“I think that we would expect or we do expect that we should start to see some gross margin benefit in the second half from lapping these aggressive actions.”

In context

“Cowen. Your line is open. John Kernan: Thank you. Good afternoon, and congrats on the momentum with the turnaround. Matt, inventory down 2% on the balance sheet I think would imply units down even further. How would you characterize inventory in the wholesale channel and the timing of when wholesale discounts I think have been a pretty sizable headwind on gross margin when will they begin to pay? Matt Friend: John, I'd say that we feel really good about where we landed on inventory this quarter. Units were down in North America, EMEA, and in Greater China. We did see an increase in units in APLA, and that's the area where we're going to focus. We're pleased with the progress that we've made and the actions that we put into place to exit Q2 and enter the second half in a healthy position. I think that we would expect or we do expect that we should start to see some gross margin benefit in the second half from lapping these aggressive actions. We are expecting to see improvement within the wholesale channel. I think our partners' inventory, we feel really good about. And what I keep saying is that the best indicator of that is the forward-looking order book. Because our partners and we have a plan together as we've been driving sell-through, as we've been investing to move through inventory and get ourselves to a healthy place. And that's ultimately so that we can create capacity in our partners open to buy for the newness and the innovation and the things that our teams are most excited about, particularly on the performance side of the business. But also some new things that we've got coming on the sportswear side, like the Haver Rover and some of the other products that we've started to see some momentum with there. So I thi”