Journeys is doubling down on refreshing its merchandise mix as part of a larger turnaround strategy — and Nike is a key part of the strategy.
Andy Gray, who was just promoted to chief executive officer of the newly formed Journeys Global Retail Group last month, told FN in an interview this week that Nike will be launching at its new concept stores and online in November.
“This addition its part of our strategy for Journeys,” Gray said. “We are on a mission to work with the best brands in the world and deliver them through the lens of our customer. Our consumer is defining our entire footwear-focused assortment. We’re looking at data that illustrates brand preferences and what our teen customer wants in their closets.”
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The Swoosh hasn’t been available at the retailer since 2013, marking a big moment for the company.
In terms of what product from the Swoosh that Journeys will add, Gray noted that there will be “some level” of athletic-influenced styles – which already exist in the retailer’s offering from brands like Hoka, New Balance and Asics – but also some lifestyle silhouettes.
“We’re not going to be stocking things that don’t fit our target consumer group,” the executive said. “It doesn’t make sense. We’ve done a lot of great work internally to define who our customer is and what their preferences are, what their interests are, and what their day-to-day is like. We’ve done deep dives on our muses so that we can build the right assortment when working with our brand partners.”
This is just the latest milestone in Gray’s strategy to turnaround the teen-focused retailer since he joined parent company Genesco in January 2024 with a focus on a new store concept, investment in building the Journeys brand and upgrading the product assortment.
The efforts began to show some green shoots when the Nashville, Tenn.-based Genesco posted fourth quarter results this past March. That report said that Genesco ended the quarter with a 1 percent increase in net sales to $746 million, led by a 5 percent increase in sales at Journeys.
By June of this year, first quarter fiscal 2026 total net sales rose 3.6 percent to $474 million, again driven by a 5 percent increase at Journeys. Genesco’s chairman, president and CEO Mimi Vaughn said at the time that the Journeys’ strategic plan to accelerate growth and increase market share continued to gain traction.
And in the most recent second quarter report in August, total net sales for the footwear firm rose 4 percent to $546 million, with the contribution from Journeys even greater as its net sales rose 6 percent.
And the core of Journeys’ reinvention is broken into two parts: product and store design. As for the former, the retailer has revamped its merchandise mix to include more must-have, trend-driven styles from brands like Adidas, New Balance, Ugg, Birkenstock, Hoka, Saucony, Puma, Veja and more.
The starting point to this reimagined product mix, as Gray said in an interview with FN last November, was subtraction. “We have to be very clear about where we’re going to win, and that’s where our clear leadership opportunity is,” he said at the time. “We’ve cleaned up some of our non-footwear business and prioritized shoes. We now have an expanded and broadened assortment of footwear in our stores that we wouldn’t have had in the past to accommodate our consumer who likes to wear different kinds of categories and brands.”
Now one year later, Gray reiterated that the company has worked diligently to “strengthen and elevate” its product assortment. “This is ultimately what we have been doing,” Gray said. “We made sure that we were focused on that style-led customer and the footwear that they want.”
Along with this new brand offering, Journeys has introduced a modular store design to better highlight footwear. Gray noted that fixtures, displays and marketing materials can be moved around with ease to feature a particular trend or brand at a moment’s notice.
Dubbed the “4.0 store concept,” the executive said that 75 of the nearly 700 stores in the Journeys fleet have received the updated design. By the end of the year, 10 more locations will be revamped.
“This will kind of be the cadence we are on for the rollout,” Gray said. “About 75 locations a year. It has been about a store and a half per week, and the teams are not slowing down. It’s a big undertaking.”
As for how consumers are reacting to the new store concept, the executive noted that the refreshed store focus is “worth it.”
“We have managed to retain our existing consumer while also attracting new customers,” Gray added. “The new store concept has way out indexed on both metrics versus the balance of our chain. I mean, the metrics are great. We love it. It’s providing a good return on investment, but the fact that it’s actually recruiting the next generation and retaining our current is super exciting.”