Designer Brands Inc.

Is Designer Brands Inc. publicly traded?

Yes. Designer Brands Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker DBI. It went public in July 2005 as DSW Inc. and renamed itself in 2019.

Who owns Designer Brands Inc.?

The company is publicly held with institutional investors owning most shares. The founding Schottenstein family retains influence through executive chairman Jay Schottenstein.

When was Designer Brands founded?

The company was founded in 1969 as Shonac Corporation in Columbus, Ohio, and opened the first DSW store in 1991. It became DSW Inc. in 2005 and Designer Brands Inc. in 2019.

Who is the CEO of Designer Brands?

Doug Howe has served as chief executive officer since 2023. Jay Schottenstein serves as executive chairman of the board.

What does Designer Brands own?

The company operates DSW, The Shoe Company, and Rubino retail banners totaling about 665 stores, and owns footwear brands including Topo Athletic, Vince Camuto, Keds, and licensed lines like Jessica Simpson footwear.

What is Designer Brands' annual revenue?

For fiscal 2025, ended January 31, 2026, Designer Brands reported net sales of $2.89 billion, down 3.9 percent year over year, with a small net loss of $8.4 million.

Where is Designer Brands headquartered?

The company is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, where the Schottenstein family's retail operations have been based since the 1969 founding of Shonac Corporation.

The company began in 1969 as Shonac Corporation, founded by members of the Schottenstein family and partners George and Steve Nacht in Columbus, Ohio. For more than two decades it managed leased shoe departments inside Value City and other department stores.

The pivotal launch came in July 1991, when the first Designer Shoe Warehouse opened in Dublin, Ohio, applying a warehouse-club format to branded footwear. In 1998, Value City Department Stores acquired DSW and affiliated shoe businesses from Schottenstein Stores and Nacht Management.

A 2004 reorganization placed DSW inside Retail Ventures, which renamed the entity DSW Inc. in February 2005 ahead of a July 2005 IPO. The chain grew through the 2000s into one of the largest footwear retailers in North America, passing 500 stores.

The 2019 rename to Designer Brands Inc. formalized a strategic pivot already underway: the 2018 acquisition of Camuto Group brought Vince Camuto and a wholesale operation, followed by Topo Athletic in 2020 and Keds in 2023. Canadian expansion added The Shoe Company in 2018 and Quebec's Rubino chain in 2024.

Fiscal 2025, ended January 31, 2026, tested the model. Net sales fell 3.9 percent to $2.89 billion on a 4.3 percent comparable sales decline and an 8 percent traffic drop, producing a small net loss of $8.4 million. Gross margin improved to 43.6 percent as owned brands carried a larger share of the mix.

The company publishes corporate responsibility information covering its supplier standards and owned-brand sourcing, though it holds no B Corp certification. Its retail footprint keeps direct environmental impact relatively contained.

Owned-brand manufacturing runs through contract suppliers in China, Vietnam, and Brazil under the company's vendor code of conduct. The growing owned-brand share gives it more direct supply-chain responsibility than a pure retailer carries.

On labor, the company has managed standard retail wage-and-hour matters, including California class actions settled in prior years, without major operational consequence.

Designer Brands has faced recurring wage-and-hour class actions in California stores, settled for modest amounts consistent with retail-industry norms.

A 2023 data incident affecting customer loyalty program information required disclosure and remediation but did not produce major regulatory action.

Pandemic-era decisions on furloughs and executive pay drew shareholder criticism in 2020, handled through standard governance responses. The company's 2025 net loss and traffic declines have drawn analyst scrutiny but represent commercial pressure rather than legal controversy.