Carter's unveils first rebrand in 26 years under new chief executive

Carter's, the 161-year-old company that dresses more American babies than any other apparel maker, unveiled its first major rebrand in roughly a quarter century on Tuesday, replacing its longtime marketing identity with a new promise — "Let every child's light shine" — and a redesigned logo in which a shooting star stands in for the apostrophe in its name. The move is an attempt to reconnect with younger parents after a stretch in which the company's stock lost more than half its value and it was forced to close stores and cut jobs under the weight of tariffs.

The overhaul, detailed in a statement issued Tuesday, centers on a 60-second film called "Watch Them Glow" that begins airing this week on Disney+, Hulu, Roku and other connected-television platforms, along with a creator program called Light Makers and expanded charitable partnerships with Outward Bound and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Carter's, whose brands also include OshKosh B'gosh, Skip Hop and Little Planet, says the changes are the product of nearly a year of consumer research into how Gen Z and millennial parents are raising children differently than previous generations did.

A turnaround still finding its footing

The rebrand arrives alongside real, if uneven, financial improvement. In its second-quarter results filed with the SEC in July, Carter's posted net sales of $615.5 million, up 5.2 percent from a year earlier, and adjusted operating income rose 54 percent as wholesale orders and retail comparable sales both grew. It was the company's fifth straight quarter of comparable retail sales gains. Even so, the stock has not recovered: shares closed around $29 this week, near the bottom of a 52-week range that runs from roughly $27 to $44, leaving Carter's with a market value of about $1.1 billion — down by more than half over the past three years. The company's full-year sales guidance was trimmed this summer, to 2 to 3 percent growth, on lighter wholesale demand expected in the back half of the year.

Tariffs remain the biggest drag on the balance sheet. Carter's has said it expects roughly $200 million to $250 million a year in added costs from import duties on the fabrics and finished garments it sources largely from Asia, a burden that pushed adjusted gross margin down 180 basis points even as sales grew in the most recent quarter.

How a 161-year-old brand ended up here

The rebrand caps a difficult year for the Atlanta-based company. Last October, Carter's said it would close about 150 stores and cut 300 office jobs, roughly 15 percent of its corporate workforce, blaming tariffs directly for much of the cost pressure. It suspended its 2025 financial guidance at the time, citing what it called significant uncertainty from incremental tariffs, and cut executive and board pay as part of the belt-tightening.

That upheaval was followed by a second change at the top in less than two years. Carter's board disclosed in a securities filing that it had appointed Sharon Price John, the former chief executive of Build-A-Bear Workshop, as Carter's new CEO and president effective June 15, after the abrupt departure of Douglas Palladini, who had held the job for barely a year. Chief Financial Officer Richard Westenberger again stepped in as interim chief in the gap between them, the second time he had done so since Michael Casey retired after 15 years as CEO in January 2025. John built her reputation at Build-A-Bear on turning around a struggling mall-based retailer through brand repositioning and licensing deals, and the rebrand is the clearest sign yet of how she intends to apply that playbook at Carter's.

Betting on parents who shop differently

The company's own research points to why it felt the need to act. A Pew Research Center survey cited in Carter's materials found that nearly half of American parents say they are deliberately raising their children differently than they themselves were raised, and Carter's argues that Gen Z parents in particular are more likely to let children pick their own clothes and to look to social media rather than in-store displays for cues. Marisa Ortega, an analyst who tracks parenting and family trends at the research firm Mintel, told Modern Retail that younger parents have shown a marked pull toward self-expression and gender-inclusive options in children's clothing, a shift Carter's is trying to design its new identity around.

Sarah Crockett, who joined Carter's as chief marketing officer last year, framed the shift in emotional rather than financial terms.

"Kids arrive with a light and a uniqueness entirely their own. Our role isn't to create that light for them. It's to recognize it, encourage it and give it room to shine."

Chief executive Sharon Price John struck a similar note, saying the company's history gives it "both an opportunity and a responsibility to keep growing with those we serve." The messaging is aimed squarely at parents and caregivers, but the rollout also touches Carter's roughly 1,000 company-operated stores, its wholesale partners such as Walmart and Target — where it sells private-label lines including Child of Mine and Just One You — and the employees whose jobs increasingly depend on the retail turnaround succeeding after last year's cuts. Even as it invests in the new identity, the company has kept returning cash to shareholders, paying $18 million in dividends in the first half of the fiscal year and maintaining a quarterly payout of 25 cents a share, a sign that management is trying to reassure investors that the marketing push will not come at the expense of financial discipline.

What comes next

Carter's has been careful to describe the change as a multi-year rollout rather than a single event. The new logo and messaging begin appearing across marketing and digital channels immediately, but changes to physical stores, packaging and product design are not scheduled until 2027, giving the company time to phase in costs. Wall Street's initial reaction has been muted: shares slipped on the day of the announcement, a reminder that investors are focused less on branding than on whether tariff costs ease and wholesale orders stabilize heading into the holiday season. Carter's next scheduled test comes with third-quarter results, expected in the coming weeks, when analysts will be watching whether the marketing push shows up in comparable sales or whether, as the company itself has warned, softer wholesale demand weighs on the numbers before any rebrand dividend arrives.