Designer Brands (NYSE:DBI) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call December 10, 2024 8:30 AM ET
Company Participants
Dustin Hauenstein - Senior Vice President, Finance
Doug Howe - Chief Executive Officer
Jared Poff - Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Dylan Carden - William Blair
Mauricio Serna - UBS
Operator
Good morning and welcome to the Designer Brands Third Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please also note, today's event is being recorded.
At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Dustin Hauenstein, Senior Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.
Dustin Hauenstein
Good morning. Earlier today, the company issued a press release comparing results of operations for the 13-week period ended November 2, 2024, to the 13-week period ended October 28, 2023.
Please note, that the financial results that we will be referencing during the remainder of today's call excludes certain adjustments recorded under GAAP unless specified otherwise. For a complete reconciliation of GAAP to adjusted earnings, please reference our press release. Additionally, please note that remarks made about future expectations, plans and prospects of the company constitute forward-looking statements. Results may differ materially due to the various factors listed in today's press release and the company's public filings with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Joining us today are Doug Howe, Chief Executive Officer; and Jared Poff, Chief Financial Officer. Now, let me turn the call over to Doug.
Doug Howe
Thank you everyone for joining us this morning. We were pleased with our strong start to the third quarter, anchored on the success of back-to-school season which was fueled by our athletic and athleisure offerings and led to positive comps in August. This gave us confidence that we had reached the inflection point in our business that we have been working towards. However, we saw a tough transition into the fall seasonal business as a result of unseasonably warm weather. This was exacerbated by an ongoing pullback in consumer discretionary spending due to sustained uncertainty in the macro environment.
While we saw demand below expectations across most of our categories, our boot business, while already planned down approximately 15%, was down 27%. However, according to Circana, for Q3, footwear sales, excluding boots remained flat to prior year in the footwear market, while DSW footwear sales, excluding boots, grew 8% versus prior year, outpacing the footwear market results. This was largely due to our athletic category continuing to comp positive throughout the quarter. Additionally, in U.S. Retail, we saw growth across key categories in the quarter like women's dress, luxury, athletics and kids and our top 8 brands, 7 of which were athleisure, continue to lead the way.