A Challenged Luxury Shoe Business Is Bracing for Major Impact Ahead of Probable Saks Global Bankruptcy

A Saks Global bankruptcy would have a significant impact on independent luxury shoe designers and fashion houses that derive a large percentage of sales from the footwear category.

“In some cases, footwear represents 40 percent to 50 percent of the designers’ businesses,” said Gary Wassner, CEO of Hilldun Corp., the factoring firm that works with many of the luxury brands and designers who sell to the retail banners Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.

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According to Wassner, these companies will feel the impact in one of two ways. “They’re either going to get hurt because they’re owed money and are not secured by us or by someone else, or they’re going to get hurt because they have the inventory that they couldn’t ship. There are very few people who are in this industry [at] this [luxury] price point that are not going to be affected,” he said.

So far, few shoe executives have been willing to speak on the record about the situation, but off-the-record conversations in recent weeks revealed that Saks Global’s deteriorating health has been a huge worry on top of higher production costs in Italy, the tariff situation and a fickle luxury footwear consumer.

Saks Fifth Avenue stocks shoes from a wide range of designer brands, from luxury to contemporary, that include Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Gianvito Rossi, Gucci, Loewe, Michael Kors, Miu Miu, Moon Boot, Prada, Stuart Weitzman and Tory Burch, to name a few. They also sell sneakers from Asics, Veja, Golden Goose and Common Projects, among others.

Many names on the Saks list are also sold at Neiman Marcus and at Bergdorf Goodman. And outside of the core banners there’s also Saks Off 5th and two nameplates from the Neiman umbrella, Last Call and Horchow.

The bigger brands with larger distribution channels and operations at other retailers, including Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s, will fare better than the smaller brands that don’t have as many retail accounts. A number of brands have also ramped up their focus on the Middle East market for the spring ’26 season.

Of course, there’s been much concern over the integration of Neiman Marcus Group into the Saks operation since its $2.7 billion acquisition — which included Bergdorf Goodman — in December 2024.

Since then, there’s also been a slow down in purchases by the luxury consumer, mostly in reaction to the backdrop of economic uncertainty. That uncertainty has given way to stock market volatility — always a measure of how consumers feel about their pocketbooks and personal balance sheets — and lack of clarity for much of 2025 over U.S. President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariff plan, resulting in continued inflationary pressures and concern over other global hiccups.