Be the best for our brands and ultimately I think not in the best interest of our shareholders. So we’re going to walk that line very closely. We feel good about the operating margin expansion that we can deliver next year. At the same time, we know we fundamentally know that our brands need a greater level of investment behind product innovation, modern demand creation. And then we’ve got some tools that need to be updated. We have to update our e-commerce platform is very old. It’s hard for our consumers to engage. It’s hard for our teams to manage. So there are some fundamental investments that we need to make as an organization that are prudent in the long-term best interest of the company. As it relates to Merrell and Saucony, and then I’ll turn it back to Mike to talk a little bit about Sweaty Betty because you have some specific questions on growth and then he can sort of put a finer point on the operating margin question.
Those brands operate in 2 different categories. Performance run both in the last quarter and trailing 12 months, that run category is up. In fact, one of the best performing categories in the U.S. as NPD tracks it. In fact, I think dress is only slightly better off of a much, much smaller base and coming off of lots of headwinds related to the pandemic. So Saucony is just playing in a different category. And that is heavily dictated by brand heat and then product introductions. And like I said, I think the product pipeline for the first half of the year for Saucony probably wasn’t as strong as we needed it to be. We’ve made some decisions around exiting some core franchises that I think are in the long-term best interest of Saucony. But I think the product pipeline wasn’t as strong.
And then Saucony is such a great, fantastic authentic running brand. We drop a really good shoe to Triumph 21 in the mid part of the year, and we see some green shoots to growth. And like I said before, I think there’s reasons to believe next year from a Saucony standpoint as it relates to the product pipeline. Ultimately for us, it’s how do we sort of win back greater share of mind and share of closet with that consumer, given how competitive it is. On the flip side, Merrell is operating in the toughest as NPD tracks at Merrell is operating the single toughest category. Outdoor has been down double digits for the past year, and that puts a lot of pressure. We can’t, however, just say there’s category headwinds and sort of call it a day. We have to build more resilient durable brands that are more elastic that can play beyond just 1 single category that allow us to endure the inevitable storms that will come.
And that comes down to us growing into categories like trail run, which we are seeing some really good green shoots. The Merrell Test Lab has been a fantastic product innovation incubator. The Agility Peak 5 out of the gate is very strong. We’re excited about that. And then there are some new lifestyle products. We launched a wrapped collection, which is essentially a barefoot casual shoe with almost no fanfare at merrell.com over the summer and 83% sellout with her actually buying more than him. So how our ability to sort of move beyond the Moab, move beyond core outdoor is going to be critical to Merrell’s success in the long term. So again, I think sometimes we paint with big broad strokes to say what’s happening at Wolverine when in reality we have to go a couple of layers deeper and say what’s happening in Saucony, what’s happening in their channel, what’s happening in their category, what’s happening in Merrell, what’s happening in their channel?
And then it’s different by the world, too. I spent a lot of time talking to international partners, and they still feel the Merrell brand is very strong. I think they feel good about the product pipeline. We’re just going through some challenges right now as it relates to the category. But ultimately, we have to do a better job building beyond that core business. So we’re not just dependent upon tailwinds. And then over to Mike to answer some of the Sweaty Betty-specific questions.
Michael Stornant: Sure. The Sweaty Betty growth in Q3, Mauricio, we had a strong wholesale performance in Q3 versus the prior year. Some of that was really because of some timing issues we actually had a year ago in transitioning that business. So there’s a flip between Q3 and Q4 on the wholesale side that’s affecting those growth rates in each quarter. The other thing I’d say about Q4 for Sweaty Betty is slightly lowered DTC business, but much healthier, much less promotional business than a year ago. We are working through excess inventory in Q4 in Sweaty Betty a year ago, but the gross margin performance for the brand in Q4 this year is much better, much healthier. And despite a little bit of top line pressure, I think the right outcome for the business here in the back half of the year.
The only thing I’d add to the 12% comments that Chris mentioned is we are definitely reevaluating not just the magnitude of reinvestment, but the different areas that are going to require it. Sometimes we talk about reinvestment in terms of demand creation and innovation, but there’s some fundamental things that we’re investing into, and we mentioned some of those new planning processes, new PLM systems and certainly the platforms for our e-comm business. So that the extent of that is still being evaluated, but the timing is really critical that we’re not going to phase those out, and we’re going to get after those early in the year. We’re going to make sure that we give ourselves the lead time we need to get those things in place so that we can see the benefits in the back half of the year.
So as I said, that’s all under very serious consideration as we plan the business for next year, but we’re giving ourselves a lot more room to kind of rethink how we need to invest and when we need to reinvest the needed resources and back into the business to inflect in the back half of ’24.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand the floor back over to Alex Wiseman for closing comments.
Alex Wiseman: Thanks again to everyone for joining us today. Have a great day.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
