Vans is still in the “early innings” of its transformation and turnaround, according to Global Brand President Sun Choe, who joined the company in May 2024.
“This is not for the faint of the heart, and results do lag after decisions are made,” Choe told the audience at NRF 2026 at Javits Center in New York City on Tuesday, alongside fellow VF Corp. presidents Caroline Brown of The North Face and Nina Flood of Timberland. “It really is about being confident in your choices and know that you’re doing the right thing and to really stay with force.”
Choe outlined the initiatives she’s undertaken so far in the process to return Vans to growth, including emphasizing product excellence over volume.
“(We’re) really obsessing over product excellence and making sure that we were not designing just for sales volume, not over-designing too many things, or over-sorting, and just making sure that we did things that were beautiful, created desire,” Choe said.
Results from Vans have improved in recent quarters, but the company is still struggling. In the second quarter ended Sept. 27, Vans revenue declined by 9% year-over-year (11% in constant currency).
Vans is now looking at the intersection of action sports, art, music and fashion, rather than looking at those elements in silos.
“That intersection really speaks to the mindset which is ‘off the wall,’ and really making sure that the teams had absolute clarity on focus on that piece of it,” she said.
Choe has also reassessed the team at Vans, aiming to balance continuity and employees with tenure with fresh perspectives and different cultural references, she said. Choe has also improved organizational alignment.
Over the past year, Vans signed a partnership with pop star Sza, collaborated with Valentino, and stayed true to its skateboarding and surfing roots by bringing back cultural touchstones such as the Warped Tour.
“It really is a demonstration of us being able to have conversations with more consumers and dimensionalizing the brand, rooting ourselves in and bringing that ‘off the wall’ spirit,” Choe said.
When it comes to apparel and growing sales among women, which Choe has plenty of experience with from her time at Lululemon, Vans is looking at what consumers are wearing, particularly how they’re wearing it with footwear and designing intentionally.
“When you look at apparel and women specifically,” Choe said, “it really is seeing (these categories) not as anything that distracts us from our core category (footwear), but they’re really accelerators.”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
