Forty-five years after Randy Merrell sought to make a better outdoor boot, the brand’s mission remains the same: get more people outside.
In honor of its anniversary, Merrell reconnected to that core message this year with the launch of a new brand platform called “It Starts Outside.”
The use of the word “outside” in the messaging was highly intentional, tied to Merrell’s central inclusivity mission to bring more consumers into the fold. (Whereas the “outdoors” are often perceived as a place just for athletes and adventure seekers, “outside” is universal.)
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“We really do believe in our purpose around sharing the simple power of being outside with everyone,” Janice Tennant, global brand president of Merrell, said about the platform. “The word seems simple, but it’s grounded in this notion of thinking about some of the best moments in life and how a lot of times they happen outside, whether it’s a hike with your family or a river cleanup that helps you feel connected physically to the environment you’re in. That’s what makes the ‘outside’ so special.”
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This mantra is just one part of Merrell’s playbook as it seeks to continue its streak of financial wins. The brand — which was acquired by Wolverine Worldwide in 1997 and is the largest in the company’s portfolio — has consistently posted quarter after quarter of growth.
In its first-quarter 2026 earnings release in May, Wolverine Worldwide noted that Merrell saw net sales of $169.7 million, a 12.7 percent increase from $150.6 million in the same year-ago period. That follows 8.4 percent growth in fiscal 2025, when net sales totaled $648.9 million, up from $598.4 million the prior year.
For the period, Merrell continued to build on its lead in U.S. hiking by again taking significant market share. The brand pointed to the Moab Speed 2 and the Moab 3 models as contributors to the strong growth in the marketplace, partially driven by fresh colorways and materializations, along with enhanced storytelling.
Needham & Co. senior analyst Tom Nikic noticed the trend as well. “Despite the U.S. hike category underperforming, Merrell reported another solid quarter, which was an acceleration from low single-digit growth in the fourth quarter,” Nikic wrote in a research note in May. “Notably, this marked the 12th time in 13 quarters that Merrell gained market share.”
Williams Trading equity analyst Sam Poser added that new functional styles — and some lifestyle shoes — are beginning to gain traction for Merrell. “The new product and cleaner distribution have led to more full-price selling,” Poser wrote in a note last month following Wolverine Worldwide’s first-quarter earnings. “More compelling [product] provides a solid foundation for healthy long-term growth.”
Merrell’s continued advancement in the category comes at a time when some brands are struggling to keep up, explained Tennant. “As more people, women in particular, take part in outdoor activities, there are less brands out there responding to the shift in the needs of what these participants are looking for in their shoes,” the executive said. “That’s part of the reason we’re doing a huge push in the space of trail running and even revisiting our hiking shoes. And that’s why you’ve seen us outpace the category a little bit.”
Merrell’s growth has also been supported by continued market share gains in “key cities” and progress in winning over “hype” retail accounts.
Indeed, over the last several years, the company has worked to diversify its retail partnerships. The idea is to meet its customers where they are while also leaning into the “It Starts Outside” mantra of encouraging more people to head outdoors. Tennant said Dick’s Sporting Goods and REI have played “major parts” in a journey to evolve what “shelf space looks like” for Merrell at retail.
Innovation Mindset
Much of the brand’s growth, though, stems from Merrell’s work to modernize without sacrificing its credibility in the market. And despite it being one of the footwear industry’s most overused buzzwords, innovation is core to Merrell’s story, Tennant explained.
“We look at the Moab, you know, the ‘mother of all boots,’ and think of it as a sort of statue that’s been around in people’s closets for a long time,” the executive said. “But when you think about it, hiking shoes before the Moab didn’t have ventilation or comfort technology. You’d have to wear your boots for two weeks to break them in before a big trip. So innovation has always been part of our history.”
Merrell has long prioritized product innovation. In fact, custom cowboy bootmaker Randy Merrell started the brand in 1981 with the mission to rethink hiking shoes. Built on the same last as his cowboy boots, Merrell became known for building products that — like a cowboy boot — were snug at the heel, precise over the instep and roomy in the toes.
Further innovation came in 1998 with the launch of the Jungle Moc and later the Moab in 2007 — two core styles for the outdoor consumer that remain central to the brand’s success.
As for what innovation means to Merrell today, Tennant breaks it down into three words: first, best and only. The executive noted that this strategy pushes Merrell to be the first to bring a solution to the marketplace, be the best at that solution, and ensure it’s the only one to use it.
“It’s a simple framework,” she said. “I also use this for us to keep ourselves honest because sometimes brands can launch something they’re really proud of it, and it’s great, but when you put it out in the marketplace in front of consumers, it doesn’t stack up.”
A recent illustration of this framework implementation was the 2025 launch of Merrell’s SpeedArc technology, a midsole system featuring active response coils that work with a layered nylon plate to deliver shock-absorbing stability and energy return. Merrell is expected to introduce its latest model in the line, the SpeedArc Peak for trail running, later this summer.
“It all boils down to a continuous improvement mindset,” Tennant added. “There’s always an opportunity for us to be just a little bit better tomorrow than we are today. Our team is also inherently curious — curious about the marketplace and how people are using our products. This then leads to new solutions that unlock certain new growth opportunities that we didn’t have before.”
Credibility Counts
This constant flow of “solutions” for its consumer is another way that Merrell aims to stay relevant and retain its place of authority in the outdoor market.
Tennant cited the Merrell Test Lab as an important tool to ensure the brand’s products live up to what’s expected of them. “We also use outside research testing firms who will look out for us in a quality control aspect,” she said. “Then it’s about putting the products to the test in performance spaces with Merrell athletes across the globe who are competing in some of our innovations.”
Remaining credible in the outdoor space also means entrenching the brand in the industry’s performance culture. This includes securing the title sponsorships of the Skyrunner World Series, the premier circuit for technical, elevation-driven mountain running that consists of 19 Skyraces across the globe.
In February, Merrell recommitted to Skyrunner with the addition of a U.S. race in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, as well as the launch of a four-race U.S. Skyrunner National Series.
Beyond the competition space, Merrell is bringing the “It Starts Outside” platform to life with localized activations around the globe. In New York, for instance, the brand debuted a spinoff “Outside in the City” campaign in April with a mural by artist and ambassador Shantell Martin.
The programming will continue in New York throughout the summer, through activations hosted in partnership with Hike Clerb, SENIQ, City Girls Who Walk, Latino Outdoors and Camp Yoshi.
London will also get in on the action when Merrell teams up with Ollie Ranger of Flock Together, an urban bird-watching collective. And in Paris, the program will collaborate with Samuel Marque, an urban fisherman, during Fête de la Musique, and activate during Paris Fashion Week Men’s alongside the Castay Twins, art directors who draw creative inspiration from the streets of the City of Light.
Winning With Women
Making the outdoors more accessible also means having an inclusive product line with more offerings for female consumers. And while the outdoor segment has traditionally catered to men — and often overlooked women — Merrell has been bucking that trend for decades.
In fact, the brand debuted its QForm comfort technology specifically designed for women back in 2003, followed by the Tetra collection featuring casual shoes and boots for the female consumer the next year. More innovation came in 2006 with the launch of the multisport Siren collection for women, then in 2011 there was the Avian collection of lighter, faster women’s-specific multisport shoes.
Today, that market segment is still important to Merrell. Tennant maintains that including women in the outdoors is “really critical” right now, and not just because she is a female leader. “I want to make sure that there’s product out there that can reflect the various ways that women participate in the outdoors and outside,” the executive said. “We ensure our performance product lives up to the needs of women who are hiking long distances, walking long distances, and that we’re meeting and designing to their needs.”
Tennant pointed to the reintroduction of the Relay shoe as one way the brand is continuing to address the female consumer’s needs. “[Through our] research, we were shocked to learn how many people love to do things like go for a hike and then brunch afterward,” she said. “So we brought back our Relay from the archives and some of our Mary Jane styles that can address this need. This is all about creating products that have that type of versatility.”
Merrell also was intentional about including women in its “It Starts Outside” programming. Tennant noted that Hike Clerb will host five activations for their community throughout the summer, each taking place in a different borough of New York to honor the variety of ways to experience the outside. These experiences include a botanical garden sensory immersion at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, a night hike with astrologer Laura Chung through Queens, a birdwatching trek on Governor’s Island, a hike and climbing experience in the Bronx, and a guided kayaking excursion through Staten Island’s waterways.
City Girls Who Walk will also host walks through the city over the summer, including one in partnership with Pacsun that will start and end from the retailer’s SoHo store.
Honoring Legacy
Overall, Tennant is excited to bring Merrell into its next chapter. “We stand on the shoulders of giants who came before us,” she declared. “They created things that are so interesting. I still get pulled aside by people when I tell them I work for Merrell, who are like, ‘Oh, you all used to make a shoe or a boot that was amazing.’ There’s a real fondness and attachment that consumers have to the product and the experiences they had around the product.”
The executive views this nostalgic feedback as an opportunity to bring back old styles that have been collecting dust in the archive. “It’s about how do we make them fresh and different,” Tennant added. “Maybe it’s with color or material. And the great news is that we have a mix of trends right now, like the low-profile and barefoot silhouettes, that we can pull from our archive and update them for today’s consumer.”