For several quarters now, Saucony, along with its sister brand Merrell, have carried much of the success of its parent company Wolverine Worldwide Inc.
Indeed, the performance running brand continued its winning streak in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 with net sales of $155.9 million, a 20.1 percent increase from $129.8 million just a year ago.
And Wolverine Worldwide president and chief executive officer Chris Hufnagel is optimistic the brand can continue its growth into the rest of the year and beyond.
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“We believe Saucony is uniquely positioned as a disruptive challenger brand at the intersection of two of the fastest-growing categories in the market, performance and lifestyle running,” Hufnagel told analysts on the company’s first quarter earnings call on Thursday. He added that the brand grew across all regions, channels, and categories. The CEO also said both performance and lifestyle contributed healthy increases.
But some analysts on the company’s Q1 call questioned Hufnagel on whether this type of growth can be sustained. Needham & Company analyst Tom Nikic wanted to hear more about how Saucony is generating brand heat in this competitive market.
“The heat that the brand is generating is coming from both the performance side and the lifestyle side, which gives us a lot of encouragement,” Hufnagel said. “And I’d point back to things that we’ve done intentionally — a key city strategy, investing in these key influencer markets that we think have an outsized influence on their region and really started with London. We’re seeing record Google search interest for the brand right now, and that is obviously correlating to continued sustained growth.”
Nikic further pointed out that in the upcoming second quarter, Saucony will have to lap a 40 percent growth metric it saw in Q2 of fiscal 2025. Wolverine Worldwide chief financial officer Taryn Miller admitted that the second quarter will represent “the toughest comp of the year” for Saucony, and noted that that comp was partly aided by the $4 million of order timing shift as well as the sell-in from the U.S. lifestyle distribution expansion last year.
“As a result, we would expect the second quarter to be one of the lower quarters of growth for the year for Saucony,” Miller said. “But as we said, we’re very excited about what we’re seeing for the brand in the U.S. and international, and we expect Saucony to grow the full year low to mid-teens.”
In a note after the call, Nikic wrote that investors “fret” over slowing Saucony growth, but that the brand “remains a compelling growth story.” He added that growth in Q1 was driven by strong product launches in performance (Endorphin Azura and Endorphin Pro 4) as well as in lifestyle (ProGrid Omni 9), and that Q2 numbers “won’t be materially different” versus the first half depending on how the quarter “shakes out.”
Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser is “less confident” that Saucony’s current momentum is sustainable. “We remain concerned that Saucony’s fiscal year 2026 revenue growth will come in below the guidance of up mid-teens, as the retro-tech trend appears poised to rollover,” Poser wrote. “We are forecasting a low-double-digit increase, with deceleration in the fourth quarter of 2026. We expect Saucony’s fourth quarter 2027 revenue will be down year-over-year, as the lifestyle running trend falls away, and further market share gains within performance becomes more difficult.”
As for what’s next for Saucony, Baird & Co. analyst Jonathan Komp asked on the call what is the “broader vision” for the brand beyond 2026. Hufnagel doubled down on the brand’s success, noting that the team “remains really bullish” on Saucony’s prospects.
“We’re still in the very early innings of what could be a very compelling story,” the CEO said. “Pleased with what we’re seeing today. At the same time, pleased with what we have on the horizon for ’27 and beyond.”
Hufnagel added “some of the best innovation” coming from Saucony is going to be in the pipeline for 2027.
“When Saucony brings innovation and can develop that brand heat, I think that there’s a lot of potential,” the CEO noted. “It’s a fiercely competitive space, and we’re not discounting that. [But] at the same time, I like our chances to continue to grow this business.”