Steven Madden Ltd. no longer has a chief merchant.
Karla Frieders, the former chief merchandising officer, voluntarily resigned her position, effective June 30. “Ms. Frieders has indicated her resignation is for personal reasons and not the result of any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, policies or practices,” Madden said in a regulatory filing on Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Madden said in the filing that it doesn’t plan to appoint a new chief merchant “at this time,” and that certain of Frieders’ responsibilities are being “assumed by other members of the company’s management.”
Frieders joined the company in 1999. In an interview with Footwear News in February 2010 when she was senior vice president of retail, Frieders said that every trend “comes around again only more fitting for the times. It’s so cool to watch that happen.”
In the same SEC filing, Madden said that board member Robert G. Smith submitted his voluntary resignation on June 27 to “pursue another opportunity.” His departure date is effective July 14, and it is also not due to any disagreement with the company on any matter connected to the firm’s operations, policies or practices. The company said that its board will reduce its size to 10 members from 11 following Smith’s departure.
The Madden brand received a lot of attention last month following company founder Steve Madden‘s May 21 interview on the fashion podcast “The Cutting Room Floor,” after short clips surfaced on TikTok. In one clip, he was asked about knocking off designer looks, but was unapologetic about the knockoffs. While he noted the original brand inspiration for certain Steve Madden shoes, he also said, “We changed it a little bit.”
Meanwhile, the company in May said it had closed on its $360 million acquisition of the London-based footwear and accessories brand Kurt Geiger. For the first quarter ended March 31, net income fell 8 percent to $40.4 million on a net sales increase of 0.1 percent to $551.4 million. And in a company conference call on earnings, CEO Edward Rosenfeld said the company moved shoe production and certain components out of China for brands such as Steve Madden and Dolce Vita, noting that fall production in China will be “virtually nothing.” There’s still some apparel production in China at less than 5 percent, but that is because value-priced fashion production is taking longer to move. Rosenfeld also noted that the shift to other countries — Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico and Brazil — also means that deliveries for those goods will be pushed out by 30 to 45 days.
