In a surprising reversal of its direct-to-consumer focus, Nike will reenter into a partnership to sell footwear at DSW stores. The footwear retailer’s parent company, Designer Brands Inc., announced the news Thursday morning in a call with analysts discussing first quarter earnings results.
“We are excited to build on our partnership with Nike, which strengthens our position as a leader in the footwear and athletic space,” DBI CEO Doug Howe said in the call.
The deal will bring a variety of men’s, women’s and kids athletic footwear products to DSW and will kick off in October.
Nike cut ties with DSW, along with a variety of other wholesale partners, in 2022 as it accelerated its shift towards direct channels. DSW said previously that Nike products accounted for less than 4% of revenue in 2019.
However, in recent months, Nike has slowly begun re-entering these wholesale relationships as it manages inventory excesses and looks to expand its reach beyond its owned channels. Just last week, Macy’s announced that Nike apparel products will return to Macy’s stores and websites in October after the Swoosh wound down that partnership in 2021. And Foot Locker in March said Nike would remain its key brand moving forward after announcing last year that the amount of Nike product in its stores would be significantly less as the Swoosh accelerated its shift towards DTC sales as part of its “Consumer Direct Acceleration” (CDA) program that it rolled out in 2020.
Analysts have recently noted that Nike might need to reconsider its DTC and wholesale strategies as it looks to capture more demand in a variety of different channels.
FN has reached out to Nike for a comment.
As for DSW, Howe said the retailer has been engaged in “ongoing dialogue” with Nike for the last few months.
“They’ve been great partners and we’re excited to be able to offer that across stores and digital,” he said. “We’ll thoughtfully, with their partnership, build that business back.”
At the same time, DBI is leaning into its own brands in line with its goal to double sales from owned brands and Camuto Group national owned and licensed brands to almost one-third of total sales by 2026. Penetration for owned brands, which include athletic brands like Le Tigre, grew to 26.7 percent in Q1.