#482 From Heavy Metal to Heritage: Danny Ewoldsen’s Unconventional Road to President of...

I lost my hair, so I had to find another way to make a living. It's a long story. By the way, thanks for having me, guys. Thanks for all the great work you do on behalf of the industry with the FDA. I just got to say that up front. Crazy times at the moment, so good to have you guys out front. Like any kid, I had hobbies and trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a living. I was an athlete early on and everybody kind of outgrew me. I'm 5'7", 150 pounds, so I had to find something else. There was a lot of music around my house growing up. I bought a guitar early teen, got real excited about it, started playing professionally at 15, playing around the Midwest. I rarely went to high school on Fridays, did Thursday, Friday, Saturday night shows around the Midwest. I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but we were close to Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Kansas City. Out of high school, I did it full-time, went out to the West Coast and took a swing at it. It was a really fun experience. Like a lot of people, I eventually fell into retail. That was not part of my master plan, but that's how it happened, which ultimately led me here. There's a lot to unpack in that story.

I wish it was that sexy. I had an apartment in Glendale shared with two other people. We spent most of our time in a shoddy tour bus traveling the rest of the country where you could actually get paid to play music, which really wasn't the case in LA itself. But yes, it was during that time when the Sunset Strip was happening and all those bands that we all know and love from that period were making it. It was a fun time. There were some interesting things about the industry that I wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart, but most of it was a really good time, particularly for someone who's 17, 18, 19 years old.

It's one of those ideas that there's a couple of days in your whole life where something happens that changes your destiny. Butterfly effect. I had left LA and decided the music industry wasn't for me. For a lot of reasons. For one, it's not really a meritocracy. It's subjective. You could do everything right, work harder than anybody, and still never make it. You'd see bands that weren't technically great selling millions of records and bands that were amazing that couldn't sell a ticket. Eventually you think, am I really going to put all my energy into this that may or may not pay off? So I left LA and went back to stay with my dad in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was figuring out my next step and got bored. I was talking to a girl I met and told her I was bored. She said, why don't you get a job? I said, who's going to hire this kid with hair down to his waist in the Midwest in 1988 or 89? She said they hire long-haired guys at Chess King at the mall. So I walked down there, applied, and got hired. I took a job as a sales associate. They quickly asked me to be an assistant manager. I decided I might do this for a minute while I figure out my next step. It turned into store manager. I was a district manager by the time I was 21. It happened fast. I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved it. I loved being around people. I loved that you got a report card every day from your effort. It was really fun. It took a minute before I said this is what I do for a living. If someone asked me back then, I'd still say I'm a guitar player. But one day you just realize, no, I'm a retailer.

When Genesco called about the Johnston and Murphy opportunity, a little more than 20 years ago, it was as vice president of stores. I came in and ran the retail business initially. What I remember about accepting the role and why I was so excited is first, the heritage is unbelievable. You just can't buy it. It's organic and authentic. The brand was maybe a little tired and needed updating. That's always the case with heritage brands. The integrity of the brand was off the charts. The trust from consumers and business partners was intact. Repairing trust is hard work, but that wasn't the case here. It was just come in and modernize this thing and see what we can do next. It's been a couple of decades. I've been president for seven years now. This is such a collaborative group. I don't feel like my title has changed much. We just work together toward the same goals.

It's a great question. The value of spending time with your team on the front line and with consumers is so true. It's funny, we spend so much time crunching data to understand consumers, and ironically you could just go out and ask them. If a product is working or not, you can call a couple of store managers and they'll quickly tell you what the story is. In terms of balance, every busy leader goes home feeling like they didn't get to everything. I'm giving attention somewhere while ignoring something else. Our leadership team is so experienced and capable. They certainly don't need me holding their hand. I probably just get in the way half the time. But it's important to think about all your constituents and make sure everyone understands the shared vision. That means a lot of communication. You have to be in the front, talking to your stores, customers, and partners to make sure everyone is moving in the right direction. I haven't mastered it. I don't know anyone who has.

A consumer that's constantly changing. You can fall in love with your history and DNA, but if you don't move with the consumer, you're gone. This is the longest continually operated footwear company in the United States. We take a long view. We want to stay relevant and keep moving forward. The most important thing we do is listen to our consumer. They let us know where to go. Things in our DNA, like being hugely committed to quality products and service, are old tenets, but they transfer across categories. Whether it's a dress shoe or a sneaker, you still want great quality, comfort, innovation, premium materials, delivered with great service. Those things don't change. You hold on to the best of what got you to the dance and evolve based on what your consumer needs. Diversifying the Johnston and Murphy brand relative to product has been the general strategy even pre-pandemic. We think about diversification through three lenses: product, consumer, and distribution. For product, we don't want to be reliant on one category. Men's dress shoes have been in decline for 20 years. We sell from flip-flops to formal, and we have an amazing apparel business and additional categories. For consumer, we don't want to be reliant on just one. Our reach is broad, from 25 to 85 years old. We're blessed with a multigenerational consumer base. For distribution, we think about showing up wherever our customer wants to shop. I'm channel agnostic. If we acquire customers through our direct channels or wholesale partners, that's great. I'm wearing our bestselling shoe this spring, a white cubs sneaker. Who would have thought 20 years ago that our bestselling shoe would be a sneaker? I'm wearing our socks, denim, belts, an essential t-shirt, and a J&M X. I'm head to toe.

Versus stringent rules, we try to be pragmatic. Some people need to work at home at times, some need to work in an office. I love being around our team. I'm here every day if I'm not traveling. Most of our team is that way. We have a set policy where you can work a day or two from home if you like. If you need flexibility for family, we're good for that. My perspective is if you have a great team that is productive and engaged, it's our job to create an environment where they can be successful. That has worked well for us. It depends on the role. Our product team is here every day, touching product. Other positions don't necessarily need to be here. But we have a team that really likes one another and supports one another. The best thing you can do is create an environment where people want to be around the team. There's so much learning to be had. As a guy without a formal education, everything I learned I learned from being around people who are smarter and more experienced. People could miss out on that if they're not present enough.

I'll answer selfishly. My opinion on what makes somebody happy at work is not about what you do, but who you do it with. The biggest benefit of being in a senior role is you get to decide who's on your team. If you're not happy at work, it's typically your own fault because you haven't surrounded yourself with people you want to spend time with. Cultural fit is huge. When I interviewed for this job, the president of J&M at the time was John Kaplan. I learned a lot from him. I came from apparel and outerwear, not footwear. When I interviewed, I asked him about the culture. I came to Nashville imagining a formal environment with suits and ties. It was the opposite. It was down to earth, humble, and curious. He said something I've never forgotten: we take our business very seriously, but we don't take ourselves that seriously. There's no room for prima donnas. We give each other a hard time in the hallway with a smile and try to keep it fun. We're more productive that way.

I'll start with the consumer. The importance of growth. You can think about growth through multiple dimensions: distribution, categories, regions. But you can only grow your business one way, through customers. You can develop a new category, but if nobody buys it, who cares? Bringing new consumers into the brand is the most important thing. If I think about whether we've been successful, I'll think about the reach of our consumer group, regardless of where they buy or what category. The unique thing about this brand is our consumers are unbelievably loyal. Everything we do in product, service, policy, and taking care of people is with loyalty in mind. We try to remove anything that would keep a consumer from coming back. We focus on quality and service. Everyone in our organization knows they are empowered to help a customer. If there's any issue, just take care of them. Loyalty is key to holding on to relationships. We can acquire a customer at 25 and keep them for 50 years. That's unique. The other thing is for a 175-year-old brand, our awareness numbers aren't through the roof. We have an opportunity to create more awareness. Part of that is perception. The longer you are something, the longer it takes to change someone's mind. Our heritage is 170 years of being a dress shoe brand, and in the last decade we've branched out into other categories. Our consumers know that, but the rest of the world doesn't necessarily know we're more than just a dress shoe brand. There's a lot of awareness and perception work, and that's exciting.

I'm not interested in competing with Nike. Going back to strategy, everything we do is related to our consumer. We know our consumer plays golf. We have a big heritage in golf from the 1920s. We left it and brought it back a few years ago. Our guy is a business guy, successful professional, loves to play golf. Why wouldn't he wear our brand out there? I'll be playing golf this weekend head to toe in J&M from my polo and shorts to the golf shoes. It's not out of bounds to think about those extensions.

I'm going to bring you with me. We'll lean into healthcare. Got the customer for longer.

I will not. I'll keep everybody off of YouTube.

I was always a boot guy on stage. I'd probably be in some awesome vintage J&M Chelsea boot.

Not Johnston and Murphy back then. I got my first pair of J&Ms in my 20s before I worked for them. I used to buy a lot of boots in Mexico. I would wear some of those and they'd be crippling. I'd be in such pain by the end of the night. But I needed them to look cool and to be a little taller. So, they were pretty helpful.

When you have those lifts, do you call them the dantis? The platform gets a little higher. I never used lifts, but I understand.

First of all, I love Chick-fil-A. I always crave it on Sunday for some reason. Authenticity is massive in leadership and relationships. What your GM was telling you about going eye to eye with the consumer is key. Our consumer is unbelievable. He loves to joke and have fun. He's successful, articulate, self-made. This is not a luxury brand. Our guy is self-made and comes to us because he wants us to help him with his confidence. He wants to be at his best, whether in the office or at a barbecue. He trusts our team to help him with that. Our team does a nice job being on that consumer's level and understanding their needs. We feel like we're doing more than just selling shoes and apparel. We're really helping a guy be at his best. It's a nice relationship. It is that authenticity thing.