Authentic Brands Group continues licensing strategy with Sperry acquisition

Authentic Brands Group has made billions in the last five years by buying up retail brands and turning them into licenses, allowing other companies to pay for the right to use the brands’ trademarks and copyrights.

Its latest acquisition, Sperry, is also going in that direction, the company said. Announced on Thursday morning, Authentic purchased the footwear brand known for its boat shoes and coastal aesthetic from its former owner Wolverine Worldwide for around $130 million. The deal came, like many Authentic deals do, as the brand in question has been struggling with declining sales. According to Wolverine’s earnings, Sperry’s sales dropped from $63 million in the first quarter of 2023 to $40 million in the last quarter, just over 10 years after Wolverine bought Sperry for over $1 billion from Collective Brands.

As part of the deal, Authentic will be following a strategy it’s taken with other brands in its portfolio like Vince and Reebok. Authentic will license the intellectual property of Sperry to its longtime partner, Aldo Group. Aldo, based in Canada and operating thousands of retail footwear stores around the world, will produce Sperry products, open and operate Sperry stores and aid global distribution of Sperry products to other wholesalers. Aldo similarly licenses other Authentic Brands like Brooks Brothers.

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