Designer Brands Inc. (DBI) CEO Doug Howe is looking at how the company can resonate more meaningfully with customers.
The executive said during the company’s fourth quarter conference call that the DSW brand campaign from last fall strengthened brand perception and drove engagement. In 2025, the DSW brand generated 79 billion total impressions, or up 10 percent year-over-year, which Howe said signaled strong sustained interest.
The company opened 13 stores and remodeled four in 2025. Not all of the stores included the experimental features being tested in some locations, but they did incorporate enhancements to improve merchandise and customer flow. He said initial customer reaction “has been strong with notably higher conversion and traffic.”
In the brand portfolio, the standouts in the fourth quarter were its Topo brand, up 42 percent, and Jessica Simpson, which grew 17 percent from year-ago levels and was able to capitalize on the resurgence in the dress category. And in Keds, Howe said improved comfort and fit from better product design will help to accelerate growth in 2026.
Looking at assortment mix, Howe said encouraging trends include dress shoes, boots and affordable luxury.
“These categories are resonating with our customers. This will be supplemented by our efforts to build and scale our brand portfolio. We are also planning strong growth in categories adjacent to footwear such as beauty, wellness, hydration, socks and sunglasses,” the CEO said.
Howe also said it is working with investment banking firm Consensus, which has a specialty focused on emerging consumer brands. “This partnership enables us to thoughtfully identify and introduce new relevant brands within our leading categories while also expanding into adjacent non-footwear categories that encourage customer discovery and exploration,”
Howe said. He added that infusing the assortment mix with targeted newness will ensure that the offerings are “aligned with evolving customer preferences.”
Looking ahead to the fall, Howe said that timeframe will see the relaunching of DSW’s loyalty program, which represents “roughly 90 percent of our transactions.”
While Howe said the company expects to build on the improving trends generated in the back half of 2025, he cited to a “volatile macro environment that includes evolving tariffs dynamics and conflict in the Middle East” that may introduce “increased inflationary pressure moving forward.”
DBI on Thursday said it narrowed its fourth quarter net loss to nearly $20 million, or 40 cents a diluted share, on net sales that were essentially flat at nearly $713.6 million. Total comparable sales fell by 1.9 percent.
Last month, DBI tapped Sheamus Toal for the role of CFO following the exit of Jared Poff in October.
In the call, Howe also touched briefly upon the layoffs conducted last month. He said the organization change was designed to accelerate execution across key priorities while maintaining a focus on reducing operating expenses. DBI brought its U.S. and Canada Retail businesses under a streamlined reporting structure, which he said will “enable better collaboration and integration of operations across our businesses.” That shift also required the rightsizing of DBI’s shared services organization to “appropriately support the business moving forward,” he said.