U.S. footwear firm Caleres announced on Monday the appointment of Brian Costello to the role of chief merchandising officer at its Famous Footwear brand.
Brian Costello – Courtesy
In this role, Costello will oversee all buying and merchandising, including women’s, men’s and kids’ athletic and fashion footwear and accessories, for the Famous Footwear’s U.S. and Canada stores and e-commerce sites.
With over 30 years of fashion retail experience across department store Macy’s and Nordstrom, Costello was responsible for leading all footwear categories, women’s accessories and a variety of ready-to-wear categories at Nordstrom Rack, a large segment of the women’s shoe business at Nordstrom, and planning and site merchandising for the launch of Nordstrom Rack’s online store.
“I’m proud to be joining Caleres and Famous Footwear,” said Costello. “As a retailer, many of our best wholesale partners were at Caleres. As a competitor, I always watched and shopped Famous Footwear. I’m honored to be leading such a strong merchant organization.”
In its most recent trading update in January, Caleres cut its target for consolidated sales, earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share for the full year, due to weak holiday sales and weather-related disruptions at its Famous Footwear chain.
“Brian has a long track record of exceptional fashion and footwear industry leadership,” said Mike Edwards, president of Famous Footwear.
“With expertise in merchandising and planning for both footwear and ready-to-wear, I’m confident he will help drive growth and achieve our ambitions at Famous Footwear.”
The St. Louis-based footwear company expects full-year consolidated net sales to be down 3% to 3.5%, compared to 2.5% to 3%, it reported back in January.
