Post-bankruptcy Nine West won’t sell shoes

Nine West Holdings will divest from its footwear business – the brand’s best known range- after filing for bankruptcy. The New York-based company said it would focus instead on its jewelry and clothing lines, which include Anne Klein, Kasper Group, and One Jeanswear Group.

“This is a brand that has really struggled to differentiate itself,” said Forrester retail analyst Sucharita Kodali. “The only bright spot in the footwear industry has been athletic wear, and that’s not what Nine West sells,” added the analyst, highlighting a poignant truth: Nine West has missed the athleisure wave.

Analysts said the decline of shopping malls and department stores — many of which sell Nine West products — also exacerbated its demise, reported the ‘Washington Post’.

Nine West files for bankruptcy and vows to stop selling shows as part of its turnaround plan

The fashion group is owned by private-equity firm Sycamore Capital. Nine West Holdings currently owes more than 1 billion dollars to as many as 50,000 creditors, according to court documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

The company said it is in talks to sell its Nine West and Bandolino shoe and handbag businesses to Authentic Brands Group, which owns Neil Lane, Frye, Aeropostale and Juicy Couture brands. “This is the right step to address our two divergent business profiles,” Ralph Schipani, chief executive of Nine West Holdings, said in a statement.

Nine West is the latest in a string of high-profile retailers to file for bankruptcy in the past year, as heavy debt loads and changing consumer preferences take their toll on the industry. Claire’s, Bon-Ton and the Walking Company are among those that have filed for bankruptcy so far this year, and analysts say more are likely to follow. Toys R Us, which filed for bankruptcy in September, is in the process of liquidating all 800 of its U.S. stores.

Bankruptcy deal to help Nine West pay 1.5billion dollars in debt

On April 5 the shoe and fashion company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York federal court, getting closer to a deal with creditors to sell the intellectual property of its namesake brand to Authentic Brands Group.

The sale would help pay down some 1.5 billion dollars in debt, and in turn, would "increase chances that the company will emerge from a planned bankruptcy" according to Bloomberg.

As part of the plan, creditors would take over Nine West's remaining business, including a denim line sold in mass market retailers, details Reuters.

Image:Nine West Spring 2018 Collection