Dockers’ New CEO Natalie MacLennan Lays Out Hipper, Informal Imaginative and prescient

Informal mainstay Dockers is getting a refresh.

And main the trouble is the model’s new chief government officer Natalie MacLennan, who quietly took on the function in Might and is entering into the highlight with a brand new weblog put up in regards to the enterprise. 

The practically 40-year-old model, which is a part of Levi Strauss & Co., has been by way of cycles of ups and downs through the years — from when it first rode the enterprise informal development to large progress to its battle to seek out its place as laid-back dressing grew to become much more outstanding and extra manufacturers obtained into the sport. 

Now, the enterprise is within the midst of what it describes as a “an enormous transformation to share its ‘California Level of View’ aesthetic.” It’s a glance that’s head-to-toe laid-back and sunny, focusing on a youthful viewers with a brand new advertising and distribution. 

“It’s not a completely new technique, however consistency is essential,” MacLennan advised WWD.  

She took the gig over from Santiago Cucci, who grew to become CEO of Dockers simply earlier than the pandemic and left the corporate lately. He’s now interim government president of the Olympique Lyonnais soccer membership. 

MacLennan had a giant hand in figuring out the model’s course and is now pushing that plan on. 

“In my earlier function [as vice president of global retail, e-commerce and licensing at Dockers], we spent loads of time and a focus actually digging into what made sense and what would drive the model ahead,” she stated.

“I led that technique growth, and I nonetheless imagine it’s the proper method,” MacLennan stated. “For probably the most half, it’s all about flawless execution and managing the group in a approach that achieves success. However there are a number of areas that we will tighten up, together with our goal age group. We understand that, whereas our product is resonating with the 20-, 30-year-old demographic, our model consciousness amongst that group wants work. By focusing there by way of deeper engagements with model ambassadors in addition to an expanded presence on social, we all know it should create a halo impact with the Millennial viewers.”

Dockers’ present ambassadors vary from ballers to bikers to skaters and embrace Jordan Poole, Matthias Dandois, Johny Salido, Gaël Monfils and Lil Dre. 

Maud Le Automobile is an envoy for the ladies’s line, which at present accounts for a low-single-digit piece of the enterprise, however Dockers is trying to continue to grow with girls because it expands internationally and brings in youthful buyers. 

The model can be doubling down on its direct-to-consumer enterprise and its worldwide progress with plans to open greater than 30 shops this yr, principally throughout Europe and Latin America with two new doorways within the U.S. 

“That is an particularly vital technique for reaching youthful generations, who crave each a bodily and on-line purchasing expertise,” the CEO stated. 

Dockers has been a query mark at Levi Strauss for some time. 

The broader firm has seen a exceptional turnaround on the denim enterprise beneath company CEO Chip Bergh, however Dockers appeared to have bother discovering traction as shoppers and the style market shifted. 

The newest method — which has the model led by a devoted management group — appears to have introduced extra focus. 

Chief monetary officer Harmit Singh put it this manner on a name with Wall Avenue analysts in April 2022: “Dockers was a model that grew up from inside the firm. But it surely was a part of the Levi’s group. So the retailers are a part of the Levi’s retailers. The marketeers had been a part of the Levi’s. And Dockers, as you understand, has struggled.

“And so we had a few decisions 18 months in the past,” Singh stated. “We may both exit Dockers, however we might give it to a non-public fairness who would discover a technique to dedicate time and switch it round, or we may preserve it and run it like non-public fairness. And that’s what we selected to do. We truly separated the group from the Levi’s group.… That allowed us to assist flip round Dockers. For the primary time, Dockers is now not a drag. It’s truly rising.” 

And MacLennan is now main the best way.