Good day, and welcome to the Crocs, Inc. first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Cori Lin, VP of Corporate Finance. Please go ahead, Cori.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the Crocs, Inc. first quarter 2023 earnings call. Earlier this morning, we announced our latest quarterly results, and a copy of the press release may be found on our website at crocs.com. We would like to remind you that some of the information provided on this call is forward-looking and accordingly, is subject to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our supply chain challenges, cost inflation, the acquisition of HEYDUDE and the benefits thereof, Crocs strategy, plans, objectives, expectations, financial or otherwise, and intentions, future financial results and growth potential, anticipated product portfolio, our ability to create and deliver shareholder value, and statements regarding potential impacts to our business related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performances or achievements to materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Crocs is not obligated to update these forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of future events, except as required by applicable law. We caution you that all forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties described in the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K and our subsequent filings with the SEC. Accordingly, actual results could differ materially from those described on this call. Please refer to the Crocs annual report on Form 10-K as well as other documents filed with the SEC for more information relating to these risks factors. Certain financial measures that we refer to as adjusted or non-GAAP are non-GAAP measures.
A reconciliation of these amounts to their GAAP counterparts is contained in the press release we issued earlier this morning. Joining us on the call today are Andrew Rees, Chief Executive Officer, and Anne Mehlman, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call for your questions. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Andrew.
Thank you, Cori, good morning, everyone. I'm incredibly pleased with the strength of our brands, our first quarter results and our outlook for 2023. The Crocs and HEYDUDE brands continue to be in high demand, which led to strong double-digit revenue growth. Our teams globally are focused on driving brand health, market share gains and sustainable, profitable growth. Looking at the first quarter of 2023, Anne will review our financial results in more detail shortly, here are a few highlights. Revenues of $884 million grew 36% on a constant currency basis and grew in all brands, regions and channels. Crocs brand revenues grew 22% constant currency with growth in all regions, DTC comparable sales grew 19%. Crocs brand North America revenues grew 10%, with DTC comparable growth of 12% and wholesale growth of 5%.
HEYDUDE brand revenues were $235 million, up 15% on a pro forma basis. Adjusted gross margins of 54% and adjusted operating margins of 28% were exceptional. Adjusted diluted EPS increased 27% to $2.61 per share. For the third year in a row, Crocs was named as one of the top 10 Most Innovative Brands by Fast Company. Earlier this week, we published our second annual ESG report and the first report inclusive of the HEYDUDE brand. In summary, 2023 is off to a great start, and I would like to provide updates on the underlying health of our brands, long-term growth drivers for the Crocs brand and HEYDUDE expansion. Both of our brands are incredibly healthy, as evidenced by our results and recent external studies.
The Crocs brand ranked the number two casual footwear brand amongst women and number three amongst men in a recent LEK study of footwear and apparel brand heat. The Crocs brand ranked as the number six favorite footwear brand among teens in Piper Sandler's Spring 2023 Taking Stock With Teens survey. The brand strengthened the most amongst male teens, increasing mindshare significantly compared to prior year. The HEYDUDE brand is gaining momentum in the United States, ranking the number one casual footwear brand amongst women and men in the LEK study. In the Piper Sandler survey, the HEYDUDE brand took the number eight spot, up from the number nine spot last spring. With regards to product innovation, we recently focused on diversifying the clog silhouette.
The Echo franchise, which we launched last year, focused on a more male-centric street vibe, but also inclusive of her, has been an early global success. We are driving strong awareness with our typical marketing playbook. We have also innovated with height across many of our styles, such as the Mega Crush and the Classic Platform Flip and Slide. Styles with height resonate particularly well in Asia and are helping fuel our success in that region. Turning to sandals, this category is an important growth initiative for Crocs, allowing us to expand into the adjacent $30 billion global sandal category. Where we believe our molded technologies, accessible price points, strong go-to-market will allow us to compete effectively in a relatively fragmented market. We're excited by our incredible Q1 sandal performance, where revenues grew 65% compared to last year.
Growth was robust in all regions and was highest in EMEALA, where sandal penetration was also the greatest. Our sandal portfolio is well-diversified this year, particularly as compared to last year, like newness following the Vietnam factory closures in 2021. In our Classic franchise, the two-strap on the Slide continued to be top-selling styles in addition to the newer introduction of the Classic Cozzzy. New introductions in the Brooklyn franchise, including the buckle and the flip, as well as the new Mega Crush and Crush sandals. The All-Terrain sandal and the Echo Slide are also performing above expectations. We're also testing dozens of new styles this year, we'll leverage our test of learn and speed capabilities to expand their opportunities in the future. To drive sandal awareness and acquisition, we have a robust marketing calendar this year.
During Q1, activations focused on the classic sandal and the new opening price point Splash franchise. Recently, the Brooklyn sandal was featured on the Today Show in the best-selling fashion finds for spring summer segment. Overall, we're pleased with the sandal trajectory over the past three quarters with the average growth of over 45%, and we're confident the sandal revenues will grow to approximately $400 million this year. Asia is another important long-term growth driver for the Crocs brand, as the brand is currently under penetrated relative to the penetration here in the United States. In Q1, Asia revenues grew by 55% constant currency, and growth was broad-based. We're particularly encouraged by the green shoots we're seeing in China, where we continue to invest in marketing, newness, and digital during the pandemic. Q1 revenues grew over 110% constant currency in China.
The Crush Clog was the only footwear brand to win the 2022 Best New Products Launch Award by Tmall. The Crocs brand had the best Q1 growth on Tmall in China amongst leading footwear and apparel brands. Outside of China, we're pleased with the brand momentum throughout the region, including India, South Korea, and Australia. Turning to digital, another key Crocs brand growth driver. As the digital marketplace matures and our capabilities grow, we anticipate transitioning some of our e-tail business that sits in our wholesale segment to a direct digital sale, both across crocs.com and on major marketplaces, where we will sell directly to the consumer. Global e-tailers are also clearly attempting to manage their inventories more closely. The combination of these factors, we believe, will long-term be very accretive for both brands as we have more brand control, higher ASP realization, and higher gross margins.
Now to HEYDUDE. We're incredibly pleased with the first year of the acquisition. The financial contribution of HEYDUDE exceeded our expectations with brand revenues of nearly $1 billion, EPS accretion, and significant debt pay down in the first year. The foundation is strong as we enter our second year with the brand. With respect to our go-to-market strategy, we've successfully penetrated Crocs strategic accounts, which currently represent approximately 50% of HEYDUDE's wholesale business. We quickly achieved top five casual brand status in North America family footwear accounts such as Rack Room and Famous Footwear. To focus our efforts, we will continue to prioritize these strategic accounts that can elevate the brand's position. We recently took steps to rationalize non-strategic accounts that were not adequately supporting the brand.
From a product perspective, we introduced several new styles as we test and learn what resonates with the consumer. As we seek to expand the brand beyond the iconic Wally and Wendy, several recent introductions have been in the casual sneaker category. The Karina for women and the newly introduced are top-selling styles on heydude.com, and we have early signs of success for the Cody, Conway, and Sunapee. The initial expansion into international is also on track. From a strategy perspective, we plan to go market in the same way as Crocs. Meaning if we are direct in a country with Crocs, we will be direct with HEYDUDE. This year, we plan to test and learn in EMEALA with a few direct markets, U.K., Germany, and the Netherlands, and a few distributor markets.
Our efforts began earlier this month when we shipped our first HEYDUDE e-commerce orders out of our Netherlands distribution center and launched on Amazon. We will continue to provide updates on our progress. With respect to the integration this year, we have two significant initiatives underway, namely implementing ERP and building a new distribution center in Las Vegas. We anticipate these to be complete towards the end of the year. Both are significant investments required to support the growth of a billion-dollar plus brand. We're excited about the progress we have made and the bright future for the HEYDUDE brand. In summary, we have tremendous confidence in and clear evidence as to the underlying strength and growth potential of both the Crocs and HEYDUDE brands. Remain cautious relative to the consumer confidence in Western markets and anticipate declining traffic patterns through the year.
Sell-through for both of our brands continues to be robust, and we believe we are benefiting from our democratic price points. Amidst a more challenging economic landscape, we believe we are well-positioned to gain share. I will now turn the call over to Anne, who will review our first quarter financial results in more detail.
Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone. I will begin with a short recap of our first quarter results. All revenue growth rates will be cited on a constant currency basis unless otherwise stated. For a reconciliation of the non-GAAP amounts mentioned to their equivalent GAAP amounts, please refer to this morning's press release. As Andrew outlined, we had an exceptional first quarter, with $884 million in consolidated revenues, representing 36.2% growth. We delivered another quarter of top-tier profitability with adjusted gross margin of 54.2%, adjusted operating margin of 27.9%, and adjusted diluted EPS growth of 27.3%. I will now detail our revenue highlights, beginning with the Crocs brand. During the first quarter, we sold 30.7 million pairs of shoes, an increase of 19.7% over last year.
The Crocs brand average selling price during Q1 was $21, which was up 2.1% on a constant currency basis, driven by fewer discounts in Asia and improved pricing in EMEALA. ASP declined 0.5% on a reported basis due to unfavorable FX. The addition of HEYDUDE has diversified our product portfolio. For Q1, clogs penetration was just over half of our total revenues. The casual silhouettes of HEYDUDE constituted 27% of total revenues, and Crocs brand sandals were approximately 12% of total revenues. From a Crocs brand perspective, clogs continued to exhibit double-digit growth this quarter. As Andrew mentioned, sandals, an important growth pillar for the future, increased 65% in Q1 with growth in all regions. Finally, Jibbitz continues to create excitement and engagement with consumers globally, growing strong double digits from last year.
Let's review a few Crocs brand highlights by region. In North America, the Crocs brand remains very healthy. First quarter revenues increased 10.3% to $351 million. The North America DTC channel for the Crocs brand, an indicator of underlying consumer demand, was the key growth driver, with DTC comparable sales up 12% on top of 18% comparable sales growth in the first quarter of 2022. Wholesale revenues increased 6%. The wholesale revenue increase is also evidence that sell-in and sell-out are beginning to normalize as we had anticipated to occur during the first half. International was again the largest growth driver for the Crocs brand in Q1 as we execute on our long-term growth plan to ignite the brand in Asia and EMEALA. International represented 46% of Crocs brand revenues in the quarter.
Crocs brand revenues in Asia grew 54.8% to $140 million during the first quarter. Growth was broad-based across countries and channels. China and Australia led the growth, with revenues growing in excess of 110%, while Southeast Asia markets and South Korea also had exceptional growth. Crocs brand revenues for EMEALA were $157 million, growing 25.1% with broad-based growth. Momentum has been building in several important markets with Q1 revenues increasing strong double digits driven by the U.K., France, and Germany amidst a very uncertain consumer backdrop. Turning to HEYDUDE, revenues were $235 million, increasing 106% compared to the partial period in Q1 2022, and 15% on a pro forma basis.
The DTC channel, which is predominantly e-commerce, led the growth with revenues increasing 141.1% versus last year. Digital penetration increased 420 basis points to 30.1%. As Andrew noted, the consumer love for the HEYDUDE brand is exceptional, and we remain confident about realizing the full potential the Crocs playbook will have on the brand. Consolidated adjusted gross margins for the first quarter were 54.2%, increasing 30 basis points from last year. Favorability in freight rates were partly offset by higher product costs, higher end-of-season clearance, and the addition of the HEYDUDE brand. Currency negatively impacted consolidated gross margins by approximately 85 basis points. End of season clearance was more normalized this year, as last year inventory was extremely lean following the Vietnam shutdown.
Before I provide gross margin detail by brand, we will now disclose distribution and logistics costs that are reported within our cost of goods sold. This is to provide greater transparency and enable better comparison of our gross margins to many peers who report these costs in SG&A. For the first quarter, distribution and logistics costs totaled $105.1 million or 12% of total revenues. Excluding these costs, our gross margins are exceptional and are one of the structural advantages of our business model that contribute to our industry-leading operating margins. Turning to the brands. Adjusted gross margin for the Crocs brand was 66.3% or 140 basis points higher than prior year.
The significant improvement in freight of nearly 600 basis points included reduced air freight of approximately 450 basis points, was partly offset by the impact of higher end of season clearance of approximately 140 basis points and inflationary cost pressures of approximately 70 basis points. Currency negatively impacted margins by 115 basis points. HEYDUDE adjusted gross margins were 49.6% as we start to see a reduction in inbound freight rates. As we noted at year-end, we expect HEYDUDE gross margins to sequentially improve over the course of the year as the effective cost from legacy freight contracts that take time to roll through the P&L and higher inventory storage costs in the short term subside.
During the first quarter of 2023, we leveraged consolidated adjusted SG&A 100 basis points, improving to 26.3% of revenues versus 27.3% last year. This improvement was achieved while still investing in talent and marketing for both brands. Our first quarter adjusted operating income increased 40.8% to $247 million from last year. Consolidated adjusted operating margin increased 130 basis points to 27.9%. Our first quarter non-GAAP diluted earnings per share increased 27.3% to $2.61. Our liquidity position remains strong as we ended the first quarter with $126 million of cash and cash equivalents and ample capacity on a revolving credit facility.
We were paid $41 million of debt in the quarter, reducing borrowings to $2.28 billion. At the end of Q1, adjusted gross leverage was approximately 2.1x and net leverage was approximately 2x. We are confident in our ability to achieve gross leverage under 2x by the middle of this year. Our inventory balance at March 31st, 2023 was $476 million, an increase of 16.8% versus Q1 last year. Crocs brand inventory was $318 million, up 10.3%, and HEYDUDE inventory was $158 million, up 32.6%. Our higher inventory balance reflects higher revenue growth and higher costs within inventory.
As we look forward, I would like to share our current outlook for the second quarter and the balance of 2023. All numbers will be on a reported basis unless otherwise stated. For Q2, we expect consolidated revenues to grow approximately 6%-9% at current currency rates as we lap a high Q2 wholesale growth rate in 2022 related to the Vietnam shutdowns in the prior year. We expect Q2 adjusted operating margin to be approximately 26% and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.83-$2.98.
With our Q1 performance, we are raising our full- year 2023 revenue outlook and expect growth of 11%-14% on a reported basis compared to 2022, resulting in full-year revenues of approximately $3.95 billion-$4.05 billion at current currency rates. Revenue for the Crocs brand we now expect to grow 7%-9% on a reported basis. We expect the highest growth internationally driven by robust consumer demand. For HEYDUDE, we are maintaining our full- year outlook of mid 20% revenue growth on a reported basis. As always, we are focused on best-in-class profitability and now see our adjusted operating margin to be between 26%-27% for the full year.
We are raising our adjusted diluted earnings per share outlook to be between approximately $11.17-$11.73. In summary, 2023 is off to an excellent start and we look forward to another record-setting year. At this time, I'll turn the call back over to Andrew for his final thoughts.
Thank you, Anne. As we look forward, we're incredibly confident in the strengths of the Crocs and HEYDUDE brands and our ability to drive market share gains and sustainable, profitable growth. Our focus remains squarely on navigating current uncertainties and creating long-term shareholder value. Operator, please open the call for questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Thank you. Our first question comes from Abbie Zvejnieks from Piper Sandler. Abbie, please go ahead.
Much for taking my question. Just on that 2Q guide, can you just talk about what trends you're seeing maybe quarter to date, especially in wholesale? I know you noted that, more difficult compare, and I guess why you expect a deceleration, in Crocs brand revenue. Give us a little bit more color on that, operating margin, year-over-year decline of about 400 basis points in 2Q, and like, which buckets we should expect to see that deleverage. Thanks.
Hi, Abbie. Good morning. Your first question on Q2. We, as we guided, we expect consolidated revenues to grow 6%-9% at current currency rates, and that's as we lap a high Q2 wholesale growth rate in 2022 really related to the Vietnam shutdown. If you remember back to last year, we had a pretty big Q2 because we had very low inventories in Q1. That's really the shift there. Overall, we don't talk a lot about what we're seeing in quarter, but I will say we're pretty pleased with what we're seeing out of sell-through from both brands in our wholesale channel at this point in time.
From a Q2 operating margin perspective, if you also remember back to last year, we had just purchased the HEYDUDE brand and hadn't had a lot of time to put investment behind that. The first piece is SG&A is ramping up quite a bit from last year because we didn't have the SG&A that we have now to support HEYDUDE. The second piece is that Q2 is a big marketing quarter for us, you will see marketing ramp. I do expect SG&A to deleverage year-over-year from a Q2 perspective.
Got it. Maybe one more. Just on the capital allocation strategy once you hit that 2x gross leverage target. I mean, what is your priority on debt paydown versus buybacks, I guess, given the share price? Thank you.
Yes. We're recommitted to hitting below 2x gross leverage in Q2, which then gives us flexibility, as you mentioned, to both pay down debt and restart share repurchases. You know, we generate a lot of free cash flow, and we're committed to doing both. Obviously, debt pay down is, you know, very important, where our long-term leverage guide is to be below 1x to 1.5x gross. You know, and with interest rates the way they are, it makes a lot of sense to continue to pay down debt, but we'll also prioritize buying back shares if it makes sense from an overall return perspective.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, Abbie.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jonathan Komp from Baird. Jonathan, please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Good morning. Maybe just a little bit of a follow-up first, if I could. Anne, could I follow up and ask about what you're expecting for Crocs DTC performance, largely because, you know, there's been a lot of volatile U.S.-focused indicators the last couple of months, so any additional color there would be helpful on the DTC trends you're expecting. Andrew, maybe just a broader question on the core clogs business and, you know, largely North America-focused. Are you seeing any signs that the core clog business should give back some of the volume gains you've had the last few years as you focus more on sandals and other categories?
Yeah. Let me, maybe just I'll hit both of those for you, Jonathan. If you think about DTC, obviously DTC performance was very strong in both brands in Q1. That was probably a, you know, a little bit better than we expected. I would say, look, we're seeing great traffic trends. We're seeing great traffic trends to Crocs stores, Crocs website, and HEYDUDE digital presence. I think that gives us tremendous confidence that our brands are in demand and consumers are seeking them out in a single-branded environment. We think those compares probably get harder as the year goes on. You know, we do anticipate consumer softening as the year goes on. I think we saw a little bit of softening as quarter one went along.
You know, we're not necessarily baking the same performance we had in Q1 into the rest of our year. I think that's only prudent. Clogs growth perspective, I would say that's been somewhat of a highlight, right? The way to think about it is we continue to see classic growth around the world as we continue to get classic penetration in many of our international markets. We're also putting a lot of time and effort into diversifying the clog portfolio. I'd call out in particular the Echo. I think many of you have seen that in U.S. retail, U.S. wholesale accounts. It's performing particularly well here in the U.S. and in fact, globally.
And then we've also I would also call out, some of our height clogs, right? The, the Crush and the Mega Crush performing particularly well, in Asia, where height is super important. Clogs continue to be a, you know, I say a long-term growth story for us, but there is definitely driving more diversification into that core product offering.
Great. Great. Just one follow-up on Q2 modeling, if I could. Anne, should we expect the SG&A growth to be similar or maybe at a faster rate in Q2? Any further color there? Given the mix and continued improvements in freight, should we expect a similarly positive gross margin performance in Q2?
Yes. I'll start with gross margin. Yes, we expect that gross margin will be up year-over-year in Q2 on an adjusted basis. I think, you know, as we talked about, we expect to see HEYDUDE improve throughout the year. You know, as we see some of that higher freight rates roll off in inventory. You know, we're comping, you know, pretty big air freight spend last year, you know, we don't have this year. Those are all tailwinds from a gross margin perspective. I think actually, you know, from Q1 perspective, gross margin, you know, performed a little bit better than what we expected. Some of that was DTC mix, but also some pullback in discounting and better pricing in our overseas markets.
From an SG&A standpoint, we do expect, as I mentioned before, SG&A to ramp into Q2. I think Q2 tends to be one of our higher SG&A spend quarters just given the marketing that we, you know, put behind the brand in Q2 into our summer months.
Excellent. Very, very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Jonathan.
Our next question comes from Tom Nikic from Wedbush Securities. Tom, please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Want to, you know, follow up on HEYDUDE. You know, I know obviously you had exceptional growth in 2022. 15% pro forma in Q1 seems a, you know, a bit more modest than, you know, what you had been growing in recent quarters. You know, particularly with the, you know, distribution gains and getting into new doors and stuff like that, you know, I guess we kind of would have expected sort of stronger growth. Was there anything? Was it, you know, kinda parsing out some of the legacy doors that's kinda, you know, holding back HEYDUDE growth or anything like that? Just kinda trying to understand the puts and takes at HEYDUDE.
Yeah, great question, Tom. I would say, look, there's a lot going on at HEYDUDE, so let me try and kind of add a little bit more color to that. Firstly, I'd say we're super confident in our kinda mid-twenties growth rate that we've guided for the brand, for the full year. I would say, as we look at the brand trajectory, during the quarter, we're also very pleased with that, right? We're seeing increasing consumer awareness, both through our broader distribution, but also our marketing efforts. We continue to see tremendous customer loyalty from existing customers. I think a statistic we've talked about in the past is the average customer has four pairs in their closet, and we clearly see when we attract new customers, they buy incremental pairs relatively quickly.
We see great improve in awareness for the brand. We see consumer affinity, and we're pleased with our sell-throughs, both on our DTC environment and also in the wholesale environment. As we had talked about in the past, we are constrained, right? We're constrained with our distribution center and all of our kinda logistics capabilities through this year. We did anticipate a slowing of the growth, hence our mid-20s guide for the full year and obviously a little bit slower in Q1. We're definitely constrained. We're making significant investments to relieve those constraints, but they won't come online until the back end of the year and probably won't have an effect until next year.
The other thing that's also important to bear in mind as you look to future quarters is that we had significant pipeline fill. We opened a lot of big national accounts last year in Q2 and Q3. When you open up big national accounts and you pipeline fill, you know, 400, 500, 600 doors, that's a significant amount of volume that you don't anniversary the following year. You've also got to take that into consideration in Q2 and Q3. The last thing I'd say is, you did reference it in your question, the closure of the small, the smaller customers, right? We've, you know, we're rationalizing our customer base. The original owners of HEYDUDE and the agents they use for distribution opened a lot of very small accounts.
We've rationalized a significant number of them. I think you've seen some of that in the press. That's not a significant drag on the revenue this quarter or for the rest of the year. It's a very small amount of money, but it does mean that we focus all of our time and attention on our big leadership accounts, which we think will do a much better job supporting and elevating the brand. Hopefully that gives you some real color about what's going on with HEYDUDE.
That's helpful. Thanks, Andrew, and best of luck the rest of the year.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Jeff Lick from B. Riley Financial. Jeff, please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on the quarter. I just was hoping you could give a little more color on China and India, how it unfolded and relative to what your expectations were. Just a little micro question on HEYDUDE. I was just wondering what your data shows in terms of the indexing in different geographies of the country. Obviously, the brand's always been a little hotter in the middle of the country, and I'm just kind of wondering what inning you think it is on the coasts.
Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate it. Let me start with China and India. I think in our prepared remarks, we called out China had over 110% growth in the quarter. Additionally, we called out that We got an award from Tmall, which we're really pleased to get with the launch of our Crush product. There was an award associated with, you know, one of the most effective awards that sorry, launches of a new product, an integrated marketing program that we put together. We saw exceptional growth on Tmall. The key part of your question was, is it a little bit better or worse than we thought? It's better than we thought, right?
You know, we've been investing in China through the pandemic. We've invested in marketing. We've strengthened our team. We really kinda kept our foot on the gas, even when the business performance was not what we expected. As the country is opening up, the consumer is back out shopping, we're seeing very strong performance really across all our channels, on our own digital channels on Tmall, in the stores that we own and also in our partner-operated kinda mono-branded franchise stores. Definitely doing better than we thought, and we're really excited because obviously it's a big market, and we think that has a lot of future potential. India also continues to be strong. That's a good market, a very good market for us.
We continued a very strong trajectory in that marketplace. We're pleased with that. As we think about Asia broadly, we're also seeing strong performance in continued strong performance in South Korea and Australia. Turning to HEYDUDE in the U.S., the pattern that we see. Look, this data is not easy to come by, I'm gonna be sort of qualitative in nature. We definitely see, you know, much stronger brand awareness and brand resonance in the, sort of the heartland of the brand, which is sort of all down through the Midwest, down through Texas, into Douglas, down into Florida. That's the heartland of the brand that has the highest awareness, that has the highest kind of consumer resonance.
As we've expanded distribution to the coast, we're definitely seeing pretty significant improvements in brand awareness, purchasing and brand relevance on the coasts. It's off a very low base, right? You know, the brand awareness on the coast was single digits, mid-single digits. It's now, you know, a lot better than that, but it's still very low. We think we're doing the right things. We think we're on the right path. That still represents, you know, a significant future opportunity.
Great. Congrats and, good luck on, Q2.
Thank you.
We now have a question from Jay Sole from UBS. Jay, please go ahead.
Great. Thank you so much. I wanted to ask about the HEYDUDE margins. In Q1, you pointed out that the adjusted gross margin was about 49.6%, and the operating margin was 32.6%. As you work on the ERP implementation and the new distribution center, and presumably the DTC percentage of the business increases, how would you expect, you know, those numbers to trend, you know, going forward?
Yes. I think, you know, one thing on the distribution center is our distribution center is more of a support from a wholesale side. We do have some actual a little bit easier time servicing some of our DTC business. It's still hard because things still have to move through that, but we do use some outside 3PL support for DTC. I actually expect, you know, DTC to continue to outperform for HEYDUDE as well. You know, that's on the e-com side is performing really well, and we are opening up a few retail stores from an outlet perspective for HEYDUDE this year that will look similar to Crocs. We're, Jay, pretty excited and pleased from a DTC side for HEYDUDE and Crocs as well.
Got it. Okay. If I can ask just one more, just to follow up on China a little bit. Obviously, huge growth in China this quarter. Maybe you can tell us what the China growth was last quarter? Obviously, store closures probably impacted that. Maybe just somehow dimensionalize what the dollar sales were in China this quarter and, you know, what you're really expecting for the year from China?
Yeah, I mean, I can give you for the year, Jay. I don't really have the quarters right here in front of me, but I think China for the year grew around 30% last year. That was much more back-half weighted because the way to think about the sort of the impact of the lockdowns in China, they were most severe in Q2, right? There were constraints in Q1, but the depth of the lockdowns were in Q2. China grew about 30% last year, round numbers. Then obviously this is, you know, significant growth on top of that, but the growth was muted in Q1.
Yeah. If you look at, you know, 2023 versus, 2021, like, on a two-year basis, we're still upwards of 85% growth in a reported and in a constant, like, 95% growth. Even on a two-year basis, the growth in China is very, very strong.
Yeah.
Taking out some of the noise of the lockdowns.
Yeah. We don't, we don't break out dollars associated with China. you know, we're giving you kind of, you know, really high growth rates, but I would say the dollars are still, you know, way below what we think our potential is. We think we've got a long way to go in China.
Got it. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Jay.
Our next question comes from Laura Champine from Loop. Laura, please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. My understanding is that Q2 operating margins are usually better than Q1. When's the last time they were worse? Maybe tell us what's special about. It sounds like it's SG&A expense that's gonna push EBIT margin lower sequentially. Can you be more specific about what's driving that?
Hi, Laura, it's Anne. I think normally our gross margins are lower in Q1 because of the mix of wholesale in Q1, which is a heavy wholesale quarter, which will hold true this year as well. Q2 will have higher gross margins. It's really from an SG&A perspective. What's really driving from a Q2 perspective is just again, the investment in HEYDUDE. Q1, you know, we're still ramping into Q2 from an investment standpoint, from a HEYDUDE standpoint as we're adding. That will be an add to that on the SG&A side for HEYDUDE. Also, adding, we always increase marketing for both brands into Q2 as that's a really important season from a revenue growth perspective, and it's a higher DTC quarter, there is more SG&A associated with it.
Overall, you know, feel very comfortable with our, you know, 26% operating margin, still best in class, and then raising the year to 26%-27%.
Got it. Thank you.
Thanks, Laura.
Our next question comes from Jim Duffy from Stifel. Jim, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. First question is on the guide. You've given us a full- year guide by brand. How do you expect the growth splits by brand in the second quarter?
Yeah. I think, you know, we expect both brands to grow in the second quarter. You know, it's hard to give a guide by quarter because things are still lumpy from a quarter perspective by brand. Feel confident in the overall revenue growth, and I think, we'll see growth from both brands in Q2.
Okay. Then can you give us an update on the state of HEYDUDE inventory? Have you cleared through that legacy product that you were referencing in the second half of last year? Yeah, how do you feel about the current inventory positions for the HEYDUDE brand?
I think we feel good, Jim, about our inventory. Really it's important to kind of focus on two components. One is our in-market inventories. I think we're well-positioned in market with good inventories in many of our leading strategic wholesale customers. Our inventory is turning, it's performing well. In terms of the inventory that we hold, that I would say we're in good shape relative to our future growth. Our quantum of inventory, we think puts us in good shape relative to future growth and any legacy inventory we're working through pretty quickly. We feel good about where we are, and we think we're on a track trajectory here to get that dealt with pretty quickly this year.
Great. Thank you. Then I have a few more I'll save for the follow-up session. One last one. Andrew, you mentioned a little bit of softening as Q1 progressed. We've seen some glimpses of spring weather. Has that brought any lift to the business in recent weeks?
Yeah. I mean, we don't really comment kind of in, you know, in season. I would say, look, I think it's been widely reported. You know, March was kind of tough from a weather perspective, and that it did impact some of our kind of large national wholesale customers. That was clearly an issue, I think in Q1. You know, look, tax season was not great either, right? That's the, that's the tax refund season when obviously a lot of refunds come out and people typically kind of spend that. That wasn't as strong as it's been in prior years as well. That's kind of what I was referencing to.
I think we've gone through, you know, a couple of weeks now with an Easter shift, so I don't think it's crystal clear what's going on through April. You know, I think we're pretty confident in the traffic that we're seeing to our, you know, our mono-branded environment. We clearly can tell that our brands are very strong.
Thank you.
We have a question from Mitch Kummetz from Seaport. Mitch, please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for taking my questions. Andrew, you mentioned that sandals were up 65% in the quarter. Could you maybe speak to the sell-in versus sell-through? You know, how much of this was, you know, shipping in your spring order book versus, you know, good performance once that product hit retail or, you know, in your own direct channel?
In a nutshell, what I'd say is both, Mitch. Let me kind of break that out a bit. Yes, you're absolutely right. Q1 is a big sell-in quarter, especially for sandals, both here in the U.S. and kind of on a global basis, right? You know, a large amount of that high growth, the 65%, is wholesale sell-in. I would also say that sell-through, we've been very pleased with sell-through, both on our DTC environments and also the sell-through we can monitor with our wholesale customers. We believe, all of the newness that we're bringing to our sandal category, is really driving. The marketing we're doing to support it is really driving, you know, strong growth in the category.
I would also point out that if we looked at the last three quarters, so once we got past the void of newness that we had in quarters one and two of last year, the last three quarters, I think 45% is our three-quarter sandal growth number. That is in essence, both sell-in and sell-through. It's really both. This is an important growth driver for the Crocs brand, and I think we're seeing some real success in this category.
Okay. That's helpful. I guess secondly, on the HEYDUDE business, Andrew, you mentioned, you know, momentum in some newer franchise and newer styles. I was hoping you might be able to, you know, tell us, like, what percent of the business is the Wally and the Wendy and, you know, beyond those, like, what would be the next, you know, bigger styles and how important are those to the business right now?
Look, we don't break out the Wally, Wendy penetration, but it's large, right? You can see that just going to any of our wholesale customers. You look at our website. The brand is anchored around those core silhouettes. Those core silhouettes, Wally and Wendy, you know, really typify what the consumer is looking for in the brand. They're easy on and off, they're lightweight, they're comfortable, and they come in a wide variety of materials, styles, and colors. Give the customer tremendous diversity and choice. They are, you know, a large part of the business and will continue to be a large part of the business. Us introducing new styles in new areas is by no means trying to back away from the Wally and Wendy. That's super important.
You know, the introductions we've made in a what I would call kind of this casual sneaker arena have been really successful. They're still small to date, but sell-throughs are high and they're performing very well. We think that's important for the brand because that's a very large category. You know, if we look at sort of casual sneakers, that's a very large addressable market.
All right. Thanks. Good luck.
Our next question is coming from Aubrey Tianello from BNP Paribas. Aubrey, please go ahead.
Morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Just one for me on gross margin. Curious if anything has changed with respect to the full- year outlook. I think you mentioned last call, we should be thinking about 58% for the Crocs brand and then about 55%-55.5% on a consolidated basis. Is that still the right way to think about it?
Yeah. Morning. Great question. I think actually it's gonna be on the higher end of that. I would say consolidated adjusted gross margins I would expect to be more in the...
Approximately 55.5%. That's really supported, we saw better gross margins in Q1. Rolling that through the year really supports that 26%-27% adjusted operating margin. Just as we saw better, you know, freight costs from a HEYDUDE perspective in Q1, as well as, better DTC performance and pricing overseas on the Crocs side.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
We have a question from Hale Holden from Barclays. Hale, please go ahead.
Thank you. The new HEYDUDE silhouettes are pretty exciting, and I was wondering, if you could talk about, you know, consumer interest in them 'cause they seem like they're slightly higher price points than the Wally and Wendy, and your ability to get incremental shelf space at your wholesale partners forum.
Yeah. I think, Yes, but it's not happened yet. The short answer is yes, we will get incremental shelf space based on them, but it's not significant yet, right? With these new introductions, the way we kind of approach this is we really wanna launch them on our own channels. It's really the strongest presentation around Karina, you know, the Cody, the Conway, and the Sunapee, which some of the new silhouettes is on DTC, where they've been performing very well. There are select kinda leading wholesale accounts that have those. I would say the bulk of the deliveries for those to wholesale will be later in the summer to back to school.
I would also say, look into the future, we had a very strong boot season in the HEYDUDE brand last year. We make a lightweight, I would say, democratically priced, very comfortable boot. It performed very well. That was mainly legacy product, and we've done significant updates and improvements to that, and we're very optimistic about our boot season for the back end of this year too.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Hale.
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Andrew Rees for any closing remarks.
Thank you. I just wanna thank everybody for listening in this morning and their interest in our company. We appreciate the questions. Thank you.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.