Deckers Brands president and chief executive officer Dave Powers, who just announced his plans to retire, gave more details on the company’s new “super sneaker brand” during its third-quarter conference call with analysts on Thursday.
Powers, who teased the idea of this new brand in October during the company’s second-quarter call, told analysts on Thursday to “stay tuned.”
“You’ll hear about the soft launch in the next few weeks, and then as we head into March and April, [you’ll hear more] in a more robust way,” Powers said.
The response was given after an analyst probed Powers about the innovations coming out of Deckers X Labs. “We established this Deckers Lab innovation engine a few years ago with the help of Jean-Luc [Diard], who is one of the co-founders of Hoka, and it has been quietly building as a force in our pipeline for all of our brands,” Powers said. “So, some of the innovation you’re seeing in Ugg and Hoka, and we’ll soon see some of that in Teva as well, has come from that.”
The CEO added that while working in the lab, the team has discovered its opportunity for “a new kind” of sneaker brand. “We would put this under the category of super sneaker brand,” Powers said. “It’s pretty exciting. It’s more sophisticated in styling, it’s made for really all-day wear, but it comes with a lot of the technologies that you would find in a performance running brand.”
Some of the features that could end up in this new “super sneaker brand” include carbon plates, different foams, more modern materials and cleaner lines, according to Powers. He also noted that the line will have “a bit of an elevated price point,” situated at above $200. “We’re excited to launch this into the market,” Powers added. “I’ll let you know the name as soon as what I’m allowed to. But stay tuned.”
This update comes after the CEO told analysts in October that Deckers will be investing in creating a new brand that he described as a “super sneaker brand across various categories that combine the best of Hoka and Ugg along with all the learnings the company has from those two brands.”
“We have a lot of leverage in the marketplace and some really innovative, exciting products,” Powers said at the time. “It will be a long haul, but we think this is a space that is emerging and that we want to make sure that we have some skin in the sneaker game going forward beyond Hoka.”
Deckers Brand reported its largest quarter in history on Thursday, driven by its star Hoka and Ugg brands. The Goleta, Calif.-based footwear company reported net sales in the third quarter of 2024 increased 16 percent to $1.560 billion compared to $1.346 billion the same time last year.
By brand, Hoka saw the largest increase in sales in the third quarter, reporting a 21.9 percent rise to $429.3 million compared to $352.1 million in Q3 2023. Ugg also continued its winning streak in the period, posting net sales of $1.072 billion, a 15.2 percent increase from $930.4 million last year.
