Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Wolverine World Wide, Inc. second 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. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Brett Parent, Vice President of Strategy and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, and welcome to our second quarter 2021 conference call. On the call today are Blake Krieger, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Hoffman, our President, and Mike Stornitz, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we announced our financial results for the second quarter 2021. The release is available on many news sites and can be viewed on our corporate website at wolverineworldwide.com. If you'd 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 costs 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 release. 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 and 2022, growth opportunities, and trends expected to affect the company's future performance 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. Our long-term strategic focus on our consumers, digital and DTC capabilities, and product and design innovation, especially in performance categories, is fueling robust demand for our market leading brands. Earlier this morning, we reported strong financial results for the second quarter that significantly exceeded 2020 and our expectations and also easily beat 2019. Revenue was approximately $632 million, a record high for Q2, representing growth of 81% versus 2020 and a double-digit increase compared to 2019. The Wolverine Michigan Group's revenue was up 63% year over year and the Wolverine Boston Group's revenue was up 111%. Both groups were up double digits compared to 2019. Adjusted earnings per share for the company was 67 cents. Our order backlog remains at historically high levels and momentum in the business continues to accelerate. despite the macro COVID-related supply chain headwinds facing our industry and many others. Certainly, our proactive approach to combat these headwinds has been very effective and is also reflective in our strong Q2 results. Given the company's excellent performance and the trends in the business, we have again raised our outlook for fiscal 2021 and now expect revenue in a range that is $150 million higher than we anticipated in our original February guidance, delivering meaningful growth over 2019 at both the high and low ends of the range. Our brand portfolio strategy and international distribution base is also fueling accelerated momentum, as the company is not dependent on any single geographic region, consumer group, or distribution channel. We have positioned our consumers at the heart of our strategy, and that has changed the nature of our company with approximately two-thirds of our brand revenue now positioned in performance product categories like hiking, running and work, categories that are tightly aligned with today's consumer trends. At the same time, the company has developed a strong DTC-focused global distribution model. Year-to-date, our DTC e-commerce business has more than doubled in revenue relative to 2019. And our DTC stores are up nearly 20% versus 2019. Together with the DTC channels operated by our distributor partners around the world, about one third of our global revenue is now generated through direct consumer dialogue and interactions, enabling enhanced brand shopping experiences, a wealth of direct consumer insights and data, and a more efficient business model. We see this accelerated momentum continuing for the foreseeable future. While consumer lifestyle changes related to the COVID pandemic have significantly bolstered demand for performance product categories, the underlying trends are long-term in nature, existing prior to the impact of the pandemic and are expected by industry and consumer trend experts to persist. Consumers have become increasingly focused on health and wellness over the last several years, and running, hiking, and the outdoors have served as primary activations of this mindset. Participation in running in the U.S. has increased every year over the last five years, up by a mid-single-digit CAGR over this time, and a significant majority of new runners say they plan to continue running in the future. Participation in the outdoors, and hiking in particular, has also increased every year during this same timeframe, up by a high single-digit CAGR even before last year's 16% spike, adding nearly 21 million new hikers in the US alone. This spring and summer, national parks are shattering attendance records. More people are continuing to get outside, and this renewed interest in the outdoors is expected to continue into the future, especially as consumers begin to travel again. The more need-based work category has also showed strong growth over the last several years, supported by healthy macro industry conditions and workwear fashion tailwinds. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, warehousing jobs have more than doubled since 2005 and construction companies are expected to hire hundreds of thousands of additional workers this year. Looking ahead, the passage of a major infrastructure plan in the U.S. would further boost momentum in this category. Our brands are capitalizing on these fundamental trends, and we expect continued strong consumer demand over the long term, especially for Saucony, Merrill, Wolverine and our work brands, and Sperry as well. which will launch products in the active sport category next spring. These trends and our visibility into future demand give us confidence to increase our outlook for this year and plan for double-digit growth in 2022. For our call today, Brendan Hoffman will provide some additional insight on the drivers of our robust Q2 revenue growth. Mike Stornett will review our Q2 financial performance and improved outlook in more detail. and I'll conclude with some final remarks. With this, I'll now hand it over to Brandon.