Web and foot traffic data for Vans shows continued strong trends, particularly from male teens, while Timberland resonates with upper-income teens.

Strong trends at Vans, and positive data points from Timberland, has some analysts rethinking the outlook for parent firm VF Corp.

Within the past week, three analysts have upgraded their view on VF.

Anna Andreeva, a managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Sandler & Co., on Tuesday upgraded shares of VF to “Overweight,” essentially the equivalent of a Buy rating. She also raised the target price for VF shares to $20.00. VF is currently trading in the $15.79 range.

Piper’s proprietary research from its Fall Teen Survey of 9,000 teens indicate that Vans ranks as a favorite footwear brand among males, coupled with direct-to-consumer data showing improvement as September foot traffic was the best since February 2023. She noted that Vans was able to maintain its No. 7 position, versus declines in the past three surveys, while Nike holds the top spot, followed by Adidas. Moreover, teen males comprise the vast majority of the brand’s customer base.

The Piper analyst also noted that the brand could be back to growth mode as “newness scales across wholesale” into the back half of the current fiscal year and fiscal year ’28. She also noted momentum in launches such as the Pearlized Yacht Club and Harris Tweed , both now largely sold out, and new product also doing well.

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