What Carter's is changing and who it wants to reach
Carter's said Tuesday it is refreshing the brand with a new logo and marketing campaign to better connect with today's parents. Chief Marketing Officer Sarah Crockett told CNBC the 161-year-old company wants to track with shifting customer values, saying, "We recognize that the market difference of our parents in the communities that we're serving is significant," and that there was an opportunity "to really tap into the values that parents are bringing into the household."
Crockett said the plan is built around how younger families actually decide what to buy. "This provides a whole new set of tools for us to really leverage in connecting with today's parents and caregivers, and this is a large mission, a large brand promise that we will always be in pursuit of." She and CEO Sharon Price John said lifting the namesake label is also meant to boost the broader Carter's Inc. business. According to the company, the refreshed branding will begin appearing across its channels in 2026, and retail and packaging changes will follow in 2027.
Leadership, momentum, and the numbers behind the pivot
In the weeks leading up to its first-quarter 2026 results in May, Carter's said it would bring on Sharon Price John - previously the CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop - to take the helm as the company sought to regain strength. She described the past rough patch as a "natural evolution," adding, "Like any company at our scale, you're going to have a pretty standard process of evolving your retail footprint, and in many ways that's just exactly what the company's doing, which is the right thing to do." As she put it, "That is just running a business." On a late July call with analysts, she also said there was "more to be done."
The latest numbers showed some life: in Q1 2026, U.S. comparable sales increased 10.5% and net sales rose 8.1%. In June, analysts at Wells Fargo raised their rating on Carter's to hold from underweight, saying that although the retailer's performance "isn't perfect," the changes the company was putting in place were "driving fundamental improvements."
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Where Carter's sells, and why Gen Z matters so much now
Carter's biggest labels are its flagship brand and OshKosh B'gosh, sold in standalone stores across the U.S. and through partners like Walmart, Target, and Amazon. Competition in baby and kids apparel has intensified, and over the last three years Carter's shares have fallen more than 50%, leaving its market cap around $1 billion.
Even so, the customer base is changing fast. The company says Gen Z will make up a large share of new parents in the next few years, a shift it views as more dramatic than anything seen in 25 years. During its latest earnings call, Carter's reported it had added new customers, including Gen Z shoppers, with that cohort increasing by a mid-teens percentage. Crockett said Gen Z parents often let kids choose what they wear and take cues from social media and crowdsourced opinions, and the marketing will try to meet those habits.
The financial backdrop and what to watch next
For fiscal 2025, adjusted net income fell to $126.1 million from $210.7 million the year before. At the time, Palladini noted that elevated product costs, higher tariffs, and added investments "weighed meaningfully" on profitability. This year, Carter's reported receiving roughly $128 million in tariff refunds, and it expects full-year net sales to increase between 2% and 3%.
Price John and Crockett argue the refresh is about staying relevant to the next cohort of parents while lifting the whole business. If Carter's can translate the rebrand into steadier sales and new customers, that is the kind of change everyday investors will notice in results, not just headlines.
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