VF Corp taps Gap veteran as Dickies head in latest executive switch

VF Corp. is hiring a Gap Inc. veteran to lead its Dickies workwear brand, another in a string of leadership changes at the apparel company as it looks to bounce back from weak results. 

Chris Goble most recently was chief product officer and general manager of Gap North America. He’ll start the role at Dickies on October 14, according to a company note to employees shared with Bloomberg. 

Goble’s appointment is the ninth leadership change the company’s chief executive officer Bracken Darrell has made since he joined the company in July 2023. Darrell has replaced VF’s chief design officer and the head of the Vans brand, among other moves. Todd Dalhausser, who Goble is replacing at Dickies, moved positions about a month ago and is now the general manager of the North Face Americas. 

In an upgrade from Barclays last week, analyst Adrienne Yih pointed to VF’s leadership changes and highlighted the “significant improvements throughout the organization made over the past year.”

Dickies, which is known for items such as overalls and pants, is refocusing on workwear. Darrell said on the company’s latest earnings call that VF “moved too fast to try to turn it into a pure fashion brand here in the US.” In the US, the brand has “really struggled, because we lost our footing in our core work business,” he added. 

Dickies revenue in the three months through late June fell 15% compared with the previous year. Other brands owned by VF Corp. have also struggled, with Vans revenue falling 21% in the same period. 

VF Corp. shares are up about 1% this year, erasing a decline earlier in the year.