When Authentic Brands Group acquired Sperry from Wolverine Worldwide in early 2024, trend spotters were calling boat shoes the next “It” style.

The timing couldn’t have been better for Aldo Product Services, which took on the long-term license for Sperry, becoming its North American operating partner for wholesale, e-commerce and store operations. It also handles footwear design, production and distribution globally.

At the same time, many designer brands, such as Miu Miu, started featuring boat shoes in their collections — often borrowing design cues from Sperry. Fast-forward to summer 2025, and the shoe is almost inescapable.

Now, after over a year of having control over Sperry’s narrative, Aldo is seeing real success with the brand. “It’s great to see our anchor products that we gently evolved come back to relevancy in the market,” said Jonathan Frankel, president of Aldo Product Services, a division of Montreal-based Aldo Group. The executive noted that year-to-date e-commerce sales in 2025 are up 60 percent from the same time in 2024.

Jarrod Weber, global president of sports and lifestyle at Authentic, praised Frankel and his team, noting that they’ve brought “impactful momentum” to the business. “It’s been a complete collaboration between two powerful organizations, and the groundwork we have established excites us for the next chapter,” Weber said.

Here, Frankel discusses Sperry’s compelling back story, the challenges of transitioning a brand between companies and his vision for the label’s future.

Why was Sperry an appealing brand for Aldo Group?

Jonathan Frankel: “This was one of the first deals we ever signed with that kind of confidence and longevity. We didn’t see this license as a short burst opportunity. Now, we are focused on rebuilding Sperry’s relevancy in the market, as well as making sure that we are the operational partner that our retailers expect to work with. And then on top of that, being able to play the longer game — where you reinvest in marketing, collaborations, activations, brand building — that is really important.”

Do you have a personal connection to the brand?

JF: “I grew up with two parents who were sailors. I have early memories being on a Fireball wooden boat, which was an Olympic-class sailboat, ripping down the lake, and my parents were wearing Sperrys. I actually have a couple of those pairs that they used to wear. But merging that to the business side, it’s unique for me to find projects where you wholeheartedly believe in the authenticity of the brand and the journey that it’s been on. I see it as a responsibility to steward this story for that next chapter.”

What were some of the first things you considered when taking on this license?

JF: “The immediate priority was to anchor those iconic properties of the brand and get them back to the status and the level of business that they deserve in the market. That’s a recalibration on fit, shoe lasts, materials and more. We also wanted to be sure that our supply chain was very stable so that we’re always able to fulfill demand, and then also build up the right balance of repertoire in those icon styles to ensure we own the space.”

How did you initially approach the product offering?

JF: “Product was a mixed bag on men’s, specifically. We had a little bit more refinement work to do as there was a lot of cannibalization in the line. On the women’s side, it was more of a hard reset, especially because we recognized the importance of the trend coming down the pipeline. So we had to do what made sense for the brand so that it gets the open-to-buy or the consumer attention. And we’re so glad to see the brand is back, because at different times, for all the retailers we sell to, it was a significant player in their businesses.”

How do you modernize a brand without losing its legacy?

JF: “The art of rebuilding a brand is identifying its core and making sure that you’re strong enough with the messaging and the positioning that it feels natural. It’s also a lot of going into the archives and identifying an energy or lifestyle that could be used for messaging. So then you take that essence and you bring that into more of a modern skin, done in a way that still feels like the brand. If you get that nuance right, you suddenly have unlocked this whole generation of new consumers without leaving behind past customers.”

Sperry has been in many different hands over the years. What makes APS a good shepherd for the brand?

JF: “APS allows us to be more entrepreneurial in the way we operate. In our essence, we’ve crafted a division that is very agile and can work in ways that are brand-agnostic. When we get a new project, we can help get it off the ground with lightning speed, rather than having to re-create and grow everything from the ground up. But also, with Aldo Group as our parent company, we can leverage the foundation and structure to accomplish projects without a lot of distraction because the infrastructure is already in place.”

How important was it for APS to assume control of Sperry’s e-commerce platform?

JF: “It was a great moment for us because we could take control of the full customer journey for Sperry. We consider the Sperry website as our flagship, hands down. When we transitioned the operating system over from Wolverine’s technology to ours, it went smoothly for the most part. But there are things that no one thinks about behind the scenes, like plugging in our sourcing office and data migration, which could be a headache. There was also a lot of inventory we were taking over as part of the deal, which added another layer of complexity.”

How did you deal with the existing inventory?

JF: “It was a lot of work for both Wolverine and us, because the inventory had to be moved out of their facilities and over to ours. But it was a mixed bag in terms of selling through it. There was a good chunk of inventory that just needed to get sold into the market and liquidated. And inventory is not like wine. It does not get better with time. So we just had to be non-emotional about it. Then there was another chunk of it that, we realized, if we played our cards properly and told a good story and weren’t on a fire-sale mentality, we could get more longevity out of it and sell through the website. And there was product in there that was evergreen and a bit dated, but there was nothing wrong with it, and it still was perfect to be able to sell and deliver. We also called up some of our wholesale partners to make them offers on inventory at a value price. But we have very successfully sold the existing inventory down without being too promotional.”

This year, you’ve released hit collaborations with Aritzia, Colbo and Todd Snyder. How do collabs fit into the broader Sperry strategy?

JF: “We’re very fortunate with who we’ve been able to work with through a lot of the hard work of our collaborations team. First and foremost, we choose who we work with because we like them. Period. There’s no one who we collaborate with — or who we will collaborate with — that we don’t have a nice energy and a nice chemistry with. Because if you don’t have that, I guarantee you, the collaboration is going to come out feeling forced or just opportunistic for a moment. That’s where I think people talk about collaboration hangover. It’s when it’s too much of that in the marketplace.”

Sperry has a diverse group of retail partners, from J.Crew and Nordstrom to DSW and Dick’s Sporting Goods. How are you evolving the approach to wholesale?

JF: “We respect that each retailer comes to us for different items, and we are not trying to be everything to everybody. Some come to us for our core and evergreen program, some want other styles. We don’t dictate what they buy as long as we feel like they are going to be set up for commercial success with their buy. You need to let the merchants do their job and have faith in their decisions. But thank the shoe trend gods that boat shoes are hot right now. We have had a very positive response in the market to our offering.”

What excites you the most about Sperry’s next chapter?

JF: “Our CVO shoe is our next big style. In the next 12 to 18 months, I expect more retailers to be asking for canvas and vulcanized shoes, and that’s just what the CVO is. We have one called the Reissue, which is the one that you see in the Paul Newman ads, and the one that you saw [John F. Kennedy] wearing back in the day. It’s casual, yet elevated. It’s also our original style. Many people think it was the [leather] Top-Sider, but the CVO was our first shoe. And in terms of wearability, the CVO has a wider and even more democratic use than the Top-Siders. And there’s equally as much storytelling that we can do behind the CVO, which is fun.”

What will Sperry look like in 10 years when it reaches its 100-year milestone?

JF: “Hopefully not that different from what our intention is right now. If I can say 10 years from now that we delivered on all our lofty ambitions, I’d be very happy with that plan. It would be counterintuitive for me to have some revolutionary statement about what we want to achieve. That’s exactly what we should not do with this brand. And for Sperry, our goal is safeguarding its brand identity and making sure that it is growing at the right speed. We’re growing it one step at a time in the new categories, and it’ll be fun to see even more consumers create stories in their Sperrys.”