Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Wolverine World Wide, Inc. first quarter fiscal 2021 results call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Brett Parent, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Strategy. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter 2021 conference call. On the call today are Blake Krieger, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Hoffman, our President, and Mike Stornett, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we announced our financial results for the first quarter 2021. The release is available on many news sites and can be viewed on our corporate website at wolverineworldwide.com. If you would prefer to have a copy of the news release sent to you directly, please call Allison Malkin at 203-682-8225. This morning's press release and comments made during today's earnings call include non-GAAP disclosures, which adjust, for example, for the impacts of environmental and other related cost net of cost recoveries, costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including air freight costs, credit loss expenses, severance expenses, and other related costs, and foreign exchange rate changes. These disclosures were reconciled in attached tables within the body of the relief. I'd also like to remind you that statements describing the company's expectations, plans, predictions, and projections, such as those regarding the company's outlook for fiscal year 2021 made during today's conference call, are forward-looking statements under U.S. securities laws. As a result, we must caution you that there are a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These important risk factors are identified in the company's SEC filings and in our press releases. With that being said, I'd now like to turn the call over to Blake Krieger.

Thanks, Brett. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I hope everyone on the call is safe and well. Earlier this morning, we reported first quarter revenue of approximately $511 million and adjusted earnings per share of 40 cents. a strong start to the year. E-commerce led the way, growing 84% during the quarter as our global digital strategy continued to deliver results. Our two largest brands exceeded expectations with Merrill up nearly 25% year over year and Saucony up nearly 60% in the quarter. Both brands easily beat their 2019 Q1 revenue levels with Saucony up over 75% versus 2019. The company's international business was up 40%, with every region growing over 35%. Our DGC channels are outpacing the market, and our wholesale order book is very healthy. As we look to the rest of the year, demand for our brands is very strong, and we've raised our full-year guidance on the strength of this demand and robust outlook. For today's call, I'll start by providing some additional insight on our Q1 performance, and then Mike Stornett will detail our financial results and update you on our financial outlook for the year. Finally, Brendan Hoffman will share the latest on our strategic growth priority before I conclude. In the first quarter, the Wolverine Michigan group revenue was up 20.1% on a reported basis and up 18.2% on a constant currency basis. The Wolverine Boston Group revenue was up 10.3% on a reported basis and up 8.2% on a constant currency basis. Let me now focus on key brand performance starting with Saucony. Saucony grew revenue nearly 60% and expanded operating margin nearly 800 basis points in Q1. A great start to what we anticipate will be a spectacular year for the brand. All regions delivered strong growth. Led by North America and EMA, Saucony.com revenue increased by over 150%, driven by compelling digital storytelling and impactful product launches. Product design and innovation remain at the core of Saucony's growth momentum. delivering both superior technical product and trend right lifestyle collections to the global marketplace. The brand's road running category nearly doubled in Q1 with the launch of new models for several of its biggest product franchises. The new Guide 14 and Convara 12 drove significant growth with the Guide more than doubling year over year. New colors and collection packs also drove excellent growth and freshness for the innovative Endorphin series. Saucony also grew its trail running business with the launch of the Peregrine 11, which received the coveted Runner's World Editor's Choice Award. New product launches are fueling momentum in the brand's technical product category with existing runners and with the many new enthusiasts to the sport. Saucony Originals, the brand's heritage lifestyle sneaker business, also grew double digits in Q1. The brand continues to leverage its Italian product design and marketing hub to build on its pinnacle positioning and success in Europe with elevated trend-right product. The new Jazz Court, a sneaker made with 100% natural materials and zero plastic, launched at the end of Q1, driving substantial buzz in social media and immediately becoming the brand's top-selling product on Saucony.com. Looking ahead, Saucony will continue its steady introduction of new product launches. Both the new Ride 14 and Freedom 4 launched within the last few weeks and are off to a fast start. Over the next several months, the brand will also roll out the next generation of all three models of the Endorphin collection, the Pro, the Speed, and the Shift, which has quickly become one of its largest franchises. The brand will also introduce the new Triumph 19, a follow-up to the award-winning predecessor. The momentum in the Saucony business continues to accelerate across both its performance and lifestyle offering. Moving to Merrill. Revenue grew nearly 25% in the quarter. All regions delivered increases led by especially strong performance in EMA. North America grew double digits, including DTC, with Merrill.com up approximately 135% and Merrill stores comping up 30%. Merrill kicked off its Future 40 campaign at the start of the quarter, celebrating the brand's 40th anniversary and amplifying its inclusive commitment to sharing the power of the outdoors with everyone. The brand announced a significant partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, aiming to provide greater accessibility to the outdoors for nearly 200,000 youth. Merrill continues to focus on cultivating its well-established product franchises, as well as delivering innovation across new product introductions. In Q1, performance footwear grew by nearly 30%. as the brand continued to advance its vision of faster and lighter footwear for the trail. Building on the unmatched success of the world's number one hiker, the Moab, Merrill launched the all-new Moab Speed and Moab Flight collections, quickly exceeding sell-through expectations, including selling out on Merrill.com and helping to drive very strong double-digit growth for the Moab franchise overall. The Antora 2 and Nova 2 trail runners also continued to perform exceptionally well in the quarter. Merrill has a steady stream of new performance offerings scheduled for the remainder of the year. Merrill's lifestyle business grew approximately 20% in the quarter, driven by the growth of the classic Jungle Moc and newer Hydro Moc, which more than tripled year over year. The brand plans to continue to leverage the easy on, off trend throughout 2021 with new products in the Hydro Moc, Hut Moc, and Jungle Moc franchises. Merrill is well positioned with both its outdoor performance and lifestyle businesses, and we expect the brand's growth will continue to accelerate going forward. Our work business, which represented almost 20% of our revenue in Q1, also delivered significant growth. led by Wolverine up nearly 30% and Cat Footwear up over 30% with strong contributions from a couple of our smaller brands. We are the market share leader in the U.S. work boot category, which is currently trending with consumers and has been an important consistent performer for the company over time. We expect growth in this category to accelerate in Q2. Turning now to Sperry. Revenue was down approximately 10% in Q1, a continued sequential improvement compared to prior quarters, despite more than $10 million of expected revenue, which slid into Q2. During the quarter, Sperry.com was up 40%, and Sperry stores grew more than 20%. The brand's full-price business remains very healthy, with gross margin expanding nearly 500 basis points in Q1. Looking ahead, Sperry is back on the growth path for the remainder of the year. Sperry possesses unique elasticity across genders, product categories, and price points. Its new float collection, a fun and affordable injected version of the boat shoe for younger consumers, launched at the end of the quarter and quickly became Sperry.com's best-selling product introduction in several years. The brand expects to build on the success of the float throughout the year with seasonal drops, including the Cozy Float collection this fall. Sperry also plans to capitalize on the easy-on-off trend with the launch of the new Moxider collection later this summer and to drive energy through several product capsules leveraging fashion, entertainment, and pop culture icons, including collaborations with John Legend, Rebecca Minkoff, and the Netflix hit series Outer Banks, Good Humor Popsicle Ice Cream and Rowing Blazers. Before Brendan and I share some additional insight regarding our strategic growth priorities, I'm going to hand it off to Mike to review the first quarter financial results in more detail. Mike.