Luxury Footwear Industry Is Eager To Get A New Turn

Long depressed Luxury shoes The industry is eager to get a new turn.

According to the World Clothing, Shoes and Hats Network brand It is common to rely too much on classic styles, single product structure, slow update speed and other reasons. Young consumers have lost their freshness to these brands and turned to more innovative emerging brands.

Data agency EDITD is also focusing on luxury shoes market According to the relevant report after the data analysis of, this category has only increased by 3.2% in the past two years. The report also said that compared with traditional shoe brands, the popular shoes launched by luxury brands such as Chlo é, C é line and Gucci are increasingly favored by consumers.

In the face of the downturn in the overall environment, Reuters quoted sources as saying that Salvatore Ferragamo, an Italian luxury shoe brand eager to find a new CEO, would put this plan on hold for the time being and set up an administrative committee to guide the brand to accelerate its reform and restructuring.

So far, Salvatore Ferragamo has not responded to this message.

In fact, Eraldo Poletto is the first CEO of Salvatore Ferragamo hired from outside the family, so the brand has high hopes for Eraldo Poletto. After taking office, he not only changed the management, but also proposed to strengthen digital innovation.

At the same time, Eraldo Ferragamo also made adjustments to the brand creative team. After the former creative director Massimiliano Giornetti left office, Salvatore Ferragamo appointed Paul Andrew as the first female shoe design director of the brand, Fulvio Rigoni as the design director of women's ready to wear, and Guillaume Meilland as the design director of men's ready to wear in November 2016, aiming to achieve balanced growth in all categories of its departments.

Since the three creative directors did not seem to have a positive impact on the growth of brand performance, in October last year, Eraldo Poletto decided to let Paul Andrew, the creative director of women's shoes, take over the design of Salvatore Ferragamo women's ready to wear series, while Guillaume Meilland continued to take charge of men's clothing series.

In the ranking of luxury footwear, consumers' desire rate for Salvatore Ferragamo is only 2%, which has been pushed out of the top ten

However, the gradual reform of Eraldo Poletto has not yet worked, and the continuous decline of the brand performance has exhausted investors' patience. In early February this year, Eraldo Poletto suddenly left his post, which was temporarily replaced by Chairman Ferruccio Ferragamo.

After the dismissal of Eraldo Poletto, Ferruccio Ferragamo said that the Group would find a suitable CEO candidate as soon as possible, but the spokesman conservatively estimated that it would take 18 months.

Another insider said that Alessandro Corsi, head of Salvatore Ferragamo Europe, Middle East and Africa and former investor relations manager, was recently appointed as the senior consultant of the brand. It was also reported that Alessandro Corsi had previously clashed with the team promoted by Eraldo Poletto.

Founded in 1927, Salvatore Ferragamo was once one of the world's leading groups in the field of luxury goods, mainly engaged in shoes, leather handbags, ready to wear clothes, silk fabrics, accessories and fragrance for men and women. The product range also includes glasses and watches produced by licensed manufacturers. Salvatore Ferragamo was listed on June 29, 2011, and more than 100 family members of Salvatore Ferragamo all hold shares of the listed group.

It is worth noting that there was news earlier that Salvatore Ferragamo intended to move from the hottest luxury brand Gucci to rescue, and listed Gucci veteran Micaela Le Diverec as a potential CEO. Another Milan source said that Micaela Le Diverec, who joined Gucci in 1998, had resigned from the positions of senior vice president and chief consumption officer in March, but was subject to the competition agreement or would join Salvatore Ferragamo as an adviser.

At the same time, Eraldo Poletto, who failed to save Salvatore Ferragamo, quickly found a new job.

Coach's parent company Tapestry announced in a statement on Tuesday that Eraldo Poletto will serve as CEO and brand president of its shoe brand Stuart Weitzman. Wendy Kahn, who took the post of CEO of Stuart Weitzman in 2016, has now resigned.

The appointment will take effect on April 30. After taking office, Eraldo Poletto will work closely with Giovanni Morelli, creative director of Stuart Weitzman, and report to Victor Luis, CEO of Tapestry.

Victor Luis said that with the upcoming launch of Giovanni Morelli's first series in Stuart Weitzman and the basic completion of the brand's buyback of business rights in North China, the brand urgently needs a leader with rich experience to manage its operations.

The picture shows the latest advertising blockbuster of Stuart Weitzman

In the eyes of Victor Luis, Eraldo Poletto, who has been in the luxury industry for 30 years, is the right person. He stressed that the addition of Eraldo Poletto would help Stuart Weitzman and the whole team step onto a new level.

Victor Luis also disclosed earlier that Stuart Weitzman and Kate Spade still have great development potential in southern China and Southeast Asia. In the future, the Group will gradually reclaim the business rights of these two brands in the above regions.

At the age of 58, Eraldo Poletto began to step into the fashion industry in 1997 and served as the chief commercial officer of Casual Corner Group for nearly five years. Later, he joined the American designer Adrienne Vittadini of the same name in 2001 and served as the chief commercial officer of Brooks Brother, an American high-end menswear brand.

In September 2007, Eraldo Poletto was promoted to President of Strategic Development and Globalization of Brooks Brother. In 2010, Eraldo Poletto was appointed CEO of the luxury brand Furla, ushering in the most brilliant six years of his career. During Furla's five-year term of office, he successfully helped Furla achieve the goal of doubling its sales, and was regarded as a great contributor to Furla.

Thanks to this, Eraldo Poletto was chosen by Salvatore Ferragamo, an Italian luxury footwear brand deeply affected by the downturn in the footwear industry. In August 2016, Eraldo Poletto officially joined the brand and took the post of CEO, replacing Michele Nosra, who has served in this position for more than ten years.

Some analysts believe that Stuart Weitzman may be more suitable for Eraldo Poletto to show his fists than Salvatore Ferragamo.

Although they are also shoe brands, Stuart Weitzman and Salvatore Ferragamo have different experiences. Stuart Weitzman took over the family business Mr. Seymour with his brother in 1965. In 1972, the two brothers sold the company to the Spanish company Caressa. Stuart Weitzman continued to be responsible for shoe design.

In 1994, Stuart Weitzman repurchased the company and changed its name to his own. Later, in 2005, he cooperated with Irving Place Capital to expand globally. In 2010, Stuart Weitzman sold most of the company's shares to Jones Group.

In January 2015, Stuart Weitzman was acquired by Coach (the predecessor of Tapestry Group) for US $600 million, becoming the first brand acquired by the Group because it failed to complete independent expansion and development. After buying Stuart Weitzman, Coach strengthened its sales and expanded its product categories, further enhancing its competitiveness with Michael Kors and other competitors.

In terms of products and pricing, Stuart Weitzman has more advantages than Salvatore Ferragamo.

Since the 20th century, Stuart Weitzman has been favored by fashionable female consumers of all ages with its playful and charming modern American style, various styles covering women's boots, professional shoes, flat shoes, waterproof thermal shoes, and moderate prices, including Kim Kardashian, Leighton Meester, Eva Longoria, Taylor Swift, Katie Holmes and other popular stars.

According to the latest global luxury survey report released by Royal Bank of Canada Europe, in the ranking of luxury shoes, consumers' desire rate for Salvatore Ferragamo is only 2%, which has been pushed out of the top ten. In the past few years, Salvatore Ferragamo has always been ranked in the top five.

From the data analysis, compared with Salvatore Ferragamo, whose revenue has declined for six consecutive quarters, Stuart Weitzman, who has basically completed transformation and restructuring, is beginning to recover gradually.

According to the data, the sales of Stuart Weitzman rose 8.4% to 373 million euros in fiscal 2017, while that of Salvatore Ferragamo fell 3.1% to 1395 million euros. In the second fiscal quarter up to December 30 last year, Stuart Weitzman's sales increased by 2% year-on-year to $121 million, with a gross profit margin of 60.8% and an operating profit of $24 million, accounting for 6.7% of the group's overall sales. At present, the brand has 83 stores worldwide.

Tapestry Group said that Stuart Weitzman and Kate Spade still have great development potential in South China and Southeast Asia

More importantly, compared with Salvatore Ferragamo's single brand and family business model, Tapestry Group's flexible business model can give Eraldo Poletto maximum freedom.

Victor Luis said earlier that although Coach, Kate Sapde and Stuart Weizman under the Group maintain independent operation, they will complement each other in terms of supply chain and raw materials to improve the overall efficiency of the Group. This also means that although Stuart Weitzman still operates as an independent brand, it enjoys all the resources of Tapestry Group. According to Tapestry Group, its revenue will increase by 30% this year to between $5.8 billion and $5.9 billion.

Some industry insiders pointed out that Salvatore Ferragamo's announcement on the decision to suspend the search for a new CEO was released one day after the new appointment of Eraldo Poletto, which virtually revealed the brand's anxiety about its own demise.

In addition to facing the emerging trend shoe market due to the changes in consumer preferences of the millennial generation, the old competitors of Salvatore Ferragamo also began to attract the attention of the fashion industry through various innovative means.

After the loss of Eraldo Poletto, who had doubled Furla's target sales, Salvatore Ferragamo will face greater challenges if he wants to recover on his own. Giuseppe Marsella and Luca Solca, analysts of BNP Paribas, said earlier that if the new management of Salvatore Ferragamo could not make effective decisions, it would face the dilemma of forced sale.

After the news was released, the stock price of Salvatore Feragamo fell 0.89% to 23.44 euros per share as of press release, and its current market value is about 3.9 billion euros.

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