{"id":120581,"date":"2026-02-02T21:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120581\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:48:12","slug":"kristen-sosa-joins-caleres-to-oversee-new-york-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120581\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristen Sosa Joins Caleres to Oversee New York Brands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/tag\/caleres\/\" id=\"auto-tag_caleres\" data-tag=\"caleres\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Caleres<\/a> Inc. has added Kristen Sosa to its leadership team in a newly created role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSosa, a 30-year fashion and retail veteran, has been named division president of brand portfolio, New York brands. In her new role, she will report to <a href=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/footwear-news\/shoe-industry-news\/caleres-interim-cfo-saks-bankruptcy-impacts-1238485253\/\" id=\"related_article_link_caleres\" data-tag=\"caleres\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Caleres<\/a> president and CEO Jay Schmidt. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe executive will be responsible for the operations and oversight of an owned and licensed portfolio that includes Stuart Weitzman, Allen Edmonds, Franco Sarto, Vince, Veronica Beard and Favorite Daughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cKristen is a proven merchant leader with deep experience in fashion across all channels, particularly with expertise in contemporary and luxury. She has a strong track record of launching, scaling and revitalizing businesses,\u201d Schmidt said, adding that Sosa \u201cbrings the strategic focus and operational discipline needed to drive our next phase of growth\u201d at Caleres.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tMost recently, Sosa was CEO, North America at Zadig &amp; Voltaire, where she drove growth across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. She is also the former president of the Americas at Marc Jacobs, leading regional retail and wholesale strategy. Sosa was also previously the chief merchant at Olivela, helping the brand to scale the luxury e-commerce startup. Sosa began her career at Saks Fifth Avenue, rising to senior leadership roles across both the Saks Fifth Avenue and Off 5th divisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI am excited to lead these powerful brands at such an important time for Caleres,\u201d Sosa said. \u201cCaleres is a leader in fashion footwear, and its brands are positioned for growth. I look forward to working closely with the talented team to leverage my experience and drive meaningful impact.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCaleres in August also named <a data-id=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/footwear-news\/shoe-industry-news\/caleres-famous-footwear-brian-costello-division-president-1238027705\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/footwear-news\/shoe-industry-news\/caleres-famous-footwear-brian-costello-division-president-1238027705\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Costello<\/a> as its division president for Famous Footwear, reporting to Schmidt. In that same month, Caleres completed its acquisition of the <a data-id=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/footwear-news\/shoe-industry-news\/caleres-stuart-weitzman-womens-shoe-portfolio-acquisitions-1238027020\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/footwear-news\/shoe-industry-news\/caleres-stuart-weitzman-womens-shoe-portfolio-acquisitions-1238027020\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stuart Weitzman brand<\/a> from Tapestry Inc. for $108.7 million. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWhen the footwear firm posted <a data-id=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/footwear-news\/shoe-industry-news\/caleres-cal-q3-2025-earnings-dilution-stuart-weitzman-1238417817\/\" data-type=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/wwd.com\/footwear-news\/shoe-industry-news\/caleres-cal-q3-2025-earnings-dilution-stuart-weitzman-1238417817\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">third-quarter results<\/a> in December for the three months ended Nov. 1, it said that for the balance of its fiscal year, it would be working to transition the Stuart Weitzman business to Caleres\u2019 systems and clean up aged and excess inventory as it hones it strategies for long-term growth and profitability of the brand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caleres Inc. has added Kristen Sosa to its leadership team in a newly created role. Sosa, a 30-year&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[52905,52906,12925,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-120581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-caleres","tag-executive-moves","tag-human-resources","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}