Going into the buying cycle, it is always helpful to keep track of which of your brands spend a lot of money and time and focus on a highly-marketed product - and then give it exclusively to your competitors. Sometimes, it’s a brand that you have been supporting for years. Sometimes, it’s two brands!
In some ways, that is OK. Something here needs to be addressed, but it's entirely within VF Corporation's rights to manage its brands the way it wants. If this is how they promote Smartwool and Altra Running with a big retailer - it's a valid business strategy for their corporate entity. But!
The rest of their wholesale dealer base must know that this surprise, exclusive arrangement is in their quiver of tactics. We all essentially buy futures in brands - we place orders nine months ahead for assets that rapidly depreciate as soon as they deliver. The issue is that they just made every other retailer a worse place to purchase Smartwool and Altra gear because the product they promote here is only available with one partner.
As a result, our product is worth less than we should have expected. VF showed their lines to their wholesale dealers without mentioning this exclusive product to anyone (that I know) when specialty retail placed our orders - meaning that we didn't have all of the information we needed when we placed fall orders back in January. Again, this is totally within VF's rights - but it's information that we should all keep in our equations when we evaluate where to put our open-to-buy and place our next preseasons.
And yes, there is a world in which this collaboration gets launched at REI—and high-end run and specialty outdoor—simultaneously. That world sounds awesome.
Gabe Maier Colin True Noah Bryan Shannon Smith Kohn Zach Branson Jimmy Elam Joe Toth #outdoorindustry #outdoorspecialty
WE RUN THE COLD. We’ve teamed up with Smartwool to create a head-to-toe Merino wool running collection designed for layering on those chillier runs this winter.
#GoFarFeelGood #Running #OptOutside #AltraRunning #StayOutThere
Sr. Vice President - Chief Claims Officer at Berkley Entertainment (a Berkley Company)
5moNICE!!