Abbie Zvejnieks: Got it, makes sense. And just one more for me if you can. Given the Brand Portfolio top line trends, sequentially improving, what gives you confidence, I guess, in 2024 growth of the brand portfolio and what are the main drivers there? Thanks.
Jay Schmidt: Yes. I think coming out of Investor Day, really it’s our focus on our lead brands. We think all of them are poised for growth and they have specific opportunities by brand that range from more international and our Sam and Libby growth in our Sam Edelman brand. In Allen Edmonds, they have a specific wholesale opportunity. And I think all of them along the way have a big digital opportunity as we go forward. So we’re looking at all those vectors to kind of stimulate growth as we go into 2024. In our Brand Portfolio, our net sales were down negative 0.8%. And that sequentially where we were down 7% in second quarter and even more in the first quarter. So we really are starting to see a very move to a new normal here and I think a place where we can really start to grow again. And I’m impressed, Abbie, by the brand’s ability to take market share in this environment. That’ll be a continued focus as we go forward.
Abbie Zvejnieks: Awesome. Very helpful. Thank you.
Jack Calandra: Thanks, Abbie.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question is coming from Mitch Kummetz from Seaport Research. Your line is now line.
Mitch Kummetz: Yes, thanks for taking my questions. I guess my first, I just want to better understand how to think about like Famous Footwear comps holistically. Because it sounds like in the third quarter, back to school was good. That’s kind of a peak shopping period. And then September and October were difficult. Some of that being due to the seasonal side of the business. And then for 4Q, it’s like sort of started week, it’s gotten better. So are you sort of thinking that like similar to 3Q that your business at Famous will be pretty good around holiday, because it’s kind of must need shopping period. But then like once we kind of get through that and sort of January it’ll be soft again, because of your post-peak shopping. Is that how holistically we think about the business? People are showing up during these key periods, but then given the macro challenges, business in between is pretty tough?
Jay Schmidt: I think, Mitch — Hi. It’s Jay. I think you’ve got it mostly right. I think that’s basically how we — how third quarter played out and how we feel about fourth quarter. We were reacting to and did react to all of the key trending products that are really were identified by the consumer as being really important to them and are in good position on them on an item and skews strength. So that’s really been our focus as we go into fourth quarter. And then we’ll see about January. The one thing I’ll say is that, this is continually a changing environment. We’re watching it very much in real time, but I would say that’s pretty much how we see it.
Mitch Kummetz: And then on Brand Portfolio, we just came out of kind of vendor earning season last month and a lot of the kind of the vendor specific companies talked about challenges around reorders and spring order books and there was what you guys are telling yet on BP. So maybe just elaborate on like why are you guys seeing such strength? It sounds like you’re taking market share. You guys are in some favorable categories or some of it competitive advantage of the speed program. Like why is it that your brands are holding up better than what, at least my impression was, kind of coming out of sort of vendor earning season where numbers were coming down and there was a lot of negativity around sort of, replenishment [indiscernible] and future orders, things like that.
Jay Schmidt: So I think for myself, I’ll begin, I think our speed to market which was outlined really allowed us to capitalize on key market trends. And as I reported last second quarter and in through Investor Day, we saw really the fashion sneaker business really take off as it was going from early spring to late spring. And we really positioned ourselves going into third quarter with a big play there. And that did work across our portfolio really nicely and gave us a nice lift. We’re going to see similar trends, I believe, as we look at the key categories of these casual flats, new low-heeled dress, and other items as we go into first quarter. And those are all on reorder for that time period. So, I would say in a broad-based way, Mitch, it really is this really staying very close to the consumer, utilizing our speed program, and also the really strong inventory management has allowed us to maintain our flexibility and agility in really going after this and feeding it.
I think the brand work that people have done has been really strong and the lead brands are continuing to perform there. And then the last thing I would say is just that so much of our business really is close to 50% is really in what I would call this dynamic model. So between our dropship ability, our own D2C, and our replenishment programs, we’re really seeing some really nice return there in working all the way through on that. And that goes across the portfolio. So we’re staying really close to consumer trends, really working well with everybody. But again, our model is fluid, and I think it’s benefiting us in this time that we’re in.
