Rothy’s is beginning 2026 with one other govt overhaul.
In January, Dayna Quanbeck, the model’s president, finance and operations chief, will step in as chief govt, changing Jenny Ming who will return to her place as a board member.
Ming, a former Gap govt who joined Rothy’s board in 2022, changed co-founder Stephen Hawthornthwaite as CEO in 2024 as Rothy’s enterprise contracted, with gross sales falling 1.4 p.c 12 months on 12 months in 2023.
Quanbeck, alternatively, is taking the highest job through the shoemaker’s prime. In 2024, the corporate’s income jumped 17 p.c to $211 million because it efficiently received over Gen Z clients. In the final 12 months, the model opened 10 shops within the US, entered wholesale with retailers like Nordstrom, Liberty London and Le Bon Marché and hosted occasions with plugged-in creators like Substack writers Emily Sundberg and Erika Veurink.
“I feel very lucky to be stepping in as a CEO, having been able to do this alongside a very experienced CEO for a period of time,” Quanbeck, who joined Rothy’s in 2019, instructed The Business of Fashion. “I feel very prepared, and I can’t imagine a more organic way to take this job.”
Quanbeck’s transient as chief govt is to increase Rothy’s successful streak. It helps that in her earlier roles, Quanbeck was instrumental in lots of the initiatives that introduced the model out of its post-Covid stoop, resembling rising the corporate’s brick-and-mortar presence in addition to its wholesale enterprise, which tripled in 2025. Rothy’s gross sales jumped 16 p.c to $154 million within the first 9 months of the 12 months, and its web earnings elevated 86 p.c to $4.5 million.
Looking forward, Quanbeck plans to beef up Rothy’s model consciousness by forging extra wholesale partnerships, opening extra retail areas (there are plans for at the least 10 new areas in 2026) and increasing internationally. Rothy’s will host its first pop-up in Asia within the first half of subsequent 12 months, Quanbeck mentioned, and plans to push its ancillary product traces, resembling males’s and youngsters, by introducing new silhouettes and prints and patterns and coming into category-specific retailers, she added.
“I can imagine doubling the business, and then doubling it again, with what’s ahead of us in the US and globally,” Quanbeck mentioned.
Quanbeck additionally helped Rothy’s climate tariff uncertainty by including manufacturing companions in Vietnam and Indonesia to complement the manufacturing facility it owns in China, the place it beforehand made all its footwear. Her subsequent problem is changing herself as finance and operations chief. But Quanbeck’s already making key govt hires. The firm will welcome its first chief expertise officer in January to modernise its operations within the age of AI.
“We were really specific about bringing this leader in now because now is the right time to level up,” Quanbeck mentioned. “It’s really thinking differently about how AI grows your brand and makes you stand out as a category leader.”