Wolverine World Wide, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Wolverine World Wide Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star and the number 1 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jared Filippone, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good morning and welcome to our second quarter fiscal 2026 conference call. On the call today are Christopher Hufnagel, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Taryn Miller, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our financial results for the second quarter of 2026 and guidance for fiscal year 2026. The press release is available on many news sites and can be viewed on our investor relations website at investors.wolverineworldwide.com. This morning's press release and comments made during today's earnings call include non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures, including references to the ongoing business and constant currency revenue growth rates, were reconciled to the most comparable GAAP financial measures in attached tables within the body of the release or on our investor relations website. 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 2026, 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. All revenue growth rates will be cited on a constant currency basis unless otherwise stated. With that, I will now turn the call over to Christopher Hufnagel.

Thanks, Jared. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on today's call. In the second quarter, our business results continue to track ahead of our expectations, driven by the team's strong execution of our global brand-building model. We delivered better than anticipated revenue, growing 6% against double-digit growth last year, with adjusted earnings per share growing 14%, reflecting healthy SG&A leverage while at the same time investing in our strategic priorities and key growth drivers. Maryland Saucony, representing approximately two-thirds of our business, continues to lead the way with revenue up 10 and 9% in the quarter, respectively. We continue to make progress in building better brands, delivering compelling products, investing more in demand creation and telling better stories, managing the marketplace more effectively, all leading to elevating our brand's positions in their respective markets. As a result, we're seeing the cumulative, tangible effects of our consistent efforts. Across our portfolio, our brands generated increases in consumer interest and took market share in their key categories. and these gains in consumer demand are creating more consistent growth in the business, with the company having now delivered seven consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth. Given the strengthening of our brands, the solid results we drove in the first half and the continued momentum we're seeing in the business, today we're raising our guidance for the year, which Taryn will walk you through in a few minutes. But before handing the call over to her, I'd like to share more on our brands, including the continued growth of Maryland Saucony, as well as the progress we're making in applying our playbook to set Sweaty Betty and Wolverine on a path to more consistent growth. I'll start with Merrill. Merrill remains focused on modernizing the outside with faster, lighter, more versatile product design and elevated brand relevance. The brand's consistent execution of its strategy has resulted in sustained, meaningful growth and market share gains. And these trends continue in the second quarter. The brand delivered a double-digit increase in revenue with growth in all regions and outsized increases internationally, where its key city strategy has helped amplify the brand's momentum. Globally, Merrill's It Starts Outside marketing platform, launched earlier this year, is creating brand consistency and lifting purchase intent with our consumers. To extend the platform, the team executed a host of community activations as part of its Outside in the City series, redefining the outdoors in several key global cities, including London, Paris, and New York, with more cities planned in the coming weeks. Merrill once again had triple-digit basis point market share gains in the U.S. hype category, now with three in the top 10 styles. The brand's key franchises, the Moab 3 and Moab Speed 2, are exceptionally healthy, each driving significant double-digit growth in the second quarter. The iconic Moab 3 is respected on the trail and remains relevant, with collaborations and rematerializations like the sought-after and sold-out Khakis collab and the recently dropped Jelly Pack. In trail run, Meryl continues to entrench its position with its title sponsorship of the SkyRunner World Series, composed of elite trail running races around the globe in locations such as China, Japan, France, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, and right here in the US. Meryl's sponsored athletes currently claim seven spots in the top 15 men's and women's standings, including the top four ranked men in the series. In the marketplace, the brand's premier franchise, the Agility Peak Six, continue to gain traction, up double digits globally, versus the previous model's comparable first season. On the lifestyle side of the business, the wrapped franchise continued to grow with additional silhouettes, more than doubling year over year at U.S. retail. The brand also continues to enhance its lifestyle offering with trend-right styles like the Moab 2 woven slide, the low-profile relay, and hybrid Mary Janes and performance platforms, including the Moab Speed 2 and Speed Arc, all of which are selling well. In June, the brand engaged influential partners at Paris Fashion Week, as it continues to elevate its lifestyle profile globally and look to accelerate the side of the business in 2027. Merrill is performing well, and the brand remains on track to deliver mid-single-digit growth this year. Shifting to Saucony. We continue to believe that Saucony is uniquely positioned as a disruptive challenger brand at the intersection of two of the fastest-growing categories in the market, performance and lifestyle running. In the second quarter, the brand drove solid growth in both categories around the world, on top of 40% overall growth last year. Saucony's key city focus, which started in London a few years ago, continued to help fuel strong brand heat, consumer demand, and revenue growth, particularly in Europe. In London, the brand held one of its own Mays Run Club races earlier this year, once again sponsored the London 10K last month, and plans to sponsor the Run Shortage Half Marathon this fall. In addition, Saucony has expanded its key city strategy to Berlin with sponsorship of the Berlin 10K a couple of months ago and a broader activation plan underway. And then to Paris with a maze race back in February and plans for a host of activations, a new Pioneer store entitled Sponsorship of the Eiffel Tower 10K. Creating tentpole moments by sponsoring race events that each reach a broad running audience flanked by a series of community activations, often in partnership with run clubs and key retail partners, has proven to be an effective strategy. Saucony's brand search interest was up meaningfully year over year in the first quarter globally, with even faster growth in the UK. This past quarter, the search interest growth rate accelerated by almost two times globally and more than tripled in the UK, and France grew at an even significantly faster pace. Sell-through trends in the EMA region are also very strong, creating a healthy pull dynamic, which we are actively managing to cultivate sustainable growth focusing on discipline distribution and segmentation strategies. Because of these positive results, our Key City Playbook is now being adopted by some of our distribution partners around the world. Our latest Saucony store opened in Hong Kong in the second quarter, and they're already planned to activate in Istanbul and Bangkok this year with race sponsorship and maze events, a store opening, and community activations on tap. In the performance running category, Saucony gained market share at US Run Special in the quarter and showed wealth in major marathons this spring. ranking in the top five most worn brands at Boston and London, notably second among women at the Boston Marathon. With the brand's Endorphin collection, its pinnacle offering for elite runners, Saucony launched a new version of its most innovative shoe, the Endorphin Elite 3, and plans to launch an all-new Endorphin model in 2027 that we believe will further elevate innovation and performance for serious runners. In Saucony's core four franchises, which are targeted towards a more casual runner, The brand introduced the new Triumph 24 and Hurricane 26 in the last couple of months, and they are driving franchise growth on Saucony.com and early selling with positive feedback from our wholesale partners. Saucony also continues to fuel brand heat in its lifestyle business with compelling styles and thoughtfully selected collaborators who are helping develop the brand's relevance on several different dimensions. In the second quarter, the brand dropped collaborations with Studio Nixon, Grayson, Two With Engineer Garments, and Minted New York. the last of which was launched in an event hosted at our Covent Garden Pioneer store in London, generating exceptional brand energy. Later this month, the brand plans to drop a highly anticipated collaboration with West Side Gun, building on a partnership that continues to strengthen the brand's credibility in streetwear and culture. In June, Saucony launched the Ride 1 as part of its extensive Paris Week fashion presence, including a host of activations with influential collaborators, retailers, and consumers. The brand also introduced the Kinvara 1 and ProGrid Paramount and Top of the Pyramid Distribution, while the ProGrid Omni9 continue to drive growth globally. Looking ahead, the brand continues to develop its lifestyle strategy, leveraging its deep and diverse product archive, developing sharpness behind streetwear and fashion, and thoughtfully cultivating greater relevance with women as well as men. Finally, as we think about realizing Saucony's full potential, I believe that should include becoming a true head-to-toe run lifestyle brand. In close partnership with our Sweaty Betty product design and development team, We're developing a capsule apparel collection designed specifically for her that we plan to drop in our stores and online early next year. I'm excited for this test and leveraging the collective power of the company and whether this opportunity could mean longer term for the Saucony brand. The brand's momentum remains strong and we're raising our outlook for the brand to mid-teens growth for the year. I continue to believe that Saucony is well positioned and that the opportunity for the brand remains significant. I'd now like to provide an update on the progress of Sweaty Bedding and Wolverine. brands that were focused on returning to sustained healthy growth through disciplined execution of clear strategies and implementing our proven brand growth playbook. It's important to note that while we don't expect the performance to be perfectly linear, we're encouraged by the recent progress we've made and the real results we've seen in the marketplace. Both brands are reestablishing their premium positions, driving meaningful increases in consumer interest and purchase intent, and beginning to deliver growth in key segments of their business. Beginning with Sweaty Betty, Sweaty Betty is one of the original female activewear brands and focused squarely on empowering women through fitness and beyond. Last year, we fully integrated this business into Wolverine World Wide and developed a new strategic growth plan. As part of this effort, and as noted previously, we initiated an intentional and strategic reset of the US market in the third quarter of last year. As a result, the brand was down low single digits overall in the quarter, but encouragingly grew approximately 3% when excluding the impact of the market reset in the US. The areas of the business that we prioritized are responding positively and contributed growth in the quarter. The UK direct-to-consumer business grew mid-single digits, with continued increases in key categories like bottoms and outerwear. We're seeing our investment in the brand's new store design lift performance as well, with four refits completed so far this year. The expansion of wholesale and distribution partners in Europe and Asia Pacific also continues to advance, with revenue up strong double digits and discussions for new partnerships progressing well. During the quarter, the brand executed several activations to continue to strengthen its bold, rebellious voice in the marketplace. Its Born Sweaty, Go Shorty campaign increased purchase intent and helped drive strong revenue growth in the shorts category. The brand also effectively positioned itself relative to popular activities, including running with its Rule the Run event in April and racquet sports with its Power by London Pedal event in June and a Wimbledon event in July, all driving strong consumer engagement for the brand. The Sweaty Betty brand is healthier today with a strong strategy in place and determined team driving the business forward. We have more work to do, but I'm encouraged by our progress. Finally, finishing with Wolverine. Wolverine is the number one work food brand in the US and again added market share in the second quarter, its third consecutive quarter of gains. The brand grew revenue high single digits in the quarter, and we continue to make good progress driving towards more consistent, sustainable growth. Wolverine is focused on managing a cleaner, more disciplined marketplace and elevating its positioning with consumers. Behind these efforts and a stronger product line, the brand continues to lift average selling prices and drive double-digit growth in key franchises at retail, including the Trade Wedge and Loader 2, and in Western Boots with The Rancher and Wheatland. Recalibration of the marketplace to optimize assortments and inventory at key retailers is still ongoing, resulting in some expected choppiness and near-term volatility at retail, but inventory is continuing to get cleaner and our new distribution and segmentation strategies, while nascent, are sharper. In the quarter, Wolverine also continued to build brand relevance by engaging consumers with more purpose-led, differentiated marketing. The brand's collaboration with Metallica Scholars introduced a limited-edition boot and workwear collection that benefited trades education, and its American Dream contest launched a made-in-the-USA Loader 2 Durashocks boot and celebrated 50 tradespeople in our 50 states. These initiatives and previous upper-funnel investments like the brand's partnership with the Paramount Plus Series Landman helped further accelerate growth of consumer interest in the quarter. Work remains to get us to where I believe we should be, but Wolverine's new product innovation and designs are performing. The brand's marketing is reaching more consumers and cultivating greater emotional resonance, and the marketplace is responding. Importantly, we've added some new talent to the brand and prioritized its place in the work group portfolio. I continue to be enthusiastic about the brand's opportunity looking ahead and what a growing and more profitable Wolverine brand and work group can deliver for the company. Now, I'd like to hand the call over to Taryn Miller, our Chief Financial Officer, to take you through our results for the quarter and our update outlook for the year. Taryn.