Genesco (GCO) 10-K2024 FY Annual report

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

For the Fiscal Year Ended February 3, 2024

for the transition period from to

Commission File No. 1-3083

Genesco Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (615) 367-7000

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Employees’ Subordinated Convertible Preferred Stock

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232-405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer; an accelerated filer; a non-accelerated filer; a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act.) Yes ☐ No ☒

State the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter - $319,000,000. The market value calculation was determined using a per share price of $27.75, the price at which the common stock was last sold on the New York Stock Exchange on July 28, 2023, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter. For purposes of this calculation, shares of common stock held by nonaffiliates excludes only those shares beneficially owned by officers, directors, and shareholders owning 10% or more of the outstanding common stock (and, in each case, their immediate family members and affiliates).

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant’s classes of common stock as of the latest practicable date: As of March 15, 2024, 11,476,381 shares of the registrant’s common stock were outstanding.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cautionary Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this "report") includes certain forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding our intent, belief or expectations and all statements other than those made solely with respect to historical fact. Actual results could differ materially from those reflected by the forward-looking statements in this report and a number of factors may adversely affect the forward-looking statements and our future results, liquidity, capital resources or prospects. These include, but are not limited to, adjustments to projections reflected in forward-looking statements, including those resulting from weakness in store, e-commerce and shopping mall traffic, restrictions on operations imposed by government entities and/or landlords, changes in public safety and health requirements and limitations on our ability to adequately staff and operate stores. Differences from expectations could also result from store closures and effects on the business as a result of civil disturbances; the level of consumer spending on our merchandise and interest in our brands and in general; the level and timing of promotional activity necessary to maintain inventories at appropriate levels; our ability to pass on price increases to our customers; the imposition of tariffs on products imported by us or our vendors as well as the ability and costs to move production of products in response to tariffs; our ability to obtain from suppliers products that are in-demand on a timely basis and effectively manage disruptions in product supply or distribution, including disruptions as a result of pandemics or geopolitical events, including shipping disruptions in the Red Sea; unfavorable trends in fuel costs, foreign exchange rates, foreign labor and material costs; a disruption in shipping or increase in cost of our imported products, and other factors affecting the cost of products; our dependence on third-party vendors and licensors for the products we sell; our ability to renew our license agreements; impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war, and other sources of market weakness in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland; the effectiveness of our omni-channel initiatives; costs associated with changes in minimum wage and overtime requirements; wage pressure in the U.S. and the U.K.; labor shortages; the effects of inflation; the evolving regulatory landscape related to our use of social media; the establishment and protection of our intellectual property; weakness in the consumer economy and retail industry; competition and fashion trends in our markets, including trends with respect to the popularity of casual and dress footwear; any failure to increase sales at our existing stores, given our high fixed expense cost structure, and in our e-commerce businesses; risks related to the potential for terrorist events; risks related to public health and safety events; changes in buying patterns by significant wholesale customers; changes in consumer preferences; our ability to continue to complete and integrate acquisitions; our ability to expand our business and diversify our product base; impairment of goodwill in connection with acquisitions; payment related risks that could increase our operating cost, expose us to fraud or theft, subject us to potential liability and disrupt our business; retained liabilities associated with divestitures of businesses including potential liabilities under leases as the prior tenant or as a guarantor of certain leases; and changes in the timing of holidays or in the onset of seasonal weather affecting period-to-period sales comparisons. Additional factors that could cause differences from expectations include the ability to secure allocations to refine product assortments to address consumer demand; the ability to renew leases in existing stores and control or lower occupancy costs, to open or close stores in the number and on the planned schedule, and to conduct required remodeling or refurbishment on schedule and at expected expense levels; our ability to realize anticipated cost savings, including rent savings; the timing and amount of any share repurchases by us; our ability to make our occupancy costs more variable; our ability to achieve expected digital gains and gain market share; deterioration in the performance of individual businesses or of our market value relative to our book value, resulting in impairments of fixed assets, operating lease right of use assets or intangible assets or other adverse financial consequences and the timing and amount of such impairments or other consequences; unexpected changes to the market for our shares or for the retail sector in general; our ability to meet our sustainability, stewardship, emission and diversity, equity and inclusion related ESG projections, goals and commitments; costs and reputational harm as a result of disruptions in our business or information technology systems either by security breaches and incidents or by potential problems associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems; our ability to realize any anticipated tax benefits in both the amount and timeframe anticipated; and the cost and outcome of litigation, investigations, environmental matters and other disputes that involve us. For a full discussion of risk factors, see Item 1A, "Risk Factors".

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

General

Genesco Inc., incorporated in 1934 in the State of Tennessee, is a leading retailer and wholesaler of branded footwear, apparel and accessories with net sales for Fiscal 2024 of $2.3 billion. During Fiscal 2024, we operated four reportable business segments (not including corporate): (i) Journeys Group, comprised of the Journeys®, Journeys Kidz® and Little Burgundy® retail footwear chains and e-commerce operations; (ii) Schuh Group, comprised of the Schuh retail footwear chain and e-commerce operations; (iii) Johnston & Murphy Group, comprised of Johnston & Murphy® retail operations, e-commerce operations and wholesale distribution of products under the Johnston & Murphy® brand; and (iv) Genesco Brands Group, comprised of the licensed Dockers®, Levi's®, and G.H. Bass® brands, as well as other brands we license for footwear. We also source, design, market and distribute footwear under our Johnston & Murphy brand and the licensed Levi's, Dockers and G.H. Bass brands, as well as other brands that we license for footwear to over 1,000 retail accounts in the United States, including a number of leading department, discount, and specialty stores as well as e-commerce retailers.

At February 3, 2024, we operated 1,341 retail footwear and accessory stores located primarily throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico, including 77 footwear stores in Canada and 122 footwear stores in the United Kingdom ("U.K.") and the Republic of Ireland ("ROI"). We plan to open a total of approximately 14 new retail stores and to close approximately 52 retail stores in Fiscal 2025.

The following table sets forth certain additional information concerning our retail footwear and accessory stores during the five most recent fiscal years:

Shorthand references to fiscal years (e.g., “Fiscal 2024”) refer to the fiscal year ended on the Saturday nearest January 31st in the named year (e.g., February 3, 2024). Fiscal 2024 is a 53-week year and Fiscal 2023 and 2022 are 52-week years. The terms "Company," "Genesco," "we," "our" or "us" as used herein and unless otherwise stated or indicated by context refer to Genesco Inc. and its subsidiaries. All information contained in Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” which is referred to in this Item 1 of this report, is incorporated by such reference in Item 1.

Strategy

Across our company, we aspire to create and curate leading footwear brands that represent style, innovation and self-expression and to be the destination for our consumers' favorite fashion footwear. Each of our businesses has a strong strategic position grounded in a deep and ever-evolving understanding of the customers it serves. We strive to build enduring relationships with our target customers, based upon unparalleled consumer and market insights. We seek to excite and constantly exceed customer expectations by delivering distinctive experiences and products, using our deep direct-to-consumer expertise across digital and physical channels. The strength of our concepts and the advantages we have built over time have established long-lasting leadership positions that make our footwear businesses outstanding on their own, but what they share through the benefit of synergies makes them even stronger together. We have aligned our footwear focused strategy around six pillars aimed at

accelerating our transformation and leveraging synergies to drive growth and sustainable profitability, 1) accelerate digital to grow direct-to-consumer, 2) maximize the relationship between physical and digital channels, 3) build deeper consumer insights to strengthen customer relationships and brand equity, 4) intensify product innovation and trend insight efforts, 5) reshape the cost base to reinvest for future growth, and 6) pursue synergistic acquisitions that add growth and create shareholder value. We anticipate continuing to optimize our store footprint in the future, concentrating on locations that we believe will be most productive, as well as closing certain stores, perhaps reducing the overall square footage and store count from current levels, but improving productivity in our existing locations and investing in technology and infrastructure to support omni-channel and digital retailing.

We have made acquisitions, including the acquisitions of the Schuh Group in June 2011, Little Burgundy in December 2015 and Togast in January 2020. We expect to concentrate our efforts on opportunities to leverage our direct-to-consumer capabilities to grow our branded platform and leverage its strategies at the appropriate time going forward.

More generally, we attempt to develop strategies to mitigate the risks we view as material, including those discussed under the caption “Forward Looking Statements,” above, and those discussed in Item 1A, "Risk Factors". Among the most important of these factors are those related to consumer demand. Conditions in the economy can affect demand, resulting in changes in sales and, as prices are adjusted to drive sales and manage inventories, in gross margins. Because fashion trends influencing many of our target customers can change rapidly, we believe that our ability to react quickly to those changes has been important to our success. Even when we succeed in aligning our merchandise offerings with consumer preferences, those preferences may affect results by, for example, driving sales of products with lower average selling prices or products which are more widely available in the marketplace and thus more subject to competitive pressures than our typical offering. Moreover, economic factors, such as inflation, the collateral effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and increased logistics costs, and any future economic contraction and changes in tax policies, may reduce the consumer’s disposable income or his or her willingness to purchase discretionary items, and thus may reduce demand for our merchandise, regardless of our skill in detecting and responding to fashion trends. We believe our experience and discipline in merchandising and the buying power associated with our relative size and importance in the industry segments in which we compete are important factors in our ability to mitigate risks associated with changing customer preferences and other changes in consumer demand.

Segments

Journeys Group

The Journeys Group accounted for 59% of our net sales in Fiscal 2024. Journeys retail footwear stores target customers in the 13 to 22 year age group through the use of youth-oriented decor and multi-channel media. Journeys stores carry predominately branded merchandise across a wide range of prices. The Journeys Kidz retail footwear stores sell footwear and accessories primarily for younger children, toddler age to 12 years old. Little Burgundy retail footwear stores sell footwear and accessories to fashion-oriented men and women in the 21 to 34 year age group ranging from students to young professionals.

At February 3, 2024, Journeys Group operated 1,063 stores, including 808 Journeys stores, 222 Journeys Kidz stores and 33 Little Burgundy stores averaging approximately 2,050 square feet, located primarily in malls and factory outlet centers throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada, selling footwear and accessories for young men, women and children. Journeys Group's e-commerce websites include the following: journeys.com, journeyskidz.com, journeys.ca and littleburgundyshoes.com. In Fiscal 2024, the Journeys Group closed a net of 67 stores.

Schuh Group

The Schuh Group accounted for 21% of our net sales in Fiscal 2024. Schuh Group stores target teenagers and young adults in the 16 to 24 year age group, selling a broad range of branded casual and athletic footwear along with a meaningful private label offering. At February 3, 2024, Schuh Group operated 122 Schuh stores, averaging approximately 4,950 square feet, which

include both street-level and mall locations in the U.K. and the ROI. Schuh Group's e-commerce websites are schuh.co.uk, schuh.ie and schuh.eu. In Fiscal 2024, Schuh Group closed a net of zero stores.

Johnston & Murphy Group

The Johnston & Murphy Group accounted for 14% of our net sales in Fiscal 2024. All sales of Johnston & Murphy Group's retail and wholesale businesses are of the Genesco-owned Johnston & Murphy brand.

Johnston & Murphy Retail Operations. At February 3, 2024, Johnston & Murphy operated 156 retail shops and factory stores primarily in the United States averaging approximately 1,950 square feet and selling footwear, apparel and accessories primarily for men in the 25 to 55 year age group. Johnston & Murphy retail shops are located primarily in higher-end malls and airports nationwide and sell a broad range of men’s casual and dress footwear, apparel and accessories. Women’s footwear and accessories are sold in select Johnston & Murphy locations. We also sell Johnston & Murphy products directly to consumers through johnstonmurphy.com and johnstonmurphy.ca e-commerce websites. Footwear accounted for 55% of Johnston & Murphy retail sales in Fiscal 2024, with the balance consisting primarily of apparel and accessories. Johnston & Murphy Group closed a net of two shops and factory stores, including one factory store in Canada, in Fiscal 2024.

Johnston & Murphy Wholesale Operations. Johnston & Murphy men’s and boy's footwear, apparel and accessories, along with women's footwear are sold at wholesale, primarily to better department stores, independent specialty stores and e-commerce retailers. Johnston & Murphy’s wholesale customers offer the brand’s footwear for dress, dress casual, and casual occasions, with the majority of styles offered in these channels selling from $100 to $195.

Genesco Brands Group

The Genesco Brands Group segment accounted for 6% of our net sales in Fiscal 2024. Genesco Brands Group designs and sources licensed footwear under the Levi's, Dockers and G.H. Bass brand names, among others. The Levi's brand license and the G.H. Bass brand license were entered into concurrently with the Togast acquisition. We design and source Levi's branded footwear and market it to men, women and children through department and specialty stores and off-price retailers across the country as well as e-commerce retailers. Suggested retail prices for Levi's footwear generally range from $35 to $100. Dockers footwear is marketed to men aged 30 to 55 through many of the same national retail chains that carry Dockers pants and sportswear and in department and specialty stores across the country. Suggested retail prices for Dockers footwear generally range from $40 to $90. In the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2022, we signed a three-year licensing agreement with STARTER to be their exclusive U.S. and Canadian footwear licensee for athletic footwear. We design and manufacture the STARTER brand footwear for men, women and children with suggested retail prices ranging from $49 to $120. In the second quarter of Fiscal 2023, we signed a three-year licensing agreement with PONY to be their exclusive U.S. footwear licensee for athletic footwear for men, women and children with suggested retail prices ranging from $75 to $250, including a Limited Edition 50th anniversary version for $250. Genesco Brands Group e-commerce websites are nashvilleshoewarehouse.com and dockershoes.com.

Manufacturing and Sourcing

We rely on independent third-party manufacturers for production of our footwear products sold at Johnston & Murphy Group and Genesco Brands Group. We source footwear and accessory products from foreign manufacturers located in Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Portugal, Peru, Spain, Turkey and Vietnam. Our Journeys Group and Schuh Group businesses sell primarily branded products from third parties who source primarily overseas.

Competition

Competition is intense in the footwear, apparel and accessory industries. Our retail footwear, apparel and accessory competitors range from small, locally owned stores to regional and national department stores, discount stores, specialty chains, our vendors with their own direct-to-consumer channels and online retailers. We also compete with hundreds of footwear wholesale operations

in the United States and throughout the world, most of which are relatively small, specialized operations, but some of which are large, more diversified companies. Some of our competitors have resources that are not available to us. Our success depends upon our ability to remain competitive with respect to the key factors of style, price, quality, comfort, brand loyalty, customer service, store location and atmosphere, technology, infrastructure and speed of delivery to support e-commerce and the ability to offer relevant products.

Licenses

We own our Johnston & Murphy® brand and own or license the trade names of our retail concepts either directly or through wholly-owned subsidiaries. The Dockers® footwear line, introduced in Fiscal 1993, is sold under a license agreement granting us the exclusive right to sell men’s footwear under the trademark in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. The current Dockers license agreement expires in 2024 and is currently expected to be renewed through 2027. We entered into a new license agreement with Levi Strauss & Co. in January 2020 for the right to sell men's, women's and children's footwear under the Levi's® trademark in the United States and the Caribbean. The initial term of the license agreement with respect to Levi's® trademarks was through November 30, 2024 with one potential additional four-year renewal term. We have agreed with Levi Strauss & Co. that we will not renew the license for four years, but will instead extend the license under modified terms through at least February 2026 and accept other consideration. We entered into a new license agreement for STARTER athletic footwear in September 2021. The initial term of the license is three years with a three-year renewal option, which would extend the partnership through December 31, 2027. We entered into a new license agreement for PONY athletic footwear in June 2022. The initial term of the license is three years with a three-year renewal option, which would extend the partnership through June 2028. We license certain other footwear brands, mostly in foreign markets. License royalty income was not material in Fiscal 2024.

Wholesale Backlog

Most of the orders in our wholesale divisions are for delivery within 150 days. Historically, most of our business has been at-once, and as a result, the backlog at any one time has not necessarily been indicative of future sales. As of March 2, 2024, our wholesale operations had a backlog of orders, including unconfirmed customer purchase orders, amounting to approximately $49.0 million, compared to approximately $72.7 million as of February 25, 2023. The decline is primarily due to the planned decline in value channel orders for the Genesco Brands Group business driven by the Levi's license. The backlog is somewhat seasonal, reaching a peak in the Spring.

Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") Initiatives

As a leading retailer and wholesaler of branded footwear, apparel and accessories, we strive to make a positive impact on our industry, our communities and our planet by committing to transparent, socially conscious, and sustainable business practices. We believe that our ESG practices should serve all of our stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers and business partners.

During Fiscal 2024, we completed our second measurements or baselines for our greenhouse gas emissions. We issued our initial corporate sustainability report in Fiscal 2023 and have followed up with subsequent ESG infographic updates, all of which can be found at www.genesco.com. Our website address is provided as an inactive textual reference only. The information provided on our website is not a part of this report, and therefore is not incorporated herein by reference.

Environmental

We are committed to reducing our impact on the environment by focusing on sustainability initiatives in our operations and throughout our supply chain and product lifecycle. To this end, in Fiscal 2022, we joined the Leather Working Group ("LWG"). The LWG is a not-for-profit organization responsible for the world's leading environmental certification for the leather

manufacturing industry. As a member of the LWG, we apply holistic practices in the supply chain for leather manufacturing for our third-party manufacturers.

We also monitor chemicals and substances in our supply chain for compliance with legal and regulatory requirements consistent with our Environmental Policy and expect our contracted factories and suppliers to take a proactive stance in eliminating any hazardous chemicals or substances in the manufacture of our products.

Human Capital

Our Employees

We had approximately 18,000 employees as of February 3, 2024 with approximately 14,000 employed in the United States and Canada, and approximately 4,000 in the U.K. and the ROI. The majority of our workforce consists of retail-based, customer-facing employees with approximately 70% part-time and 30% full-time as of February 3, 2024.

We consider our employees to be core to our success. Our values include treating our customers and each other with integrity, trust and respect, and creating an unrivaled home for talent to grow and succeed.

Workplace Health & Safety

We conduct health and safety training with our retail and distribution employees to build knowledge and awareness of workplace conditions and hazards according to local, regional and national standards.

Benefits and Compensation

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to meet the diverse needs of our employees and their families. This package includes many benefits dedicated to our employees’ physical and mental health and well-being as well as benefits designed to help employees build wealth and prepare for the future.

We also provide valuable benefits and protections based on the unique needs and interests of each individual employee such as domestic partner benefits, parental leave, adoption benefits, family building benefits, paid time for community service, financial assistance with emergencies, scholarship opportunities, matching gift contributions and a generous product discount.

Our compensation programs are designed to attract, retain and motivate employees. We provide short-term and long-term incentives to encourage and reward superior performance and also drive long-term shareholder value. We engage a nationally recognized outside compensation consulting firm to independently evaluate the effectiveness of our executive compensation programs and to provide benchmarking against our peers within the industry.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We are committed to our diversity, equity, and inclusion ("DEI") efforts to continually strengthen our talent and to make a meaningful difference for our employees, our customers, and our communities.

We have enhanced our commitment to DEI by building on our solid foundation. Through our DEI Council and defined vision, we are focusing our attention on areas where we can make the most impact – our talent, our business practices and our communities. We have identified opportunities that will advance our DEI efforts across our portfolio of brands, including expanded training and development programs, pay equity studies, the launch of Business Resource Groups and ongoing engagement through communication and events.

Employee Engagement

We conduct annual employee engagement surveys as well as other targeted surveys with various segments of our workforce to measure important aspects of the employee experience. The survey measures employee sentiment on a variety of topics including leadership, management, alignment, involvement, respect in the workplace, learning and development, social connection and work life balance, among others. The survey creates the opportunity to establish two-way communication and gives employees a direct voice in influencing change. Our results indicate high participation rates and strong engagement scores. We remain committed to listening to and learning from our employees.

Training and Development

We provide employees with the opportunity to grow their careers and be rewarded for their contributions. We have a strong promote from within culture and target training and development that is relevant to an employee’s current role as well as future roles to which they aspire.

Social Capital

We are committed to responsible sourcing practices in our supply chain. We depend on third-party vendors to produce the products we sell but strive to work only with those vendors who share our commitment to responsible practices, especially in their relationships with employees and their stewardship of the environment. Our supply chain and ethical practices policies are among the ways we seek to implement this commitment. During Fiscal 2024, we published our inaugural Vendor Code of Conduct policy.

In 2021, we published a comprehensive human rights policy with its commitment to respecting human rights and belief in fundamental standards that support our commitment to treat our employees, customers and business partners with integrity, trust and respect. Our human rights policy addresses our internal business ethics and code of conduct policies and principles embedded in our business operations, and is guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multi National Enterprises.

Information Security and Cybersecurity

As part of our retail and wholesale activities, marketing campaigns, customer relationship efforts and use of some third-party partners, we may handle and process certain non-public personal information that customers provide to purchase products, enroll in promotional or marketing programs, register on websites, or otherwise communicate to us in the course of providing support. This may include phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, contact preferences, personal information stored on electronic devices, and certain payment related information, including credit and debit card data. We have removed the transmission, processing, and storage of credit card data from our environment in North America through the use of hardware based end-to-end encryption along with tokenization.

We gather and retain information about our employees only as necessary to fulfill our responsibilities as an employer. We may share information about such persons with benefit and/or employee services vendors that assist with certain aspects of our human resources offering.

We maintain controls and safeguards to mitigate the risks to our systems and to protect this information and have made significant investments to improve our information security and privacy posture and keep pace with the ever changing and evolving risks to our systems and our information. For example, we have implemented hardware based end-to-end encryption with tokenization, multi-factor authentication protocols, next generation firewalls, comprehensive cloud email security and endpoint protection,

detection, and response software, conducted continuous risk assessments, and established data security breach preparedness and response plans. We also promote security awareness with our employees and require all endpoint users to successfully complete our annual security awareness training.

In addition to information security, we must comply with increasingly complex and demanding regulatory standards enacted to protect the privacy of business and personal data in the United States, Europe and other jurisdictions. For example, the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”), which went into effect on May 25, 2018; and California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (the "CCPA") which went into effect on January 1, 2020, and additional jurisdictions are considering proposing or adopting similar regulations. These privacy laws impose additional requirements on companies regarding the handling of personal data and provide certain individual privacy rights to persons whose data is stored or processed.

We have implemented processes and systems to allow for the expedient response and resolution of data subject access requests in accordance with existing privacy laws and regulations that are applicable to our business, including GDPR and CCPA.

Community

Building better communities is part of our everyday values. Our community outreach initiatives support underserved communities including our unique signature community outreach programs Cold Feet, Warm Shoes, the Make a Difference Charity Golf Tournament benefitting United Way, Journeys' Attitude That Cares and Schuh’s Purpose Pillar program. In addition, the Company and our employees engage through community sponsorship and leadership, including actively supporting Nashville’s Pride Month and the Nashville Pride Parade, Can’d Aid and the United Way of Greater Nashville’s annual campaign, among other initiatives.

Governance

We have corporate governance mechanisms in place, along with internal controls over our financial reporting framework. We also have Enterprise Risk Management and Ethics and Compliance program frameworks, with annual updates provided to committees of our board of directors ("Board of Directors" or "Board") and our Board. To drive our ESG efforts, we have established an ESG/sustainability management and oversight framework under the direction of our Senior Vice President, Corporate Secretary and General Counsel. A subcommittee of the Nominating and Governance Committee of our Board oversees our ESG efforts.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in our Board, which is comprised of 67% of members who are diverse in either gender and/or ethnicity as of February 3, 2024. We are committed to efforts to expand our Board’s diversity.

Seasonality

Our business is seasonal with our investment in working capital normally reaching peaks in the spring and fall of each year and a significant portion of our net sales and operating income generated during the fourth quarter. The wholesale backlog is somewhat seasonal, reaching a peak in the Spring. We maintain in-stock programs for selected product lines with anticipated high-volume sales.

Environmental Matters

Our former manufacturing operations and the sites of those operations as well as the sites of our current operations are subject to numerous federal, state, and local laws and regulations relating to human health and safety and the environment. These laws and regulations address and regulate, among other matters, wastewater discharge, air quality and the generation, handling, storage, treatment, disposal, and transportation of solid and hazardous wastes and releases of hazardous substances into the environment. In addition, third parties and governmental agencies in some cases have the power under such laws and regulations to require

remediation of environmental conditions and, in the case of governmental agencies, to impose fines and penalties. Several of the facilities owned by us (currently or in the past) are located in industrial areas and have historically been used for extensive periods for industrial operations such as tanning, dyeing, and manufacturing. Some of these operations used materials and generated wastes that would be considered regulated substances under current environmental laws and regulations. We are currently involved in certain administrative and judicial environmental proceedings relating to our former facilities. See Note 15 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data".

Available Information

We file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other reports from time to time. We are an electronic filer and the SEC maintains an internet site at http://www.sec.gov that contains the reports, proxy and information statements, and other information filed electronically. Our website address, which is provided as an inactive textual reference only, is http://www.genesco.com. We make available free of charge through the website Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. Copies of the charters of each of our Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Nominating and Governance Committee as well as our Corporate Governance Guidelines and Code of Ethics along with position descriptions for our Board of Directors and Board committees are also available free of charge through the website. The information provided on our website is not part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and is therefore not incorporated by reference unless such information is otherwise specifically incorporated elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Our business is subject to a variety of risks which might have material impact. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our Consolidated Financial Statements and the notes to those statements. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we do not presently know about or that we currently consider immaterial may also affect our business operations and financial performance. If any of the events described below occur, our business, financial condition, cash flows or results of operations could be adversely affected in a material way. This could cause the trading price of our stock to decline, perhaps significantly, and you may lose part or all of your investment.

Competitive, Demand-Related and Reputational Risks

Consumer spending is affected by poor and/or volatile economic conditions and other factors and may significantly harm our business, affecting our financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations.

The success of our business depends to a significant extent upon the level of consumer spending in general and on our product categories. A number of factors may affect the level of consumer spending on merchandise that we offer, including, among other things:

Adverse economic conditions and any related decrease in consumer demand for discretionary items could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. The merchandise we sell generally consists of discretionary items. Reduced consumer confidence and spending may result in reduced demand for discretionary items and may force us to take inventory markdowns, decreasing sales and making expense leverage difficult to achieve. In addition, inflationary cost pressure on the products we sell might limit our ability to pass on cost increases resulting in gross margin impact or reduced demand. Demand can also be influenced by other factors beyond our control.

Moreover, while we believe that our operating cash flows and borrowing capacity under committed lines of credit will be adequate for our anticipated cash requirements, if the economy were to experience a downturn, if one or more of our revolving credit banks were to fail to honor its commitments under our credit lines or if we were unable to draw on our credit lines for any reason, we could be required to modify our operations for decreased cash flow or to seek alternative sources of liquidity, and such alternative sources might not be available to us. These same factors could impact our wholesale customers, limiting their ability to buy or pay for merchandise offered by us.

A failure to increase sales at our existing stores, given our high fixed expense cost structure, and in our e-commerce businesses or an inability to reduce costs may adversely affect our results of operations which adversely impacts our stock price.

A number of factors have historically affected, and will continue to affect, our comparable sales results and gross margin, including:

Our comparable sales have fluctuated in the past, including the composition of our comparable sales between store and digital, and we believe such fluctuations may continue. The unpredictability of our comparable sales may cause our revenue and results of operations to vary from quarter to quarter, and an unanticipated change in revenues or operating income may cause our stock price to fluctuate significantly.

Failure to protect our reputation could have a material adverse effect on our brand names.

Our success depends in part on the value and strength of the names of our business units. These names are integral to our businesses as well as to the implementation of our strategies for expanding our businesses. Maintaining, promoting, and positioning our brands will depend largely on the success of our marketing and merchandising efforts and our ability to provide high quality merchandise and a consistent, high quality customer experience. Our brands could be adversely affected if we fail to achieve these objectives or if our public image or reputation were to be tarnished by negative publicity or if adverse information concerning us is posted on social media platforms or similar mediums. Failure to comply, or accusation of failure to comply, with ethical, social, health, product, labor, data privacy, and environmental standards could also jeopardize our reputation and potentially lead to various adverse consumer and employee actions. Any of these events could result in decreased revenue or otherwise adversely affect our business.

Our business involves a degree of risk related to fashion and other extrinsic demand drivers that are beyond our control.

The majority of our businesses serve a fashion-conscious customer base and depend upon the ability of our buyers and merchandisers to react to fashion trends, to purchase inventory that reflects such trends, and to manage our inventories appropriately in view of the potential for sudden changes in fashion, consumer taste, or other drivers of demand. Failure to execute any of these activities successfully could result in adverse consequences, including lower sales, product margins, operating income and cash flows.

Our future success also depends on our ability to respond to changing consumer preferences, identify and interpret consumer trends, and successfully market new products.

The industry in which we operate is subject to rapidly changing consumer preferences. The continued popularity of our footwear and apparel and the development and selection of new lines and styles of footwear and apparel with widespread consumer appeal, requires us to accurately identify and interpret changing consumer trends and preferences, and to effectively respond in a timely manner. Continuing demand and market acceptance for both existing and new products are uncertain and depend on substantial investment in product innovation, design and development, an ongoing commitment to product quality and significant and sustained marketing efforts and expenditures.

In assessing our response to anticipated changing consumer preferences and trends, we frequently must make decisions about product designs and marketing expenditures months in advance of the time when actual consumer acceptance can be determined. As a result, we may not be successful in responding to shifting consumer preferences and trends with new products. If we fail to identify and interpret changing consumer preferences and trends, or are not successful in responding to these changes with the timely development or sourcing of products, we could experience excess inventories and higher than normal markdowns, returns, order cancellations or an inability to profitably sell our products.

Our failure to appropriately address emerging environmental, social and governance matters could have a material adverse impact on our reputation and, as a result, our business.

There is an increased focus from investors, customers, employees, business partners and other stakeholders concerning ESG matters. The expectations related to ESG matters are rapidly evolving, and from time to time, we have announced and will announce certain ESG initiatives and goals. Our ESG efforts may not be perceived to be effective or we could be criticized for the scope of such initiatives or goals. In addition, we could fail to timely meet or accurately report our progress on such initiatives and goals. As a result, we could suffer negative publicity and our reputation could be adversely impacted, which in turn could have a negative impact on investor perception and our products' acceptance by consumers. This may also impact our ability to attract and retain talent to compete in the marketplace.

There is also uncertainty in the markets in which we operate regarding potential policies related to issues surrounding global environmental sustainability. Changes in the legal or regulatory environment affecting responsible sourcing, supply chain transparency, or environmental protection, among others, including regulations to limit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, to discourage the use of plastic or to limit or to impose additional costs on commercial water use may result in increased compliance costs for us and our business partners.

Our results may be adversely affected by declines in consumer traffic in malls.

The majority of our stores are located within shopping malls and depend to varying degrees on consumer traffic in the malls to generate sales. Declines in mall traffic, whether caused by a shift in consumer shopping preferences or by other factors, may negatively impact our ability to maintain or grow our sales in existing stores, which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.

Our results of operations are subject to seasonal and quarterly fluctuations.

Our business is seasonal, with a significant portion of our net sales and operating income generated during the fourth quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season. Because of this seasonality, we have limited ability to compensate for shortfalls in fourth quarter sales or earnings by changes in our operations or strategies in other quarters. Adverse events outside of our control, such as supply chain interruptions, including shipping disruptions in the Red Sea, increased labor costs and labor availability, decreased consumer traffic or deteriorating economic conditions could result in lower than expected sales during the holiday shopping season or other periods in which we typically experience higher net sales, which could materially adversely impact our

financial condition and results of operations. Our quarterly results of operations also may fluctuate significantly based on other factors such as:

Changes in the retail industry could have a material adverse effect on our business or financial condition.

In recent years, the retail industry has experienced consolidation, store closures, bankruptcies and other ownership changes. In the future, retailers in the U.S. and in foreign markets may further consolidate, undergo restructurings or reorganizations, or realign their affiliations, any of which could decrease the number of stores that carry our products or our licensees’ products or increase the ownership concentration within the retail industry. Changing shopping patterns, including the rapid expansion of online retail shopping, have adversely affected customer traffic in mall and outlet centers. We expect competition in the e-commerce market will continue to intensify. Growth in e-commerce could result in financial difficulties, including store closures, bankruptcies or liquidations for our brick-and-mortar stores and those of our wholesale customers who fail to compete effectively in the e-commerce market. We cannot control the success of individual malls, and an increase in store closures by other retailers may lead to reduced foot traffic, mall vacancies and mall bankruptcies. A continuation or worsening of these trends could cause financial difficulties for one or more of our segments, which, in turn, could substantially increase our credit risk and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Our future success will be determined, in part, on our ability to manage the impact of the rapidly changing retail environment and identify and capitalize on retail trends, including technology, enhanced digital capabilities, e-commerce and other process efficiencies that will better service our customers.

Our business is intensely competitive and increased or new competition could have a material adverse effect on us.

The retail footwear and accessory markets are intensely competitive. We currently compete against a diverse group of retailers, including other regional and national specialty stores, department and discount stores, small independents and e-commerce retailers, as well as our own vendors who are increasingly selling direct-to-consumers, which sell products similar to and often identical to those we sell. Our branded businesses, selling footwear at wholesale, also face intense competition, both from other branded wholesale vendors and from private label initiatives of their retailer customers. A number of different competitive factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, including:

Investments and Infrastructure Risks

We face a number of risks in opening new stores and renewing leases on existing stores.

We may open new stores, both in regional malls, where most of the operational experience of our U.S. businesses lies, and in other venues including outlet centers, airports and other off-mall locations. We cannot offer assurances that we will be able to open as many stores as we have planned, that any new store will achieve similar operating results to those of our existing stores or that new stores opened in markets in which we operate will not have a material adverse effect on the revenues and profitability of our existing stores. In addition to the risks already discussed for existing stores, the success of any planned expansion will be dependent upon numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including the following:

Additionally, the results we expect to achieve during each fiscal quarter are dependent upon opening new stores and renewing leases on existing stores on schedule and at expected costs. If we fall behind in our new store openings, we will lose expected sales and earnings between the planned opening date and the actual opening and may further complicate the logistics of opening stores, possibly resulting in additional delays, seasonally inappropriate product assortments, and other undesirable conditions.

Any acquisitions we make or new businesses we launch, as well as any dispositions of assets or businesses, involve a degree of risk.

Acquisitions have been a component of our growth strategy in recent years, and we expect that we may continue to engage in acquisitions or launch new businesses to grow our revenues and meet our other strategic objectives. If acquisitions are not successfully integrated with our business, our ongoing operations could be adversely affected. Additionally, acquisitions or new businesses may not achieve desired profitability objectives or result in any anticipated successful expansion of the businesses or concepts, causing lower than expected earnings and cash flow and potentially requiring impairment of goodwill and other intangibles. Although we review and analyze assets or companies we acquire, such reviews are subject to uncertainties and may not reveal all potential risks. Additionally, although we attempt to obtain protective contractual provisions, such as representations, warranties and indemnities, in connection with acquisitions, we cannot offer assurance that we can obtain such provisions in our acquisitions or that they will fully protect us from unforeseen costs of, or liabilities associated with, the acquisitions. We may also incur significant costs and diversion of management time and attention in connection with pursuing possible acquisitions even if the acquisition is not ultimately consummated.

Additionally, we have in the past and may in the future divest assets or businesses. Following any such divestitures, we may retain or incur liabilities or costs relating to our previous ownership of the assets or business that we sell. Any required payments on retained liabilities or indemnification obligations with respect to past or future asset or business divestitures could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations. Dispositions may also involve our continued financial involvement in the divested business, such as through transition services agreements and guarantees. Under these arrangements,

performance by the divested businesses or conditions outside our control could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Further, acquisitions and dispositions are often structured such that the purchase price paid or received by us, as applicable, is subject to post-closing adjustments, whether as a result of net working capital adjustments, contingent payments (i.e., earn-outs) or otherwise. Any such adjustments could result in a material change in the consideration paid to or received by us, as applicable, in such transactions.

Goodwill recorded with acquisitions is subject to impairment which could reduce the Company's profitability.

In connection with acquisitions, we record goodwill on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. This asset is not amortized but is subject to an impairment test at least annually, where we have the option first to assess qualitative factors to determine whether events and circumstances indicate that it is more likely than not that goodwill is impaired. If after such assessment we conclude that the asset is impaired, we are required to determine the fair value of the asset using a quantitative impairment test that is based on projected future cash flows from the acquired business discounted at a rate commensurate with the risk we consider to be inherent in our current business model. We perform the impairment test annually at the beginning of our fourth quarter, or more frequently if events or circumstances indicate that the value of the asset might be impaired.

Deterioration in our equity market value, whether related to our operating performance or to disruptions in the equity markets or deterioration in the operating performance of the business unit with which goodwill is associated could cause us to recognize the impairment of some or all of the $9.6 million of goodwill on our Consolidated Balance Sheets at February 3, 2024, resulting in the reduction of net assets and a corresponding non-cash charge to earnings in the amount of the impairment.

Technology, Data Security and Privacy Risks

The operation of our business is heavily dependent on our information systems.

We depend on a variety of information technology systems for the efficient functioning of our business (including multiple e-commerce websites) and security of information. Much information essential to our business is maintained electronically, including competitively sensitive information and potentially sensitive personal information about customers and employees.

Despite our preventative efforts, our IT systems and websites may from time to time be vulnerable to damage or interruption from events such as difficulties in replacing or integrating the systems of acquired businesses, computer viruses, security breaches and power outages.

Our insurance policies may not provide coverage for security breaches and similar incidents or may have coverage limits which may not be adequate to reimburse us for losses caused by security breaches. We also rely on certain hardware and software vendors, including cloud-service providers, to maintain and periodically upgrade many of these systems so that they can continue to support our business. The software programs supporting many of our systems are licensed to us by independent software companies. The inability of our employees and developers or our inability to continue to maintain and upgrade these information systems and software programs could disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations. In addition, costs and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems could also disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations or leave us vulnerable to security breaches.

We also rely heavily on our information technology staff. If we cannot meet our staffing needs in this area, we may not be able to fulfill our technology initiatives or to provide maintenance on existing systems.

We are subject to payment-related risks that could increase our operating costs, expose us to fraud or theft, subject us to potential liability and potentially disrupt our business.

As a retailer who accepts payments using a variety of methods, including installment payment methods, PayPal, and gift cards, we are subject to rules, regulations, contractual obligations and compliance requirements, including payment network rules and operating guidelines, data security standards and certification requirements, and rules governing electronic funds transfers. The regulatory environment related to information security and privacy is increasingly rigorous, with new and constantly changing requirements applicable to our business, and compliance with those requirements could result in additional costs or accelerate these costs with additional legal and financial exposure for noncompliance. For these payment methods, we pay interchange and other fees, which can increase over time and raise our operating costs. We rely on third parties to provide payment processing services. If these companies become unable to provide these services to us, or if their systems are compromised, it could disrupt our business.

The payment methods that we offer also subject us to potential fraud and theft by persons who seek to obtain unauthorized access to or exploit any weaknesses that may exist in the payment systems. We completed the implementation of Europay, Mastercard and Visa ("EMV") technology and received certification in Fiscal 2018; however future upgrades to our Company's systems could expose us to the fraudulent use of credit cards and increased costs, including possible fines and restrictions on our Company's ability to accept payments by credit or debit cards, if we were not to receive recertification. Because we accept debit and credit cards for payment, we are also subject to industry data protection standards and protocols, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (“PCI DSS”), issued by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. Additionally, we have implemented technology in our stores to allow for the acceptance of EMV credit transactions and point-to-point encryption. Complying with PCI DSS standards and implementing related procedures, technology and information security measures require significant resources and ongoing attention. However, even if we comply with PCI DSS standards and offer EMV and point-to-point encryption technology in our stores, we may be vulnerable to, and unable to detect and appropriately respond to, data security breaches and data loss, including cybersecurity attacks or other breach of cardholder data.

In addition, the Payment Card Industry (“PCI”) is controlled by a limited number of vendors who have the ability to impose changes in the PCI’s fee structure and operational requirements on us without negotiation. Such changes in fees and operational requirements may result in our failure to comply with PCI DSS, and cause us to incur significant unanticipated expenses.

A privacy breach, through a cybersecurity incident or otherwise, or failure to comply with privacy laws could materially adversely affect our business.

As part of normal operations, we and our third-party vendors and partners, receive and maintain confidential and personally identifiable information (“PII”) about our customers and employees, and confidential financial, intellectual property, and other information. We regard the protection of our customer, employee, and company information as critical. The regulatory environment surrounding information security and privacy is very demanding, with the frequent imposition of new and changing requirements some of which involve significant costs to implement and significant penalties if not followed properly. Despite our efforts and technology to secure our computer network and systems, a cybersecurity breach, whether targeted, random, or inadvertent, and whether at the hands of cyber criminals, hackers, rogue employees or other persons, may occur and could go undetected for a period of time, resulting in a material disruption of our computer network, a loss of information valuable to our business, including without limitation customer or employee PII, and/or theft. A similar cybersecurity breach to the computer networks and systems of our third-party vendors and partners, including those that are cloud-based, over which we have no control, may occur, and could lead to a material disruption of our computer network and/or the areas of our business that are dependent on the support, services and other products provided by our third-party vendors and partners. Our computer networks and our business may be adversely affected by such a breach of our third-party vendors and partners, which could result in a decrease in our e-commerce sales and/or a loss of information valuable to our business, including, without limitation, PII of customers or employees. Such a cyber-incident could result in any of the following:

Any of the above risks, individually or in aggregate, could materially damage our reputation and result in lost sales, governmental and payment card industry fines, and/or class action and other lawsuits. Although we carry cybersecurity insurance, in the event of a cyber-incident, that insurance may not be extensive enough or adequate in scope of coverage or amount to reimburse us for damages we may incur. Further, a significant breach of federal, state, provincial, local or international privacy laws could have a material adverse effect on our reputation.

Data protection requirements are constantly evolving and these requirements could adversely affect our business and operating results.

We have access to collect or maintain information about our customers, and the protection of that data is critical to our business. The regulatory environment surrounding information security and privacy continues to evolve and new laws are increasingly giving customers the right to control how their personal data is used. One such law is the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"). Our failure to comply with the obligations of GDPR and similar U.S. federal and state laws, including California privacy laws, could in the future result in significant penalties which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Data protection compliance could also cause us to incur substantial costs, forego a substantial amount of revenue or be subject to business risk associated with system changes and new business processes.

The utilization, expansion and management of machine learning and other types of artificial intelligence in our business could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have been increasing our utilization of machine learning and other types of artificial intelligence (collectively, “AI”) in our business and we anticipate that as technology advances, we may expand our application of AI, including generative AI. AI may become more important to our operations over time as we increase reliance on AI throughout our operations and administration. The rapid evolution of AI technology and potential regulation of AI may require that we expend significant resources to develop, test and maintain our implementation of AI. Our competitors may incorporate AI into their businesses faster or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, if the information generated through our use of AI is or is deemed to be deficient, inaccurate or biased, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Operational, Supply Chain and Third-Party Risks

Increased operating costs, including wage increases resulting from potential increases in the minimum wage or competitive pressures, could have an adverse effect on our results.

Increased operating costs, including wage increases resulting from potential increases in the minimum wage or wage increases reflecting competition in relevant labor markets, store occupancy costs, distribution center costs and other expense items, including healthcare costs, may reduce our operating margin, and make it more difficult to identify new store locations that we believe will meet our investment return requirements. In addition, other employment and healthcare law changes may increase the cost of provided retirement and healthcare benefits expenses. Increases in our overall employment costs could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, results of operations and financial and competitive position.

If we lose key members of management or are unable to attract and retain the talent required for our business, our operating results could suffer.

Our performance depends largely on the efforts and abilities of members of our management team. Our executives have substantial experience and expertise in our business and have made significant contributions to our growth and success. The unexpected future loss of services of one or more key members of our management team could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, future performance will depend upon our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified employees, including store personnel and field management. If we are unable to do so, our ability to meet our operating goals may be compromised. Finally, our stores are decentralized, are managed through a network of geographically dispersed management personnel and historically experience a high degree of turnover. If we are for any reason unable to maintain appropriate controls on store operations due to turnover or other reasons, including the ability to control losses resulting from inventory and cash shrinkage, our sales and operating margins may be adversely affected. There can be no assurance that we will be able to attract and retain the personnel we need in the future.

The loss of, or disruption in, one of our distribution centers and other factors affecting the distribution of merchandise, including freight cost, could materially adversely affect our business.

Each of our divisions uses a single distribution center to handle all or a significant amount of its merchandise. Most of our operations’ inventory is shipped directly from suppliers to our operations' distribution centers, where the inventory is then processed, sorted and shipped to our stores, to our wholesale customers or to our e-commerce customers. We depend on the orderly operation of this receiving and distribution process, which depends, in turn, on adherence to shipping schedules and effective management of the distribution centers. Although we believe that our receiving and distribution processes are efficient and well positioned to support our current business and potential expansions, we cannot offer assurance that we have anticipated all of the changing demands that our expanding operations, particularly our e-commerce operations, will impose on our receiving and distribution system, or that events beyond our control, such as disruptions in operations due to fire or other catastrophic

events, labor disagreements or shortages or shipping problems (whether in our own or in our third party vendors’ or carriers’ businesses), will not result in delays in the delivery of merchandise to our stores or to our wholesale customers or e-commerce/retail customers. In addition, to the extent we need to add capacity to distribution centers by either leasing or building new distribution centers or adding capacity at existing centers or make changes in our distribution processes to improve efficiency and maximize capacity, we cannot assure that these changes will not result in unanticipated delays or interruptions in distribution. We depend upon third-parties for shipment of a significant amount of merchandise. Interruptions in the services provided by third-parties may occasionally result from damage or destruction to our distribution centers; weather-related events; natural disasters; pandemics; trade policy changes or restrictions; tariffs or import-related taxes; third-party labor disruptions; shipping capacity constraints; third-party contract disputes; military conflicts; acts of terrorism; or other factors beyond our control. An interruption in service by third-parties for any reason could cause temporary disruptions in our business, a loss of sales and profits, and other material adverse effects.

Our freight costs are impacted by changes in fuel prices, surcharges and other factors which can affect cost both on inbound freight from vendors to our distribution centers and outbound freight from our distribution centers to our stores and customers. Increases in freight costs, including in connection with increased fuel prices, may increase our cost of goods sold and our selling and administrative expenses.

An increase in the cost or a disruption in the flow of our imported products could adversely affect our business.

Merchandise originally manufactured and imported from overseas makes up a large proportion of our total inventory. A disruption in the shipping of our imported merchandise or an increase in the cost of those products may significantly decrease our sales and profits. We may be unable to meet customer demands or pass on price increases to our customers. In addition, if imported merchandise becomes more expensive or unavailable, the transition to alternative sources may not occur in time to meet demand. Products from alternative sources may also be of lesser quality or more expensive than those we currently import. Risks associated with our reliance on imported products include:

Some of the inventory we sell is imported from China, which has historically been subject to efforts to increase duty rates or to impose restrictions on imports of certain products.

If we or our suppliers or licensees are unable to source raw materials or finished goods from the countries where we or they wish to purchase them, either because of a regulatory change or for any other reason, or if the cost of doing so should increase, it could have a material adverse effect on our sales and earnings.

A small portion of the products we buy abroad is priced in foreign currencies and, therefore, we are affected by fluctuating currency exchange rates. We may not be able to effectively protect ourselves in the future against currency rate fluctuations.

Even dollar-denominated foreign purchases may be affected by currency fluctuations to reflect appreciation in the local currency against the dollar in the price of the products that they provide. See Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” for more information about our foreign currency exchange rate exposure and any hedging activities.

We are dependent on third-party vendors and licensors for the merchandise we sell.

We do not manufacture the merchandise we sell, and our Genesco Brands Group business is dependent on third-party licenses. Accordingly, our product supply is subject to our ability to renew our license agreements or identify new licenses and the ability and willingness of third-party suppliers to deliver merchandise we order on time and in the quantities and of the quality we need. In addition, a material portion of our retail footwear sales consists of products marketed under brands belonging to unaffiliated vendors, which have fashion significance to our customers. If those vendors were to decide not to sell to us or to limit the availability of their products to us, or if they become unable because of economic conditions, pandemics, work stoppages, labor shortages, strikes, political unrest and civil disturbances, raw materials supply disruptions, or any other reason to supply us with products, we could be unable to offer our customers the products they wish to buy and could lose their business. Additionally, manufacturers are required to remain in compliance with certain wage, labor and environment-related laws, regulations and policies. Delayed compliance or failure to comply with such laws, regulations and policies by our vendors could adversely affect our ability to obtain products generally or at favorable costs, affecting our overall ability to maintain and manage inventory levels.

The manufacture of our products and our distributing operations are subject to the risks of doing business abroad, including in China, which could affect our ability to obtain products from foreign suppliers or control the costs of our products.

We have been diversifying our sourcing base to ensure that we are not too concentrated in any single country. As we source some product in China, the possibility of adverse changes in trade or political relations with China, political instability, increases in labor costs, the occurrence of prolonged adverse weather conditions or a natural disaster such as an earthquake or typhoon, or the outbreak of COVID-19 or other infectious diseases in China could severely interfere with the manufacturing and/or shipment of our products and would have a material adverse effect on our operations. Our ability to source products from China may be adversely affected by changes in Chinese laws and regulations (or the interpretation thereof), including those relating to taxation, import and export tariffs, raw materials, environmental regulations, land use rights, property and other matters. Policy changes in China could adversely affect our interests through, among other factors: changes in laws and regulations, confiscatory taxation, restrictions on currency conversion, imports or sources of supplies, or the expropriation or nationalization of private enterprises. In addition, electrical shortages, labor shortages or work stoppages may extend the production time necessary to produce our orders. There may be circumstances in the future where we may have to incur higher freight charges to expedite the delivery of product to our customers which could negatively affect our gross profit if we are unable to pass on those charges to our customers.

Legal, Regulatory, Global and Other External Risks

The impact of climate change, extreme weather, infectious disease outbreaks, and other unexpected events could result in an interruption to our business, as well as to the operations of our third-party partners, and have a material adverse impact on our business.

The operations of our retail stores, corporate offices, distribution centers, digital operations and supply chain, as well as the operations of our third-party partners, including vendors and manufacturers, are vulnerable to disruption from climate change, natural disasters, pandemics and other infectious disease outbreaks and other unexpected events. In addition to impacts on global operations, these events could result in the potential loss of customers and revenues due to mandatory or voluntary store closures, delay or cancellation of merchandise deliveries, reduced consumer confidence or changes in consumers’ discretionary spending habits.

These events could reduce the availability or quality of the materials used to manufacture our merchandise, which could cause delays in responding to consumer demand resulting in the potential loss of customers and revenues or we may incur increased costs to meet demand and may not be able to pass all or a portion of higher costs on to our customers, which could adversely affect our gross margin and results of our operations.

In addition, historically, our operations have been seasonal, and extreme weather conditions, including natural disasters, unseasonable weather or changes in weather patterns, may diminish demand for our seasonal merchandise and could also influence consumer preferences and fashion trends, consumer traffic and shopping habits. In addition, we may incur costs that exceed our applicable insurance coverage for any necessary repairs to property damage or business disruption resulting from climate or weather conditions.

Establishing and protecting our intellectual property is critical to our business.

Our ability to remain competitive is dependent upon our continued ability to secure and protect trademarks, patents and other intellectual property rights in the U.S. and internationally for all of our businesses. We rely on a combination of trade secret, patent, trademark, copyright and other laws, license agreements and other contractual provisions and technical measures to protect our intellectual property rights; however, some countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the U.S.

Our business could be significantly harmed if we are not able to protect our intellectual property, or if a court found us to be infringing on others’ intellectual property rights. Any future intellectual property lawsuits or threatened lawsuits in which we are involved, either as a plaintiff or as a defendant, could cost us a significant amount of time and money and distract management’s attention from operating our business. If we do not prevail on any intellectual property claims, then we may have to change our manufacturing processes, products or trade names, any of which could reduce our profitability.

Our business and results of operations are subject to a broad range of uncertainties arising out of world and domestic events.

Our business and results of operations may experience a material adverse impact due to uncertainties arising out of world and domestic events, which may impact not only consumer demand, but also our ability to obtain the products we sell, most of which are produced outside the countries in which we operate. These uncertainties may include a global economic slowdown, inflation, changes in consumer spending or travel, increase in fuel prices, the economic consequences of widespread or severe outbreaks of COVID-19 or other infectious diseases, natural disasters, wars or other military action or terrorist activities and increased regulatory and compliance burdens related to governmental actions in response to a variety of factors, including but not limited to national security and anti-terrorism concerns and concerns about climate change.

Legislative or regulatory initiatives related to climate change could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Greenhouse gases may have an adverse effect on global temperatures, weather patterns, and the frequency and severity of extreme weather and natural disaster. Such events could have a negative effect on our business. Concern over climate change may result in new or additional legislative and regulatory requirements to reduce or mitigate the effects of climate change on the environment, which could result in future tax, transportation cost, and utility increases. These risks could have a material adverse effect on our business.

The scope of our non-U.S. operations exposes our performance to risks including foreign, political, legal and economic conditions and exchange rate fluctuations.

Our performance depends in part on general economic conditions affecting all countries in which we do business. Although the U.K. and the European Union (“E.U.”) entered into the E.U.-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement on December 30, 2020, uncertainty remains about the impact on our business in the U.K. and the ROI, including impact on tariffs, shipping costs, consumer demand and currency fluctuations.

In addition, across all of our markets, we could be adversely impacted by changes in trade policies, labor, tax or other laws and regulations, intellectual property rights and supply chain logistics. We are also dependent on foreign manufacturers for the products we sell, and our inventory is subject to cost and availability of foreign materials and labor. In addition to the other risks disclosed herein, demand for our product offering in our non-U.S. operations is also subject to local market conditions.

As we expand our international operations, we also increase our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations. Sales from stores outside the U.S. are denominated in the currency of the country in which these operations or stores are located and changes in foreign exchange rates affect the translation of the sales and earnings of these businesses into U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. Additionally, inventory purchase agreements may also be denominated in the currency of the country where the vendor resides.

If the U.S. dollar strengthens relative to foreign currencies, our revenues and profits are reduced when converted into U.S. dollars and our margins may be negatively impacted by the increase in product costs. Although we typically have sought to mitigate the negative impacts of foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations through price increases and further actions to reduce costs, we may not be able to fully offset the impact, if at all.

The imposition of tariffs on our products could adversely affect our business.

Tax and trade policies, tariffs and regulations affecting trade between the United States and other countries could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and liquidity. We source a significant portion of our merchandise from manufacturers located outside the U.S., including from China. Existing and potential future tariffs on certain imported products could result in an increase in prices for those products. In addition, tariffs could also increase the costs of our U.S. suppliers, causing those suppliers to also increase the costs of their products. If we are unable to pass along increased costs to our customers, our gross margins could be adversely affected. Alternatively, tariffs may cause us to shift production to other countries, resulting in significant costs and disruption to our business.

Our ability to source our merchandise profitably or at all could be hurt if new trade restrictions are imposed, existing trade restrictions become more burdensome or disruptions occur at our suppliers or at the ports.

Trade restrictions, including increased tariffs, safeguards or quotas, on footwear, apparel and accessories could increase the cost or reduce the supply of merchandise available to us. We source footwear and accessory products from foreign manufacturers located in Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, Portugal, Peru, Spain, Turkey and Vietnam. Our retail operations, excluding Johnston & Murphy, sell primarily branded products from third parties who source primarily overseas. The investments we are making to develop our sourcing capabilities may not be successful and may, in turn, have an adverse impact on our financial position and results of operations.

There are quotas and trade restrictions on certain categories of goods and apparel from China and countries that are not subject to the World Trade Organization Agreement, which could have a significant impact on our sourcing patterns in the future. In addition, political uncertainty in the United States may result in significant changes to U.S. trade policies, treaties and tariffs, including trade policies and tariffs regarding China. These developments, or the perception that any of them could occur, may have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets, and may significantly reduce global trade. Any of these factors could depress economic activity, restrict our sourcing from suppliers and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. We cannot predict whether any of the countries in which our merchandise is currently or may be manufactured in the future will be subject to additional trade restrictions imposed by the U.S. and foreign governments, nor can we predict the likelihood, type or effect of any such restrictions. Trade restrictions, including increased tariffs or quotas, embargoes, safeguards and customs restrictions against items we source from foreign manufacturers could increase the cost, delay shipping or reduce the supply of products available to us or may require us to modify our current business practices, any of which could hurt our profitability.

We rely on our suppliers to manufacture and ship the products they produce for us in a timely and cost-effective manner. We also rely on the free flow of goods through open and operational ports worldwide. Labor disputes and other disruptions at various ports or at our suppliers could increase costs for us and delay our receipt of merchandise, particularly if these disputes result in work slowdowns, lockouts, strikes or other disruptions.

We are subject to regulatory proceedings and litigation and to regulatory changes that could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We are party to certain lawsuits, governmental investigations, and regulatory proceedings, including the proceedings arising out of alleged environmental contamination relating to historical operations of the Company and various suits involving current operations as disclosed in Item 3, "Legal Proceedings" and Note 15 to the Consolidated Financial Statements. If these or similar matters are resolved against us, or if we incur significant costs to pursue claims against third parties, our results of operations, our cash flows, or our financial condition could be adversely affected. The costs of prosecuting or defending such lawsuits and responding to such investigations and regulatory proceedings may be substantial and their potential to distract management from day-to-day business is significant. Moreover, with retail operations in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the U.K., and the ROI, we are subject to federal, state, provincial, territorial, local and foreign regulations, which impose costs and risks on our business. Numerous states and municipalities as well as the federal government of the U.S. are proposing or have implemented changes to minimum wage, overtime, employee leave, employee benefit requirements and other requirements that will increase costs. Changes in regulations could make compliance more difficult and costly, and failure to comply with these requirements, including even a seemingly minor infraction, could result in liability for damages or penalties.

Actions of activist shareholders have caused, and could cause us in the future to incur substantial costs, divert management’s attention and resources, and have an adverse effect on our business.

Our shareholders may from time to time engage in proxy solicitations, advance shareholders proposals or otherwise attempt to affect changes or acquire control over the Company. Activist shareholder activities could adversely affect our business because responding to proxy contests and reacting to other actions by activist shareholders can be costly and time-consuming, disrupt our operations and divert the attention of management and our employees. For example, we have retained, and may in the future, retain the services of various professionals to advise us on activist shareholder matters, including legal, financial and communication advisors, the costs of which may negatively impact our future financial results. In addition, perceived uncertainties as to our future direction, strategy or leadership created as a consequence of activist shareholders initiatives may result in the loss of potential business opportunities, harm our ability to attract new investors, customers, and employees, and cause our stock price to experience periods of volatility or stagnation.

Financial Risks

Our indebtedness is subject to floating interest rates.

Borrowings under our credit facility bear interest at varying rates and expose us to interest rate risk. If interest rates were to increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness referred to above would increase even if the principal amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income and cash flows will correspondingly decrease. Additionally, in connection with the ICE Benchmark Administration’s announced phase-out of LIBOR, we amended our credit facility to, among other things, replace LIBOR with the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”), the Sterling Overnight Index Average (“SONIA”) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (“EURIBOR”). It is unclear, however, whether SOFR, SONIA or EURIBOR will retain market acceptance as a LIBOR replacement tool, and we may need to renegotiate our credit facility if other LIBOR alternatives are established and become more widely adopted.

Changes in our effective income tax rate could adversely affect our net earnings and liquidity.

A number of factors influence our effective income tax rate, including changes in tax law, tax treaties, interpretation of existing laws, including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the "Act"), and our ability to sustain our reporting positions on examination. Changes in any of those factors could change our effective tax rate, which could adversely affect our net earnings and liquidity. In addition, our operations outside of the United States may cause greater volatility in our effective tax rate.

We continue to expect the United States Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to issue regulations and other guidance that could have a material impact on our effective tax rate in future periods.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 1C. CYBERSECURITY

Cybersecurity is one of our most critical risks. For many activities important to our business, we depend on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems and data, some of which are provided or managed by third parties. We have strategically integrated cybersecurity risk management into our broader enterprise risk management function to promote a company-wide culture of cybersecurity risk management.

Management is responsible for the day-to-day handling of risks facing the Company, while the Board of Directors, as a whole and through its committees, oversees risk management, including cybersecurity risks. The Board has delegated certain risk management responsibilities with respect to cybersecurity to the Audit Committee.

On behalf of the Board, the Audit Committee provides oversight of our management of cybersecurity risk. The Audit Committee regularly reviews our cybersecurity risks, incidents, audits, assessments, crisis readiness, awareness activities and compliance with cybersecurity and privacy laws and regulations. Our Vice President, Information Security and Privacy jointly with our Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer brief the Audit Committee quarterly, and more often, if necessary, on active and emerging cybersecurity threats and efforts to strengthen our defenses against these threats.

Our Information Security and Privacy teams reduce first and third-party risk by maintaining a proactive security posture aligned with current threats, detecting cybersecurity events and responding quickly, and building procedures to rapidly recover. These teams are managed by the Vice President, Information Security and Privacy, who reports to the Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer. Our cybersecurity leaders collectively have more than 25 years of relevant experience and multiple professional certifications.

Internal and third-party risks are reviewed, monitored, and managed by our Cybersecurity and Privacy teams, audited by an Internal Audit team and various external experts, and tracked within an Enterprise Risk Management framework. We regularly engage third-party experts to assess the effectiveness of our cybersecurity programs. Biennially, an external independent consultancy team conducts an assessment of our cybersecurity program using the inputs from accepted Cybersecurity Frameworks. Targeted assessments are conducted regularly by internal and third-party experts to ensure compliance with specific federal and state laws and regulations. We continue to participate in the VISA TIP program and AMEX STEP program around our PCI DSS compliance.

Our processes for identifying and managing first and third-party risks from cybersecurity threats include:

•Continuous monitoring of our systems and network for cybersecurity events;

•Regular testing of our Security Incident Response Plan, Business Continuity plans, and Disaster Recovery plans;

•Required annual security training for our employees with access to email, as well as tailored training for employees in more sensitive roles. Periodic testing to ensure the security training is effective.

External managed security services providers and industry-leading security tools continuously monitor our systems and network for cybersecurity threats. Our cybersecurity teams evaluate the escalated threats, and if necessary, take steps to contain and recover from pervasive threats in accordance with our Security Incident Response Plan. The plan includes reporting and escalation procedures to inform the Executive Committee, Audit Committee, and full Board, as appropriate to enable them to carry out their oversight responsibilities, and to ensure timely compliance with applicable reporting rules. Our Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recovery plans include procedures for business recovery and are tested regularly.

No risks from cybersecurity threats or previous cybersecurity incidents have materially affected our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition. However, there can be no assurance that our controls and procedures in place to monitor and mitigate the risks of cyber threats will be sufficient and/or timely and that we will not suffer material losses or consequences in the future. Additionally, while we have in place insurance coverage designed to address certain aspects of cyber risks, such insurance coverage may be insufficient to cover all insured losses or all types of claims that may arise.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

At February 3, 2024, we operated 1,341 retail footwear and accessory stores throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the U.K. and the ROI. New shopping center store leases in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada typically have initial terms of approximately 10 years. New store leases in the U.K. and the ROI typically have initial terms of between 10 and 15 years. We have leases with fixed base rental payments, rental payments based on a percentage of retail sales over contractual amounts and others with predetermined fixed escalations of the minimum rental payments based on a defined consumer price index or percentage.

The general location, use and approximate size of our principal properties are set forth below:

We believe that all leases of properties that are material to our operations may be renewed, or that alternative properties are available, on terms not materially less favorable to us than existing leases.

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we are subject to legal and/or administrative proceedings incidental to our business. It is the opinion of management that the outcome of pending legal and/or administrative proceedings will not have a material effect on our financial position and results of operations.

Further information with respect to this item may be found in Note 15 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data," which is incorporated herein by reference.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

ITEM 4A. INFORMATION ABOUT OUR EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

The officers of the Company are generally elected at the first meeting of the Board of Directors following the annual meeting of shareholders and hold office until their successors have been chosen and qualified or until their earlier death, resignation or removal. The name, age and office of each of the Company’s executive officers and certain information relating to the business experience of each are set forth below:

Mimi Eckel Vaughn, 57, Board Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Vaughn joined the Company in September 2003 as vice president of strategy and business development. She was named senior vice president, strategy and business development in October 2006, senior vice president of strategy and shared services in April 2009 and senior vice president - finance and chief financial officer in February 2015. In May 2019, Ms. Vaughn was named senior vice president and chief operating officer and continued to serve as senior vice president - finance and chief financial officer until her replacement was appointed in June 2019. In October 2019, Ms. Vaughn was appointed to become president and a member of the Board of Directors. Ms. Vaughn was appointed chief executive officer of the Company on February 2, 2020. In July 2020, Ms. Vaughn was appointed Board chair of the Company. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Vaughn was executive vice president of business development and marketing, and acting chief financial officer from 2000 to 2001, for Link2Gov Corporation in Nashville. From 1993 to 1999, she was a consultant at McKinsey and Company in Atlanta.

Parag D. Desai, 49, Senior Vice President - Chief Strategy and Digital Officer. Mr. Desai joined the Company in 2014 as senior vice president of strategy and shared services. He was named chief strategy and digital officer in May 2021. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Desai spent 14 years with McKinsey and Company, including seven years as a partner. Previously, Mr. Desai also held business development and technology positions at Outpace Systems and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Thomas A. George, 68, Senior Vice President – Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. George joined the Company in December 2020 as interim senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer. He was named as permanent senior vice-president - finance and chief financial officer in October 2021. Mr. George has 40 years of experience, including 30 years as chief financial officer of public and private companies. Prior to joining Genesco, he was chief financial officer of Deckers Outdoor Corporation d/b/a Deckers Brands, a global footwear company, for nine years and prior to that was chief financial officer of Oakley, a global eyewear brand. He has served in this same capacity at companies in the technology and medical device industries.

Scott E. Becker, 56, Senior Vice President - General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. In October 2019, Mr. Becker joined the Company as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Becker served in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility for Nissan Group of North America and Latin America since 2006. Since 2009, he was a senior vice president with responsibilities for Nissan’s legal, government affairs, finance, strategy and administration.

From 2006 to 2009, he served as Nissan’s general counsel, corporate secretary and vice president, legal and government affairs. Prior to joining Nissan, Mr. Becker served in various legal roles at Sears Holdings Corporation. Mr. Becker began his legal career with several Chicago area law firms.

Daniel E. Ewoldsen, 54, Senior Vice President. Mr. Ewoldsen is a 20-year Johnston & Murphy veteran. He joined Johnston & Murphy in 2003 as vice president store operations and was later promoted to vice president store and consumer sales in 2006. He was named executive vice president, Johnston & Murphy Retail and E-Commerce in 2013, president of Johnston & Murphy Group in February 2018 and named senior vice president of Genesco in July 2019. Prior to joining Genesco, Mr. Ewoldsen was with Wilsons Leather from 1996 to 2002 serving in roles with increasing responsibilities, including vice president of stores for the El Portal division.

Andrew I. Gray, 46, Senior Vice President. Mr. Gray joined the Company in January 2024 as senior vice president and president of the Journeys Group. Prior to joining Genesco, he served over two decades in several senior leadership positions at Foot Locker. Mr. Gray most recently served as executive vice president, global president of Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports and Sidestep, a position he held from June 2022 until his departure from the company in January 2023. Previously, Mr. Gray served as executive vice president, chief commercial officer from July 2020 to June 2022, chief merchandising officer from October 2017 to July 2020, general manager of Foot Locker and Lady Foot Locker North America from February 2016 to October 2017, and as vice president and general merchandise manager of Foot Locker Europe from July 2013 to February 2016. During his time at Foot Locker, he developed a multi-dimensional skill set spanning merchandising, general management, retail and digital, consumer insight, brand building and global leadership.

Brently G. Baxter, 58, Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Mr. Baxter joined the Company in September 2019 as vice president and chief accounting officer. Mr. Baxter most recently served as group vice president, controller and principal accounting officer for Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc., a position he held since 2017. From 2014 and 2016, he served as senior vice president, controller and chief accounting officer for Stein Mart, Inc. From 2006 to 2014, he served as vice president, accounting, treasury and corporate controller for PetSmart, Inc. From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Baxter served as vice president and controller for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. Prior to serving at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., he practiced public accounting for 14 years with KPMG LLP.

Matthew N. Johnson, 59, Vice President and Treasurer. Mr. Johnson joined the Company in 1993 as manager, corporate finance and was elected assistant treasurer in December 1993. He was elected treasurer in June 1996. He was named vice president finance in October 2006 and renamed treasurer in April 2011 after a period of service as chief financial officer of one of the Company's divisions. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Johnson was a vice president in the corporate and institutional banking division of The First National Bank of Chicago.

PART II

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Market Information

Our stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "GCO".

There were approximately 1,350 common shareholders of record on March 15, 2024.

We have not paid cash dividends to our holders of our Common Stock since 1973 and we do not currently anticipate paying cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Our ability to pay cash dividends to our holders of common stock is subject to various restrictions. See Note 10 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data" for information regarding restrictions on dividends and redemption of capital stock.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities

None.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Equity Compensation Plan Information

Refer to Part III, Item 12, "Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters" included elsewhere in this report.

ITEM 6. RESERVED

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

This Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations should be read in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and with Part II, Item 7 (“Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”) of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2023, filed with the SEC on March 22, 2023, which provides a discussion of our financial condition and results of operations for Fiscal 2023 compared to our Fiscal 2022.

Summary of Results of Operations

Key Performance Indicators

In assessing the performance of our business, we consider a variety of performance and financial measures. The key performance indicators we use to evaluate the financial condition and operating performance of our business are comparable sales, net sales, gross margin, operating income and operating margin. These key performance indicators should not be considered superior to, as a substitute for or as an alternative to, and should be considered in conjunction with, the U.S. GAAP financial measures presented herein. These measures may not be comparable to similarly-titled performance indicators used by other companies.

Comparable Sales

We consider comparable sales to be an important indicator of our current performance, and investors may find it useful as such. Comparable sales results are important to achieve leveraging of our costs, including occupancy, selling salaries, depreciation, etc. Comparable sales also have a direct impact on our total net revenue, cash and working capital. We define "comparable sales" as sales from stores open longer than one year, beginning with the first day a store has comparable sales (which we refer to in this report as "same store sales"), and sales from websites operated longer than one year and direct mail catalog sales (which we refer to in this report as "comparable direct sales"). Temporarily closed stores are excluded from the comparable sales calculation if closed for more than seven days. Expanded stores are excluded from the comparable sales calculation until the first day an expanded store has comparable prior year sales. Current year foreign exchange rates are applied to both current year and prior year comparable sales to achieve a consistent basis for comparison. We have not disclosed comparable sales for Fiscal 2023,

as we believe that overall sales was a more meaningful metric in Fiscal 2023 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related extended store closures that occurred in the first quarter of Fiscal 2022.

Results of Operations—Fiscal 2024 Compared to Fiscal 2023

Our net sales for Fiscal 2024 decreased 2.5% to $2.32 billion from $2.38 billion in Fiscal 2023. Included in Fiscal 2024 was a 53rd week compared to a 52-week in Fiscal 2023. Excluding the 53rd week, net sales decreased 3.6% for Fiscal 2024. The decrease in net sales was driven by decreased store sales at Journeys Group and decreased wholesale sales, partially offset by an 8% increase in e-commerce comparable sales for the total Company, strong store performance at Schuh and Johnston & Murphy and an $8.7 million favorable foreign exchange impact on sales due to changes in foreign exchange rates. Inflationary pressures and economic uncertainty continue to impact the discretionary spending behavior of our consumers. The shopping behavior of our Journeys consumer, in particular, has shifted toward shopping almost exclusively for key footwear items, putting more pressure on our core product assortment. Journeys Group sales decreased 8% and Genesco Brands Group sales decreased 9%, while Schuh Group sales increased 11% and Johnston & Murphy Group sales increased 8% for Fiscal 2024 compared to Fiscal 2023. Schuh's sales increased 8% on a local currency basis for Fiscal 2024. Total comparable sales decreased 4% for Fiscal 2024, with same store sales down 7% and comparable direct sales up 8%.

Gross margin decreased 3.3% to $1.10 billion in Fiscal 2024 from $1.14 billion in Fiscal 2023 and decreased as a percentage of net sales from 47.6% in Fiscal 2023 to 47.3% in Fiscal 2024, reflecting decreased gross margin as a percentage of net sales in Journeys Group, partially offset by an increase in gross margin as a percentage of net sales in all of our other operating business units. The overall decrease in gross margin as a percentage of net sales reflects increased promotional activity at Journeys and Johnston & Murphy and increased shipping and warehouse expense at Johnston & Murphy, primarily reflecting increased warehouse costs. All of these decreases to gross margin are partially offset by a more elevated product mix at Schuh as well as reduced duties and freight from the new ROI-based distribution center, decreased air freight at Johnston & Murphy and easing of freight and logistics pressures, favorable changes in product mix and increased prices at Genesco Brands.

Selling and administrative expenses increased as a percentage of net sales from 43.7% in Fiscal 2023 to 46.5% in Fiscal 2024, reflecting increased expenses as a percentage of net sales in all of our operating business units. The overall increase in expenses as a percentage of net sales in Fiscal 2024 reflects the deleverage of expenses, especially compensation expense, selling salaries, marketing and occupancy expenses as a result of decreased revenue in Fiscal 2024. Explanations of the changes in results of operations are provided by business segment in discussions following these introductory paragraphs.

The loss from continuing operations before income taxes (“pretax loss") for Fiscal 2024 was $21.8 million, compared to earnings from continuing operations before income taxes ("pretax earnings") of $90.1 million for Fiscal 2023. The pretax loss for Fiscal 2024 included a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $28.5 million and asset impairment and other charges of $1.8 million which included $1.1 million for severance and $1.0 million for asset impairments, partially offset by a $0.3 million insurance gain. Pretax earnings for Fiscal 2023 included an asset impairment and other charge of $0.9 million which included $1.6 million for asset impairments, partially offset by a $0.7 million gain on the termination of the pension plan.

The net loss for Fiscal 2024 was $16.8 million, or $1.50 diluted loss per share compared to net earnings of $71.9 million, or $5.66 diluted earnings per share for Fiscal 2023. The net loss for Fiscal 2024 includes a $9.4 million ($7.2 million, net of tax) gain from insurance proceeds related to legacy environmental matters. The effective income tax rate was (8.5%) for Fiscal 2024 compared to 19.8% for Fiscal 2023. The effective tax rate for Fiscal 2024 was lower compared to Fiscal 2023, reflecting the impact of recording a valuation allowance against certain tax attributes that we no longer believe it is more-likely-than-not we will realize the benefit, partially offset by accrued interest related to a IRS refund that is due to the Company. See Item 8, Note 11, "Income Taxes", to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information.

Journeys Group

Net sales from Journeys Group decreased 8.0% to $1.4 billion for Fiscal 2024 compared to $1.5 billion for Fiscal 2023, primarily due to a total comparable sales decrease of 9% driven by decreased store sales, partially offset by increased digital comparable sales. In addition, there was a 3% decrease in the average number of Journeys stores for Fiscal 2024. We believe the Journeys consumer continues to be pressured by inflation and has chosen to conserve discretionary spending and primarily shop when the consumer has a key footwear item to purchase and take advantage of the abundance of discounted athletic product elsewhere in the market. The shift in the consumer's shopping behavior to shop almost exclusively for key footwear items in an environment with a general lack of innovation in footwear, has put pressure on our core product assortment. Highlights for Journeys in Fiscal 2024 were the launches of its All Access loyalty program and buy-online-pick-up-in-store in North America to encouraging results.

The store count for Journeys Group was 1,063 stores at the end of Fiscal 2024, including 222 Journeys Kidz stores, 39 Journeys stores in Canada and 33 Little Burgundy stores in Canada, compared to 1,130 stores at the end of Fiscal 2023, including 233 Journeys Kidz stores, 45 Journeys stores in Canada and 34 Little Burgundy stores in Canada.

Journeys Group operating income for Fiscal 2024 decreased 88.3% to $11.1 million, compared to $94.4 million for Fiscal 2023. The decrease in operating income was primarily due to (i) decreased net sales, (ii) decreased gross margin as a percentage of net sales, primarily reflecting increased promotional activity and (iii) increased selling and administrative expenses as a percentage of net sales reflecting the deleverage of expenses, especially occupancy expense, selling salaries, depreciation and compensation expenses as a result of decreased revenue in Fiscal 2024.

Schuh Group

Net sales from the Schuh Group increased 11.1% to $480.2 million for Fiscal 2024 compared to $432.0 million for Fiscal 2023, primarily due to increased total comparable sales of 6% driven by increased e-commerce and store sales and a favorable impact of $11.8 million in sales due to changes in foreign exchange rates. Schuh's sales increased 8% on a local currency basis for Fiscal 2024. Our efforts to strengthen Schuh's value proposition has differentiated the business from competitors, grabbing the attention of new customers and enhancing our brand relationships. Schuh's loyalty program, Schuh Club, has been key to strengthening Schuh's market position. Schuh Group operated 122 stores at the end of Fiscal 2024 and Fiscal 2023.

Schuh Group operating income for Fiscal 2024 was $21.4 million compared to $17.6 million for Fiscal 2023. The 21.8% increase in operating income this year reflects (i) increased net sales and (ii) increased gross margin as a percentage of net sales, reflecting an elevated product mix and reduced duties and freight as a result of the new ROI-based distribution center. In addition, operating income included a favorable impact of $1.3 million due to changes in foreign exchange rates compared to last year. Selling and

administrative expenses increased as a percentage of net sales reflecting increased selling salaries, marketing expense and performance-based compensation expense, partially offset by decreased occupancy expense.

Johnston & Murphy Group

Johnston & Murphy Group net sales increased 7.8% to $339.4 million for Fiscal 2024 from $314.8 million for Fiscal 2023 primarily due to increased total comparable sales of 9% driven by increased store and e-commerce sales, partially offset by decreased wholesale sales. Compelling product and strong sales of non-footwear items contributed to the increase in sales for Fiscal 2024. Johnston & Murphy has repositioned its brand to a multi-category lifestyle brand, offering more casual and comfortable footwear and apparel, and it continues to resonate well with its consumers' more casual preferences. Retail operations accounted for 78.3% of Johnston & Murphy Group's sales in Fiscal 2024, up from 76.0% in Fiscal 2023. The store count for Johnston & Murphy retail operations at the end of Fiscal 2024 was 156 Johnston & Murphy shops and factory stores, including five stores in Canada, compared to 158 Johnston & Murphy shops and factory stores, including six stores in Canada, at the end of Fiscal 2023.

Johnston & Murphy Group operating income for Fiscal 2024 increased 13.6% to $16.3 million compared to $14.4 million in Fiscal 2023. The increase was primarily due to (i) increased net sales and (ii) increased gross margin as a percentage of net sales reflecting a decrease in air freight, partially offset by increased retail markdowns, warehouse costs and increased inventory reserves. Selling and administrative expenses increased as a percentage of net sales in Fiscal 2024 compared to Fiscal 2023 reflecting increased marketing expense, professional fees and compensation expense, partially offset by decreased performance-based compensation expense and occupancy expense.

Genesco Brands Group

Net sales for Genesco Brands Group decreased 9.5% to $141.2 million for Fiscal 2024 from $155.9 million for Fiscal 2023, primarily due to higher sell-in in the first half of the prior year as retailers were replenishing inventory due to supply chain constraints as well as an intentional strategy to pull back value channel sales.

The operating loss for Genesco Brands Group in Fiscal 2024 was basically break even compared to an operating loss of $0.7 million in Fiscal 2023. The improvement in the operating loss was primarily due to increased gross margin as a percentage of net sales reflecting the easing of freight and logistics pressures, favorable changes in product mix and increased prices. Selling and administrative expenses increased as a percentage of net sales reflecting deleverage of expenses as a result of decreased revenue in Fiscal 2024 as well as increased performance-based compensation expense.

Corporate, Interest Expenses and Other Charges

Corporate and other expense for Fiscal 2024 was $62.3 million compared to $32.5 million for Fiscal 2023. Corporate and other expense in Fiscal 2024 included non-cash impairment charges of $28.5 million related to goodwill and a $1.8 million charge in asset impairment and other charges which included $1.1 million in severance and $1.0 million for asset impairments, partially offset by a $0.3 million insurance gain. Corporate and other expense in Fiscal 2023 included $1.6 million for asset impairments, partially offset by a $0.7 million gain on the termination of our pension plan.

Net interest expense increased $4.9 million to $7.8 million in Fiscal 2024 from $2.9 million in Fiscal 2023 primarily reflecting increased average borrowings and higher interest rates.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Working Capital

Our business is seasonal, with our investment in inventory and accounts receivable normally reaching peaks in the spring and fall of each year. Historically, cash flow from operations has been generated principally in the fourth quarter of each fiscal year.

Reasons for the major variances in cash provided by (used in) the table above are as follows:

Cash provided by operating activities was $259.7 million higher in Fiscal 2024 compared to Fiscal 2023, reflecting primarily the following factors:

Cash used in investing activities was flat for Fiscal 2024 compared to Fiscal 2023 as the increased capital expenditures for investments in retail stores and omni-channel was offset by decreased capital expenditures for the new corporate headquarters building.

Cash used in financing activities was $2.0 million higher in Fiscal 2024 as compared to Fiscal 2023 primarily reflecting decreased revolver borrowings in Fiscal 2024, partially offset by decreased share repurchases this year.

Sources of Liquidity and Future Capital Needs

We have three principal sources of liquidity: cash flow from operations, cash on hand and our credit facilities discussed in Item 8, Note 8, "Long-Term Debt", to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

On January 28, 2022, we entered into a Third Amendment (the "Third Amendment") to our Fourth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement dated as of January 31, 2018 between us, certain of our subsidiaries, the lenders party thereto and Bank of America, N.A. as agent (as amended, the "Credit Facility" or the "Credit Agreement") to, among other things, extend the maturity date to January 28, 2027 and remove the $17.5 million first in-last out term loan. The Total Commitments (as defined in the Credit Agreement) for revolving loans is $332.5 million. As of February 3, 2024 we have $32.9 million in U.S. revolver borrowings and $1.8 million (C$2.4 million) related to GCO Canada ULC. We had outstanding letters of credit of $6.9 million under the Credit Facility at February 3, 2024. These letters of credit support lease and insurance indemnifications.

On November 2, 2022, Schuh entered into a facility agreement (the "Facility Agreement") with Lloyds Bank PLC (“Lloyds”) for a £19.0 million revolving credit facility. The Facility Agreement expires November 2, 2025, with options to request two one-year extensions to this termination date subject to lender approval, and bears interest at 2.35% over the Bank of England Base Rate. This Facility Agreement replaced Schuh's Facility Letter that would have expired in October 2023. The Facility Agreement includes certain financial covenants specific to Schuh. Following certain customary events of default outlined in the Facility Agreement, payment of outstanding amounts due may be accelerated or the commitments may be terminated. The Facility Agreement is secured by charges over all of the assets of Schuh, and Schuh's subsidiary, Schuh (ROI) Limited. Pursuant to a Guarantee in favor of Lloyds in its capacity as security trustee, Genesco Inc. has guaranteed the obligations of Schuh under the Facility Agreement and certain existing ancillary facilities on an unsecured basis. As of February 3, 2024, we did not have any borrowings under the Schuh Facility Agreement.

We were in compliance with all the relevant terms and conditions of the Credit Facility and Facility Agreement as of February 3, 2024.

We believe that cash on hand, cash provided by operations and borrowings under our amended Credit Facility and the Schuh Facility Agreement will be sufficient to support our liquidity needs in Fiscal 2025 and the foreseeable future.

In the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2021, we implemented tax strategies allowed under the 5-year carryback provisions in the CARES Act which we believe will generate approximately $55 million of net tax refunds. We received approximately $26 million of such net tax refunds in Fiscal 2022 and anticipated receipt of the remaining outstanding net tax refund in Fiscal 2023. However, in the third quarter of Fiscal 2023, we were notified the IRS would conduct an audit of the periods related to the outstanding net tax refund. While we do not believe any uncertainty with the technical merits of the positions generating the net tax refunds exists, we do anticipate the timing of the net tax refund will be extended as a result of the audit process. Accordingly, we have recorded the outstanding refund as non-current prepaid income taxes on the Consolidated Balance Sheets as of February 3, 2024.

Contractual Obligations

The following table sets forth aggregate contractual obligations as of February 3, 2024.

(1) Operating lease obligations excludes $10.5 million for leases signed but not yet commenced.

(2) As a result of the Togast acquisition, we also have a commitment to Samsung C&T America, Inc. (“Samsung”) related to the ultimate sale and valuation of related inventories owned by Samsung. If the product is sold below Samsung’s cost, we are committed to Samsung for the difference between the sales price and its cost.

We issue inventory purchase orders in the ordinary course of business, which represent authorizations to purchase that are cancelable by their terms. We do not consider purchase orders to be firm inventory commitments. If we choose to cancel a purchase order, we may be obligated to reimburse the vendor for unrecoverable outlays incurred prior to cancellation.

Capital Expenditures

Capital expenditures were $60.3 million and $59.9 million for Fiscal 2024 and 2023, respectively. The $0.4 million increase in Fiscal 2024 capital expenditures as compared to Fiscal 2023 is primarily due to increases for new stores, renovations and computer hardware, software and warehouse enhancements to drive traffic and omni-channel initiatives, almost offset by decreased capital expenditures for our new corporate headquarters.

We expect total capital expenditures for Fiscal 2025 to be approximately $52-$57 million of which approximately 59% is for new stores and renovations and 41% is for computer hardware, software and warehouse enhancements for initiatives to drive traffic and omni-channel initiatives and other projects. We do not currently have any longer term capital expenditures or other cash requirements other than as set forth in the contractual obligations table. We also do not currently have any off-balance sheet arrangements.

Common Stock Repurchases

We repurchased 1,261,295 shares during Fiscal 2024 at a cost of $32.0 million or an average of $25.39 per share. We were operating under a $100.0 million repurchase authorization from February 2022. In June 2023, we announced an additional $50.0 million share repurchase authorization. As of February 3, 2024, we have $52.1 million remaining under the expanded share repurchase authorization. We repurchased 1,380,272 shares during Fiscal 2023 at a cost of $72.7 million or an average of $52.66 per share. We repurchased 1,360,909 shares during Fiscal 2022 at a cost of $82.8 million or an average of $60.88 per share. During the first quarter of Fiscal 2025, through March 27, 2024, we did not repurchase any shares.

Environmental and Other Contingencies

We are subject to certain loss contingencies related to environmental proceedings and other legal matters, including those disclosed in Item 8, Note 15, "Legal Proceedings", to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Financial Market Risk

The following discusses our exposure to financial market risk.

Outstanding Debt – We have $34.7 million of outstanding U.S. revolver borrowings, which includes $1.8 million (C$2.4 million) related to GCO Canada ULC, at a weighted average interest rate of 7.79% as of February 3, 2024. A 100 basis point increase in interest rates would increase annual interest expense by $0.3 million on the $34.7 million revolver borrowings.

Cash – Our cash balances are held in our bank accounts and not invested at this time. We did not have significant exposure to changing interest rates on invested cash at February 3, 2024. As a result, we consider the interest rate risk implicit in these investments at February 3, 2024 to be low. We did not hold any cash equivalents at February 3, 2024.

Summary – Based on our overall market interest rate exposure at February 3, 2024, we believe that the effect, if any, of reasonably possible near-term changes in interest rates on our consolidated financial position, results of operations or cash flows for Fiscal 2025 would not be material.

Accounts Receivable – Our accounts receivable balance at February 3, 2024 is concentrated in our wholesale businesses, which sell primarily to department stores and independent retailers across the United States. In the wholesale businesses, one customer accounted for 18%, one customer accounted for 16%, one customer accounted for 11% and one customer accounted for 10% of our total trade receivables balance, while no other customer accounted for more than 8% of our total trade receivables balance as of February 3, 2024. We monitor the credit quality of our customers and establish an allowance for doubtful accounts based upon factors surrounding credit risk of specific customers, historical trends and other information, as well as customer specific factors; however, credit risk is affected by conditions or occurrences within the economy and the retail industry, as well as company-specific information.

Foreign Currency Exchange Risk – We are exposed to translation risk because certain of our foreign operations utilize the local currency as their functional currency and those financial results must be translated into United States dollars. As currency exchange rates fluctuate, translation of our financial statements of foreign businesses into United States dollars affects the comparability of financial results between years. Schuh Group's net sales and operating income for Fiscal 2024 were positively impacted by $11.8 million and $1.3 million, respectively, due to the change in foreign exchange rates.

New Accounting Principles

Descriptions of recently issued accounting pronouncements, if any, and the accounting pronouncements adopted by us during Fiscal 2024 are included in Note 2, "New Accounting Pronouncements", to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8, "Financial Statements and Supplementary Data".

Critical Accounting Estimates

Inventory Valuation

In our footwear wholesale operations and our Schuh Group segment, cost for inventory that we own is determined using the first-in, first-out ("FIFO") method. Net realizable value is determined using a system of analysis which evaluates inventory at the stock number level based on factors such as inventory turn, average selling price, inventory level, and selling prices reflected in future orders for footwear wholesale. We provide a valuation allowance when the inventory has not been marked down to net realizable value based on current selling prices or when the inventory is not turning and is not expected to turn at satisfactory levels.

In our retail operations, other than the Schuh Group segment, we employ the retail inventory method, applying average cost-to-retail ratios to the retail value of inventories. Under the retail inventory method, valuing inventory at the lower of cost or market is achieved as markdowns are taken or accrued as a reduction of the retail value of inventories.

Inherent in the retail inventory method are subjective judgments and estimates, including merchandise mark-on, markups, markdowns and shrinkage. These judgments and estimates, coupled with the fact that the retail inventory method is an averaging process, could produce a range of cost figures. To reduce the risk of inaccuracy and to ensure consistent presentation, we employ the retail inventory method in multiple subclasses of inventory with similar gross margins, and analyze markdown requirements at the stock number level based on factors such as inventory turn, average selling price and inventory age. In addition, we accrue markdowns as necessary. These additional markdown accruals reflect all of the above factors as well as current agreements to return products to vendors and vendor agreements to provide markdown support. In addition to markdown allowances, we maintain reserves for shrinkage and damaged goods based on historical rates.

Inherent in the analysis of both wholesale and retail inventory valuation are subjective judgments about current market conditions, fashion trends and overall economic conditions. Failure to make appropriate conclusions regarding these factors may result in an overstatement or understatement of inventory value. A change of 10% from the recorded amounts for markdowns, shrinkage and damaged goods would have changed inventory by $0.7 million at February 3, 2024.

Impairment of Long-Lived Assets

We periodically assess the recoverability of our long-lived assets, other than goodwill, and evaluate such assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of an asset may not be recoverable. Asset impairment is determined to exist if estimated future cash flows, undiscounted and without interest charges, are less than the carrying amount. Inherent in the analysis of impairment are subjective judgments about future cash flows. Failure to make appropriate conclusions regarding these judgments may result in an overstatement or understatement of the value of long-lived assets.

We annually assess our goodwill and indefinite lived trademarks for impairment and on an interim basis if indicators of impairment are present. Our annual assessment date of goodwill and indefinite lived trade names is the first day of the fourth quarter.

In accordance with ASC 350, "Intangibles - Goodwill and Other" ("ASC 350") we have the option first to assess qualitative factors to determine whether events and circumstances indicate that it is more likely than not that goodwill is impaired. If, after such assessment, we conclude that the asset is not impaired, no further action is required. However, if we conclude otherwise, we are required to determine the fair value of the asset using a quantitative impairment test. The quantitative impairment test for goodwill compares the fair value of each reporting unit with the carrying value of the reporting unit with which the goodwill is associated. If the fair value of the reporting unit is less than the carrying value of the reporting unit, an impairment charge would be recorded for the amount, if any, in which the carrying value exceeds the reporting unit's fair value. We estimate fair value using the best information available, and compute the fair value derived by a combination of the market and income approach. The market approach is based on observed market data of comparable companies to determine fair value. The income approach utilizes a projection of a reporting unit’s estimated operating results and cash flows that are discounted using a weighted-average cost of capital that reflects current market conditions. A key assumption in our fair value estimate is the weighted average cost of capital utilized for discounting our cash flow projections in our income approach. The projection uses our best estimates of economic and market conditions over the projected period including growth rates in sales, costs, estimates of future expected changes in operating margins and cash expenditures. Other significant estimates and assumptions include terminal value growth rates, future estimates of capital expenditures and changes in future working capital requirements. For additional information regarding impairment of long-lived assets, see Item 8, Note 3, "Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets" and Note 4,"Asset Impairments and Other Charges" to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The quantitative impairment test for indefinite lived trademarks compares the fair value of the trademark with the carrying value of the related trademark. If the fair value of the trademark is less than the carrying value of the trademark, an impairment charge would be recorded for the amount, if any, in which the carrying value exceeds the trademark’s fair value. We estimate fair value using the best information available, and compute the fair value using an income approach that estimates the savings that the

trademark owner would realize from owning that asset instead of having to pay rent or a royalty for the use of it. Key assumptions in our fair value estimate are the selected royalty rate and discount rate. Other significant estimates and assumptions include terminal value growth rates and future profitability expectations.

Revenue Recognition

In accordance with ASU 2014-09, "Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)" ("ASC 606"), revenue shall be recognized upon satisfaction of all contractual performance obligations and transfer of control to the customer. Revenue is measured as the amount of consideration we expect to be entitled to in exchange for corresponding goods. Substantially all of our sales are single performance obligation arrangements for retail sale transactions for which the transaction price is equivalent to the stated price of the product, net of any stated discounts applicable at a point in time. Each sales transaction results in an implicit contract with the customer to deliver a product at the point of sale. Revenue from retail sales is recognized at the point of sale, is net of estimated returns, and excludes sales and value added taxes. Revenue from catalog and internet sales is recognized at estimated time of delivery to the customer, is net of estimated returns, and excludes sales and value added taxes. Wholesale revenue is recorded net of estimated returns and allowances for markdowns, damages and miscellaneous claims when the related goods have been shipped and legal title has passed to the customer. Actual amounts of markdowns have not differed materially from estimates. Shipping and handling costs charged to customers are included in net sales. We elected the practical expedient within ASC 606 related to taxes that are assessed by a governmental authority, which allows for the exclusion of sales and value added tax from transaction price.

A provision for estimated returns is provided through a reduction of sales and cost of goods sold in the period that the related sales are recorded. Estimated returns are based on historical returns and claims. Actual returns and claims in any future period may differ from historical experience. Revenue from gift cards is deferred and recognized upon the redemption of the cards. These cards have no expiration date. Income from unredeemed cards is recognized in our Consolidated Statements of Operations within net sales in proportion to the pattern of rights exercised by the customer in future periods. We perform an evaluation of historical redemption patterns from the date of original issuance to estimate future period redemption activity.

Income Taxes

As part of the process of preparing our Consolidated Financial Statements, we are required to estimate our income taxes in each of the tax jurisdictions in which we operate. This process involves estimating actual current tax obligations together with assessing temporary differences resulting from differing treatment of certain items for tax and accounting purposes, such as depreciation of property and equipment and valuation of inventories. These temporary differences result in deferred tax assets and liabilities, which are included within our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We then assess the likelihood that our deferred tax assets will be recovered from future taxable income. Actual results could differ from this assessment if adequate taxable income is not generated in future periods. To the extent it is more likely than not that some portion or all of a deferred asset will not be realized, valuation allowances are established. To the extent valuation allowances are established or increased in a period, we include an expense within the tax provision in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. These deferred tax valuation allowances may be released in future years when we consider that it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will be realized. In making such a determination, we will need to periodically evaluate whether or not all available evidence, such as future taxable income and reversal of temporary differences, tax planning strategies, and recent results of operations, provides sufficient positive evidence to offset any other negative evidence that may exist at such time. In the event the deferred tax valuation allowance is released, we would record an income tax benefit for a portion or all of the deferred tax valuation allowance released. At February 3, 2024, we had a deferred tax valuation allowance of $44.0 million.

Income tax reserves for uncertain tax positions are determined using the methodology required by the Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Income Tax Topic, ("ASC 740"). This methodology requires companies to assess each income tax position taken using a two-step process. A determination is first made as to whether it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained, based upon the technical merits, upon examination by the taxing authorities. If the tax position is expected to meet the more likely than not criteria, the benefit recorded for the tax position equals the largest amount that is greater than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement of the respective tax position. Uncertain tax positions require determinations and estimated liabilities to be made based on provisions of the tax law which may be subject to change or varying interpretation. If our determinations and estimates prove to be inaccurate, the resulting adjustments could be material to our future financial results. See Item 8, Note 11, "Income Taxes", to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to income taxes.

Leases

We recognize lease assets and corresponding lease liabilities for all operating leases on the Consolidated Balance Sheets as described under ASU No. 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842).” We evaluate renewal options and break options at lease inception and on an ongoing basis, and include renewal options and break options that we are reasonably certain to exercise in our expected lease terms for calculations of the right-of-use assets and liabilities. Approximately 3% of our leases contain renewal options. To determine the present value of lease payments not yet paid, we estimate incremental borrowing rates corresponding to the reasonably certain lease term. As most of our leases do not provide a determinable implicit rate, we estimate our collateralized incremental borrowing rate based upon a synthetic credit rating and yield curve analysis at the lease commencement or modification date in determining the present value of lease payments. For lease payments in foreign currencies, the incremental borrowing rate is adjusted to be reflective of the risk associated with the respective currency. See Item 8, Note 9, "Leases", to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information related to leases.

ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

We incorporate by reference the information regarding market risk appearing under the heading “Financial Market Risk” in Item 7, "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations."

ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

INDEX TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Genesco Inc.

Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited Genesco Inc. and Subsidiaries’ internal control over financial reporting as of February 3, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, Genesco Inc. and Subsidiaries (the Company) maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of February 3, 2024, based on the COSO criteria.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets of Genesco Inc. and Subsidiaries as of February 3, 2024 and January 28, 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), cash flows, and equity for each of the three fiscal years in the period ended February 3, 2024, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15, and our report dated March 27, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

Nashville, Tennessee

March 27, 2024

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Genesco Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Genesco Inc. (the Company) as of February 3, 2024 and January 28, 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), cash flows and equity for each of the three fiscal years in the period ended February 3, 2024, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15 (collectively referred to as the "consolidated financial statements"). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at February 3, 2024 and January 28, 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three fiscal years in the period ended February 3, 2024, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of February 3, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) and our report dated March 27, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures include examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the account or disclosures to which it relates.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2001.

Nashville, Tennessee

March 27, 2024

Genesco Inc.

and Subsidiaries

Consolidated Balance Sheets

In Thousands, except share amounts

The accompanying Notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements.

Genesco Inc.

and Subsidiaries

Consolidated Statements of Operations

In Thousands, except per share amounts

The accompanying Notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements.

Genesco Inc.

and Subsidiaries

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss)

In Thousands, except as noted

The accompanying Notes are an integral part of these Consolidated Financial Statements.

Genesco Inc.

and Subsidiaries

Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

In Thousands