After two of its competitors lamented on recent earnings calls that legacy athletic sneakers were hurting business, Journeys is bucking the trend.

Mimi Vaughn, president, chief executive officer and board chair of Journeys parent company Genesco, told analysts on the company’s second quarter 2027 earnings call on Thursday that the retailer’s work to diversify its merchandise mix has helped it avoid the same plight as other companies in the space like JD Sports and Foot Locker.

“Our lifestyle athletic [business] was the star of the quarter for us,” Vaughn said. “And it’s due to the fact that we are diversified across a number of different brands. And I think some of the pressure in the industry is concentrated within some individual brands. And so do we expect more promotional activity in the back part of the year? We do. But it really has been quite promotional for some time now, within the athletic space, and some in apparel.”

Vaughn added that the “great benefit” to Journeys’ business was its strategy to serve the “style-based customer,” particularly with a tilt toward the teen girl.

“What we’re seeing in ballerinas, mary janes and some of the other styles that are quite female tilted more than anything else is helping to drive our business,” the CEO explained. “We’re quite focused on what we’re doing and on how well Journeys is performing against the fantastic performance the last couple of years.”

Without naming names, Vaughn noted that eight core brands provided growth in the quarter. “We’re seeing that low profile is definitely a look that is gaining quite a bit of traction,” she said. “Newness is what is resonating. Lifestyle running continues to perform very nicely and we’ve got some benefits from some new brands that we introduced last year.”

And the wins for Journeys don’t seem to be slowing down. Vaughn mentioned on Thursday’s call that back-to-school business got off to a later start due to the Labor Day calendar shift, but sales trends accelerated, boosted by the retailer’s “Life on Loud” campaign, especially during tax-free periods with customers looking for budget relief.

“Journeys is comping nicely positive against record back-to-school results last year, especially in larger, more premium shopping centers and in major states like California and Texas,” the CEO said.

With Genesco’s wins at Journeys, the company is looking to translate this formula over to its struggling Schuh banner in the U.K. Aside from naming a new president of the retail division, Vaughn said that the company has made progress in diversifying the product at Schuh.

“[We have] greater access to an allocation of Adidas, Nike, Asics, Ugg, New Balance, Birkenstock, and others, as part of our more elevated assortment strategy,” Vaughn noted. “And we expect continued improvement, but the U.K. consumer market remains challenged and price sensitive, which we’re observing during back-to-school right now. Against this backdrop and with our efforts to reduce discounting, we’ve said we expect the Schuh turnaround to take longer than Journeys, but we see the same opportunity to serve the style-led youth customer we’ve captured at Journeys and remain confident in our plan.”