FL
#The continuity of the role has been probably one of the smoother things.
Ken handled his exit in the beginning of the transition as the consummate professional that he is.
Ken and I had worked hand in hand for a long time.
The new plan was a continuation plan.
The team continues to execute at a high level.
From the business point of view, we continue to make great progress and I don't see necessarily any surprises there, <UNK>.
The biggest surprise that I've had so far is that the CEO role doesn't come with 26 hours in a day.
There's a lot of things that when Ken and I were working together, Ken handled some, I handled some.
And now I'm trying to be a good leader across the business and could use a couple more hours in the day.
I'll have to figure that out.
His teammates try to ---+.
Pitch in and help, absolutely.
---+ pick up some of those hours.
You had a bunch of questions so let me try to go back to the first one.
We don't see price point growth slowing down in the back half, certainly.
I think that the customer, as long as there's great value in the product, they've proven that they're willing to pay the price.
And that's across the various buckets that you talked about.
If you're talking under $100, the consumer there has to see the right value associated with the price.
From $100 to $150, really the wheel house of getting towards that beginning of the premium end, there has to be value for the price.
And when you get up to the higher price points, the people that create those shoes do a great job of limiting distribution and the number of pairs in the marketplace.
So, there is a scarcity model that exists that the consumer that gets those shoes feels really fortunate that they got them and they clearly, to this point, have shown they're willing to pay the price.
Our team does a nice job, <UNK>, with each launch, with each product that they look at, they look at the cadence of other products before it, the products that are coming after it from a launch perspective and they seem to be right more times than not with the quantities that we put into the marketplace.
The real opportunity lies in maximizing the value for the customer across all of those price points.
And together with our vendors we're doing that.
That's what we really focus on.
And our merchants are making sure that they have compelling product across the price points so that we don't leave anybody behind.
We can't do that, <UNK>, but I have a feeling that you're already in line somewhere for them.
No, you're not, Bernie.
Sorry to interrupt, but we're still on 34th Street.
We'll still have that sweet sound of the sirens behind us.
The footwear choices of all of the artists and athletes certainly have a bearing on what our customer chooses to wear.
With social media as active as it is today, they know what whoever is performing tonight wherever is wearing.
The fact that the Yeezy shoe got some press today in the Wall Street Journal tells you that things are shifting.
But our consumer is really driven by the moment.
Our vendors do a great job of helping manage those moments by bringing great products to bear in the marketplace, sometimes with fewer pairs than we'd like to see, sometimes with more pairs than we'd like to see.
But they manage that pretty well.
I think as the athletes and the artists continue to change their footwear choices, our customers react to that and certainly our buying team reacts to that, as well.
I think that's all we have time for.
We appreciate your participation on our call today.
We look forward to having you join us on our next call which we expect will take place at 9 AM on Friday, November 20, following the release of our third-quarter and year-to-date earnings results earlier that morning.
Thanks again.
Good-bye.
