are a month old or less; for men’s clothes it’s 18%, according to research released earlier this year from Adobe's Digital Price Index.

That study also found gender-differentiated shopping patterns. More than half of all online women’s apparel purchases (56%) are items that have just hit the market in the previous three months, compared with 38.8% of spending on the newest men’s items, according to that study.

Still, despite those complexities and differences, men's apparel sales are growing. Walmart recently boosted its attention to the segment with its June purchase of men's apparel site Bonobos. GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders noted earlier this year that men's apparel is also a growth area for accessories retailer Coach.

In her statement, Caleres CEO Diane Sullivan said that the new effort "will position us to build on our successes in the two significant areas of potential in men’s footwear and the international arena.”

“Malcolm brings over three decades of deep experience in men’s apparel, brand positioning, merchandising and managing global brands,” she added.