Deckers is kicking off 2026 with two less brands in its portfolio as the company works to focus more of its efforts on its winning Hoka and Ugg labels.
Indeed, last January, Deckers’ president and chief executive officer Stefano Caroti told analysts that the company would sunset its Koolaburra so that it could place even more of a focus on its star Ugg brand.
“To maintain focus on our most significant organic opportunities, we’re planning to phase out the Koolaburra brand stand-alone product collections and operations,” Caroti said at the time.
And while the CEO clearly announced the move to shut down Ugg’s sister brand to analysts last year, the company decided to reveal the closure of the Ahnu label quietly in its 10-Q filing in October.
“During the second quarter of its current fiscal year, the company began taking steps to phase out its standalone operations for the Ahnu brand,” the Goleta, Calif.-based footwear company stated in the October filing. “The company closed Ahnu.com as of October 1, 2025, and plans to wind down the Ahnu brand in the wholesale channel by the end of calendar year 2025.”
According to Deckers, it expects to complete the full closing procedures of both Ahnu and Koolaburra during the third quarter ending March 31, 2026. And as of September 30, 2025, the company noted that it has not incurred, and does not expect to incur, material exit costs or obligations associated with this plan.
FN has reached out to Deckers Brands for further comment.
A campaign shot from the debut Ahnu Sequence 1 sneaker.
Johanna Siring
Deckers only just resurrected its Ahnu label in March 2024. Initially teased as a “super sneaker” brand by then Deckers CEO Dave Powers, the company didn’t consider the debut a relaunch of the original Ahnu label. (Deckers first acquired the Ahnu label for an undisclosed sum in 2009 and ran the then-outdoor-focused shoe brand until the company first shuttered its operations in 2018.)
“We originally had no intention of using the Ahnu name for this project, but we were having challenges coming up with a name that we could use on a global level when it came to securing trademark rights and all of those things,” Powers told FN in an exclusive interview ahead of the launch. “So we landed on Ahnu because we already had the IP (intellectual property) and we have all the sites globally, so it just made sense.”
It’s debut Sequence 1 sneaker has a slightly elevated price point as to not compete with Hoka, with retail prices starting at $225.
As for how Ahnu was supposed to fit into the Deckers portfolio, Powers saw it as the possible future of the company. “I’ve always told the teams here that we have two incredible growth brands right now, and at some point, we may need another one,” the former CEO said at the time. “But the idea for me is we’re going to start planting seeds now for future growth drivers.”
Deckers purchased Koolaburra in 2015.
Courtesy
As for Koolaburra, it was founded in 1991 in Santa Barbara, Calif. as a sheepskin footwear label in direct competition to Ugg. But in 2015, Deckers Brands acquired Koolaburra for an undisclosed sum and quickly rebranded it to Koolaburra by Ugg just one year later. At the time of its relaunch, the footwear label was set to serve as the mid-tier price point alternative to Ugg.
But Koolaburra and Ahnu are not the only two labels to get the boot from Deckers in recent history. In 2024, the company sold its Sanuk outdoor lifestyle shoe brand for an undisclosed sum to Canadian active company Lolë Brands. Prior to the sale, Deckers, which purchased Sanuk in 2011 for $120 million, hadn’t been able to turnaround the beleaguered surf shoe brand for quite some time.
Deckers Brands is now left with three labels – Hoka, Ugg and Teva. It makes sense as Hoka and Ugg have driven growth at the company for years.
In October, the Goleta, Calif.-based company reported net sales in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 increased 9.1 percent to $1.43 billion compared to $1.31 billion the same time last year. Net income for the second quarter was $268.15 million, or $1.82 per diluted share, down from $357.95 million, or $2.74 per diluted share, the prior year.
By brand, Ugg led the way with net sales of $759.6 million, a 10.1 percent increase compared to $689.9 million the same time last year. At Hoka, net sales increased 11.1 percent to $634.1 million compared to $570.9 million last Q2.
Deckers’ “Other” brands division – which at the time included the Teva, Ahnu and Koolaburra brands – saw net sales decrease 26.5 percent to $37.2 million compared to $50.6 million.
