How The North Face, Vans and Timberland are trying to transform their businesses in 2026

It’s a critical moment for the company, which will celebrate the 60th birthdays of both Vans and The North Face in 2026. “Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on generating value across our brands and returning the company to sustainable and profitable growth,” Bracken Darrell, VF Corp’s president and CEO, said in a statement in October.

At the National Retail Federation Big Show this week, leaders from The North Face, Vans and Timberland shared how each of their brands is looking to grow this year.

The North Face: Focus on performance & athletics

At The North Face, where revenue was up 4% year-over-year during its most recent quarter, leaders have been tasked with keeping “a lot of spinning plates in the air,” said Caroline Brown, The North Face’s global brand president. “In the speed of today’s business, you really have to change every single level of the company simultaneously,” she said on stage on Tuesday.

When Brown joined The North Face in 2024, the brand had “started to sway and chase areas that maybe we had some business in, but maybe we didn’t really have any business being in,” she said. The North Face needed to focus, she said, and it pulled back to zero in on three core categories: snow, climb and trail.

As The North Face championed these three elements, it also emphasized its roster of athletes. It works with more than 200 athletes around the world, including rock climber Alex Honnold, subject of the documentary “Free Solo,” and skier Johnny Collinson. “One of our focuses right now is to make sure that that team is front and center, so that our consumers can be as inspired as we are internally,” Brown said. Even so, she said, The North Face wants to be a “democratic” brand that develops quality fabrications and technologies for everyday use.

“You want to climb K2 [the mountain in Asia]?” she asked. “We’ve got you covered. You want to build a snowman in your backyard? We’ve got you covered. We’re really proud of that reach, and that’s a controversial point in the outdoor industry, actually. … But we will lose that [more casual side of the] business if we do not continue to reinforce the foundation of performance, which is what brings people to The North Face in the first place.”

Timberland: Prioritize culture & court young shoppers

Timberland, another outdoors brand, is also hoping for a win in 2026. During the most recent quarter, its sales were up 4% year over year, and its Americas business was up double-digits. But the company was in a different place two years ago when Nina Flood, global brand president at Timberland, took up her position.

“When I came in, I recognized we had a lot of elements that were ready for transformation, from the org structure to our leadership team, to our go-to-market process, to our planning process, to our global brand architecture,” Flood said on stage on Tuesday. “We needed to have a complete and total mind[set] shift.”

One thing Timberland had to do was “reignite energy” around the brand, Flood said. While Timberland was first known for a construction boot fit for New England weather, it had started showing up more on the feet of everyday consumers in New York, Milan and Tokyo, Flood said. She noticed that Timberland was able to “transcend what it was made for,” particularly in terms of lifestyle and culture.

As a result, Timberland created what Flood calls an “always-on icon” strategy. The brand paired up with Spike Lee, Naomi Campbell and Teddy Swims on marketing campaigns, and it collaborated with fashion properties including Louis Vuitton and Telfar. Timberland also developed custom footwear for Timothée Chalamet, Doja Cat and Lewis Hamilton. And it made its stores more interactive by hosting customization workshops for NBA draft picks and offering laser-etching and embroidery services for customers. “We can have all the branding in the world, but if we’re not connecting with our consumers, … we’re not winning,” Flood said.

With these changes in place, the Timberland brand is “coming back from sort of a slower moment,” Flood said. “We’re seeing that in brand search increases in the U.S. and in key markets in Europe,” she explained. “We’re seeing that with resale of coveted Timberland products that are soaring. And what’s really exciting is [we’re] bringing more younger consumers into the brand. … It’s really this idea of staying true to our heritage and amplifying it.”

Vans: Expand categories & appeal to more women

Compared to its sister brands, Vans is “probably in the earlier innings of our transformation and turnaround,” Sun Choe, the global brand president for Vans, said on stage on Tuesday.

Vans, as Modern Retail has reported, has struggled to grow revenue for quite some time, especially during the pandemic, when shoppers gravitated toward running shoes. While Vans has since made progress in cutting costs and reducing debt, it continues to deal with heightened competition and headwinds from tariffs. Its sales for the most recent quarter were down 9% year over year, and the company expects further “churn” in its store count for 2026.

Choe, who joined Vans in June 2024, said she’s developed a multi-point plan to “dimensionalize Vans” and help it bounce back. The company wants customers to stop thinking of Vans in a “silo” of skateboarding or action sports, but to instead think of it as a larger lifestyle brand, she shared. As part of this, Vans has collaborated with Sza and Valentino, activated at Milan Design Week, and brought back the Warped Tour, once a staple of emo subculture. Vans is also trying to look at product as a “proof point” and make sure the brand is not “over-designing or over-assorting,” Choe said.

Going forward, Vans is determined to look at innovation “a little bit differently,” when it comes to the footwear space, especially when it comes to innovating the uppers of shoes, Choe said. As an example, she cited the brand’s 2025 Souvenir shoe, which comes with a spray-painted canvas and pins.

Choe also said Vans will continue to invest in apparel. She views that line of business as “not as anything that distracts us from our core category,” but rather as an “accelerator” that helps the brand understand what shoppers are wearing from the “toe up” and the “head down.” Lastly, Choe emphasized that the brand wants to appeal more to women and girls, considering that demographic’s purchasing power. “[We’re] really making sure we are designing very intentionally for her,” Choe said.

As it attempts a turnaround, Vans wants to keep all parts of its organization aligned, Choe said. Resilience is key, too. “This is not for the faint of heart,” she said, “and results do lag after decisions are made. So, it really is being able to be confident in your choices, to know that you’re doing the right thing and to really stay the course.”