Welcome back, today is Thursday, October eighth, and we start with Levi's, where WWD reports the direct-to-consumer business took a hit last quarter. Levi's third-quarter direct-to-consumer sales took a hit, and WWD reports the cause was United States marketing that failed to convert, a result that puts channel strategy, rather than product, at the centre of the quarter. Earnings for the quarter still rose, per that same reporting, and chief executive Michelle Gass said the business is back on track. That pairing is what planners will parse: a hit to owned-channel sales alongside higher quarterly earnings reads as margin holding while reach does not. Industry reaction leans skeptical that a direct-to-consumer-first model can carry growth on its own, with some practitioners pointing to peer apparel and footwear revenue mixes as evidence that wholesale still does the heavy lifting on reach and volume. The recurring framing is a blend: owned channels for margin and data, wholesale for distribution. A further caution in that reaction is that one-off duty and tariff relief may have flattered the quarter more than underlying demand improved. Also today, Frasers Group has acquired an eight point seven eight percent stake in Under Armour, according to Drapers. That report says the British retailer ruled out any attempt to influence the control or governance of the American sportswear brand. A disclosed holding of that size puts Frasers on the register as a stated passive investor, the kind of minority position brand and wholesale teams track because the same company can sit on both sides of the trading relationship. Reaction largely reads the move as one more step in a serial stake-building pattern rather than a standalone investment, with several noting earlier sportswear and fashion-retail positions and framing a cash-rich balance sheet as what makes repeated minority stakes possible. A recurring undercurrent is skepticism that the stated hands-off stance will hold. Separately, an update on the Asos cyber-incident we reported yesterday. Third-party brands stocked at the etailer are reporting slow sales since Tuesday's attack, according to Drapers, which says the full damage is not yet established. That is the first measurable commercial read on the episode, and it lands as concentration risk for any label running volume through one large marketplace. Security practitioners are pushing back on how the breach is being scoped, drawing a distinction between a compromised customer account on a cloud data platform and a compromise of that platform itself. The recurring argument is that severity is being over-read while facts are still emerging, with a wider customer-database extraction flagged as the real tail risk. Now to leadership. Lululemon has named Athleta's Maggie Gauger as president, in what WWD calls a management shake-up. That report notes both activewear brands have been posting weak financial performances in recent seasons, which makes this an appointment carrying turnaround expectations rather than a routine hire, and moves senior activewear talent out of one struggling brand and into another. No financial detail sits alongside that account, so the near-term read is on the appointment itself, and on where it leaves Athleta's own leadership bench. Reaction leans toward reserved judgment rather than endorsement, with a recurring observation that the incoming product and operations leadership continues an assembly of former Nike colleagues around the new chief executive. Some read that as a bet on familiar working relationships. Others read it as an untested fix for the product problem itself. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Following our earlier report on Kering's reset, chief executive Luca de Meo told WWD the design studio is the soul of a luxury house, and called re-engineering product creation a priority for his next six months. Lacoste chief executive Éric Vallat has exited the business, with Thierry Guibert named his successor, per Drapers, citing reports. China to United States container rates are up more than three hundred and thirty percent since the war in Iran began, and WWD reports the analyst Xeneta expects a gradual easing rather than a collapse. And finally, Glossy reports that Zara's John Galliano partnership and Gap's GapStudio investment show mass-market brands building fashion credibility, with the real test being making the attention last.