Stratifying Growth Preferences in Softlines

Research evidence excerpt

Stratifying Growth Preferences in Softlines

Consumer | Global Retailing, Softlines & Luxury Brands

May 11, 2026

Michael Binetti Stratifying Growth Preferences in Softlines

212-326-2553

michael.binetti@evercoreisi.com ◼ Where’s the Opportunity in Softlines Growth Names? The

Carson Paull Softlines brands group has come under pressure as the market

312-619-4270 frets over the outlook for discretionary spending budgets. In that

Carson.Paull@evercoreisi.com

backdrop, finding strong compounding growth stories has become

Grace Wong, CFA

437-236-7072 tougher—with bellwether names like LULU falling off the growth

grace.wong@evercoreisi.com peer group list, Nike becoming a smaller part of long-only

Isabella Mercado benchmarks, and a lack of new white-space-growth brand IPO’s

212-801-3880 for several years now.

Isabella.Mercado@evercoreISI.com

◼ The Shrinking High-Growth Winners Circle: In this note we look

at 3 names reporting over the next two weeks that have multi-year Upcoming Industry Events

double digit top line algorithms: AS, BIRK and ONON. Valuations

TJX Field Trip to HQ May 26th

Evercore Retail & Consumer Conference June 9th-11th for all 3 are well-below historical averages, but risks/reward profiles

ULTA CEO and CFO Meetings in NYC July 16th across that group are starting to diverge.

VFC Management Meetings in Chicago September 10th

◼ How Are We Stratifying the Outperform Growth Names?

1) Amer (OP, $51 Target): Amer is our top call in the group (and

a TAP Outperform call). With Salomon positioned to be a 2026

breakout, the portfolio adds another growth engine to what we

think is the cleanest beat & raise set-up across the group while

trading at a 12% discount to its 2-year P/E average.

2) BIRK (OP, $54 Target): BIRK is finally priced correctly (below