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And now for the main event…

Jenny Ming wasn’t looking for another C.E.O. gig when Rothy’s came calling, and it took a few tries to persuade her to take the helm in 2024. A retail veteran who helped launch Old Navy with Mickey Drexler in the ’90s, and who had graduated to appointments on almost a dozen boards, Ming was comfortably semi-retired and focused on mentoring other leaders. Then Rothy’s co-founders Stephen Hawthornthwaite, an investment banker, and Roth Martin, who led most of the brand’s design, invited her to jump back in the game. She started as C.E.O. early last year. Ming immediately helped propel Rothy’s past the $200 million mark in 2024 by growing top-line revenue at a double-digit clip and reaching profitability—no small feat in today’s fiercely competitive footwear landscape. Meanwhile, fellow Bay Area darling Allbirds (which was cool with tech bros and crypto folks for a minute) dropped below $200 million in 2024, with losses approaching $100 million. Its stock is down 99 percent in the past four years. Rothy’s, which sold a 49.9 percent stake to Brazilian manufacturing company Alpargatas in 2021, has focused their messaging on sustainability. (All their shoes are made from plastic bottles and other recycled materials—another reason the brand was often compared to Allbirds.) But with Ming at the helm, Rothy’s began emphasizing product innovation, rolling out a broader range of styles, including more lasts (shoe silhouettes), open-toed sandals for warmer months, heels, boots, and a handbag line, at the same time that Allbirds kept pushing the same watered-down Yeezy-style wool sneakers.

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Ming also freed Rothy’s from the direct-to-consumer stigma stinking up a lot of its competitors, and has managed to please its core customer while attracting a new set of city walkers looking for cute Mary Jane flats that won’t cause blisters. The knitted look of the shoe’s uppers, once polarizing, is now being adopted by other brands. (When Lauren was in Tokyo, she noticed that tons of shoes in the shops looked a lot like Rothy’s.) She has also elegantly amped up wholesale, securing prime real estate in select Nordstrom stores, Liberty of London, and Le Bon Marché while boldly establishing an Amazon presence. “We just want to be wherever the customer wants us to be,” Ming told me. The wholesale strategy has managed to keep Rothy’s ahead of a growing number of imitators and competitors in the knit ballet flat space. (Vivaia, a Chinese brand that makes several similar shoes, opened their first permanent store last month, in New York, and is a few steps ahead of Rothy’s in Japan.) Despite Rothy’s momentum, manufacturing remains the company’s biggest challenge. Unlike most D.T.C. brands, Rothy’s actually owns its Chinese factory—a once-competitive advantage that has suddenly become complicated by tariff politics. How Ming navigates this supply chain chess game could determine whether Rothy’s cements its position as sustainable footwear survivor or becomes another cautionary D.T.C. tale. We discussed all that, and more, in a freewheeling conversation last week. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Sarah Shapiro: Rothy’s financial performance has been really strong since you arrived, and you’re playing the game on multiple fronts between D.T.C. and wholesale. What’s next? Jenny Ming: To me, it always starts with product innovation, and I still think there’s so much to be done. We did a lot last year, making sure that our product is relevant to the trends and our foundation is still good. The worst is when you walk away from something that you’re really known for. Of course you have to keep enhancing it, but you also have to bring in new things. How have you diversified and expanded Rothy’s channels? We started online, and online is still the foundation of our business. A few years ago, we really started in retail, and last year was probably one of our banner years. We opened nine stores. We have 26 stores now, but it’s still very small. We have customers around the country and globally that want to touch and feel our products. We’ve been really diligently at work to open more retail stores. But no matter how fast we open, it’s still not enough. One of our main strategies last year was to diversify our channels. So we dabble and play around and test, of course—like being on Amazon, because Amazon is one of the large search engines. A year ago, if you typed in “Rothy’s” [on Amazon], somebody else would show up. Not acceptable to me, because we need to be where a customer wants us to be. We tested Nordstrom Marketplace, Bloomingdale’s, Anthropologie, so we could dip our toes into wholesale, and it worked extremely well—in fact, we will be in 20 Nordstrom stores. We started in Marketplace, and we’re consistently in the top 10 of the brands that they sell.

How are you approaching the tariffs? Having a factory in China has served us extremely well, but we’re shifting more production out of China—and not just because of tariffs. You would never have production in just one country, period. We’re moving faster now, but China will remain important to us. I can’t imagine it would ever be completely gone from our supply chain. Are you building or buying factories in other countries, or starting with partnerships? I would probably start with partnerships. The great thing about having our own factory in China is the technical expertise we’ve developed. When we move to another factory, we send people to help with knitting and assembly because we have that knowledge. It’s a luxury, because we can get operations up and running much faster.

Just like any business, you have to keep evolving. The more diverse your supply chain, the more options you have as you grow. Working for big companies, like Gap and Old Navy, I was always sent overseas to open new countries. I’ve probably been to 40-plus countries. Being on the Levi’s board also exposed me to diverse supply chains, so this is something I’m quite used to. How do you balance pricing decisions with increased manufacturing costs, especially since Rothy’s sits at a specific price point that feels connected to your sustainability angle? We’re not looking at price increases right now, but I’d never say never. That’s probably the last resort, because consumer sentiment is down. This is not the time to raise prices; usually it’s the opposite. We’re being careful about price because people are nervous. If you follow us, you’ve probably seen that we’ve broadened our price bands in the past few years. We have opening price points, and we also stretch depending on the item. We’re looking at other cost savings—renegotiating, managing inventory levels. The good thing about retail is that we’re used to reacting to business. We’ve become much more nimble and agile than before. We can chase what’s selling well quickly, but we can also cut inventory when needed. If Rothy’s isn’t taking price increases now, does that mean there’s enough wiggle room to cover tariffs, or will margins be impacted? It’s a combination. There will be some impact, but we’re focusing on growth this year. We’re looking at where we can cut costs and renegotiate with vendors. We’re examining every line item—what we must have versus what’s nice to have—and trimming before taking the easy route of raising prices. Different channels also bring different margin dynamics. We’re still early in wholesale, but it’s making an impact on our total business. D.T.C. is still the biggest chunk, but wholesale affects us differently. It needs less manpower, with lower margins but also lower costs. What have you learned about leading through these sorts of business challenges? In times of uncertainty like this, you need to have a stable hand. It’s heads down, do what we do best, and focus on that. I love that our business is small enough that we can move quickly, because we don’t have many layers—we’re a very small team. We can do something immediately if needed. Like everything, this phase will also pass. Sometimes when you’re constrained by tariffs or supply chain issues, that’s when the best innovation emerges.

Brock Colyar’s snapshot of what it’s like to be a young person living out a phony Carrie Bradshaw fantasy in the West Village would be a fabulous depiction, even if unofficial Line Sheet mascots Kim Vernon, Bonnie Morrison, and Savannah Engel were not quoted. And yet they are! I truly love and admire Brock. [New York] The great and powerful Becky Malinsky has ascended to her rightful perch as a newspaper columnist, solving reader fashion conundrums. [Financial Times] An unscientific, yet entirely revealing, look at the state of men’s fashion media. [Feed Me] Cora Harrington, a fashion historian, has been studying the costumes from the 1980s cartoon Jem and the Holograms and comparing them with Vogue issues from the same era. Lauren was a fan, which explains so much! [X] This is the breakdown of the Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson drama that you didn’t know you needed. [The Sports Gossip Show] In its latest strategic leadership reshuffle, Nike promoted former global women’s division V.P. Amy Montagne to brand president, signaling a potential pivot to address their women’s market struggles. Meanwhile, president Heidi O’Neill is leaving and her role is being split into three focused areas reporting directly to C.E.O. Elliott Hill. [Footwear News]

That’s it from Sarah and me. One final note: I’m not that much of a Saturday Night Live person—except for this Forever 31 skit, obviously—but I’m probably going to read the Lorne Michaels biography after listening to author Susan Morrison on Armchair Expert. (Thanks to the friend who recommended it.) The thing that has stuck with me was one of Michaels’ many rules for sketch comedy: “Do it in sunshine.” Until tomorrow, Lauren P.S.: We are using affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

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