Like Foot Locker and JD Sports, Famous Footwear met the same fate in the second quarter, taking a hit in sales due to weaker demand for lifestyle athletic shoes.
But according to Jay Schmidt, president and chief executive officer of Famous Footwear parent company Caleres, there were some brands and categories that worked for the retailer.
On the company’s second quarter 2026 earnings call on Wednesday, Schmidt told analysts that Jordan, Birkenstock, Skechers, Brooks and Steve Madden were “growth brands” in the period. The CEO noted that these brands saw more interest due to its fashion footwear business strengthening in the quarter, adding that that the category was “meaningfully better” than athletic shoes.
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“In August and quarter-to-date, our fashion comp was positive and outperformed athletic by over 10 points,” Schmidt said. “With the stronger trend we are seeing in fashion, we are expanding our fashion assortment and increasing our inventory investment to support the demand. We also have two non-athletic brands planned for floor takeovers for the back half. Taken together, we believe these strategies will provide sales improvement for the back half relative to the second quarter.”
Still, despite the success of fashion shoes at Famous Footwear, the retailer saw net sales decline 6.3 percent in the second quarter 2026 versus the year-ago period, with comparable sales down 5.9 percent.
Schmidt admitted on the call that second quarter sales at Famous Footwear were below the company’s expectations and attributed it to the business being pressured by a later start to back-to-school and a shift away from lifestyle athletic shoes.
“This resulted in a worse than expected second quarter trend and third quarter slightly better than our previous expectations,” Schmidt said. “As such, quarter to date through Labor Day, our Famous Footwear comp sales are flat.”
Along with the changes to the merchandise mix, the CEO said that the company is working on several other immediate actions to improve business at the retail banner.
“We began taking action during the quarter to improve inventory positioning, including reducing receipts and increasing clearance events to address excess and aged inventory, investing in the categories of the business that are trending,” Schmidt noted. “These actions pressured gross margin but meaningfully improved our inventory position exiting the quarter. At Famous, our back-to-school is heavily driven by athletics.”
Further asked by analysts about the retailer’s reliance on athletic shoes for back-to-school, the CEO noted that category accounted for over 60 percent of the mix during the selling period and levels out to the mid-50s once it ends, with non-athletic accounting for 40 percent of sales.
“I’d like to just leave you with the idea that it’s right sizing,” Schmidt added when referring to the athletic shoe category. “We still have a very big athletic business. Performance athletic is doing very, very well and there are selected pockets, brands and products that continue to trend. But just getting [the assortment] right for that period, I think, will create a more healthy balance for Famous for the future.”