Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Release Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Judy Anderson, Weyco Group Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Amy. Good morning, and welcome to Weyco Group's conference call to discuss second quarter 2022 earnings. On this call with me today is Tom Florsheim, Jr., Chairman and CEO. Before we begin to discuss the results for the quarter, I will read a brief cautionary statement. During the course of this call, we may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding our current expectations concerning future events and the future financial performance of the company. We wish to caution you that these statements are just predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We refer you to the section entitled Risk Factors in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and to our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of important factors and risks that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our projection, including the uncertain impact of inflation on our costs, and consumer demand for our products, and the continuing direct and indirect effects of COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and Asia. Overall net sales were a second quarter record of $74.4 million, up 29% compared to $57.6 million in 2021. Consolidated gross earnings were 40% of net sales compared to 39.4% of net sales in last year's second quarter with gross margins up in both our North American wholesale and retail segment. Earnings from operations rose 25% to $5.7 million from $4.5 million in the second quarter of 2021. Quarterly net earnings rose to a second quarter record of $4.5 million or $0.47 per diluted share from $3.8 million or 39% per diluted share in 2021. Net sales in the North American wholesale segment were a second quarter record of $59 million, up 41% from net sales of $41.9 million in 2021. Robust demand fueled…

Thanks, Judy, and good morning, everyone. We continue to be very happy with the strength of our wholesale business, which had an overall sales increase of 41% versus last year and a gain of 28% over 2019. While a portion of our large wholesale increase was the result of pipeline fill, overall consumer demand and retail sell-throughs remain robust, especially when compared to 2019 levels. While we are mindful of possible changes in the consumer mindset due to macroeconomic pressures, we are confident in the position of our branded portfolio as we head into the back half of 2022. In addition, we are pleased to report that the lion's share of supply issues are behind us as we move into our important shipping period with the necessary inventory to meet our backlog. Our legacy division posted significant increases in shipments with both Florsheim and Stacy Adams up 47% and Nunn Bush up 25% over 2021. All 3 brands also had solid gains over the second quarter of 2019. We continue to experience strong demand for dress shoes and refined casuals with the normalization of social events and gradual return to the office. The dress category has been primarily responsible for our increase in volume. We are also excited about the progress we've made in the casual area. Over half of what we sell today in Nunn Bush are true casuals and the new casual offerings we have sold in Florsheim and Stacy Adams have allowed us to pick up more closet share as a company. It is clear that with the increase in pricing across many basic consumer goods, there's more competition for discretionary household income. Nevertheless, so far, the dress category is a bright spot in the apparel world, and we are optimistic that this trend will continue throughout…

[Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from the line of John Deysher from Pinnacle.

I was just curious, we're approaching the key back-to-school season, and I know that's not a big part of your business. But I guess, overall, what are you hearing from your retail base in terms of -- people are burdened with high inflation for just about everything. And I'm just wondering what feedback you're getting from retailers as it applies to the shoe category.

Yes. I mean your first statement was correct, John. We do not -- our business is not really driven by back-to-school, and so I don't have a lot of information regarding that. What I've heard in the conversations that I've had with our people about what retailers are telling them is that it has been a mixed back-to-school season. It has not been great, and I'm not sure really what's causing that. It's been awfully hot across the country. And I think that the other factor that influenced back-to-school selling over the last several back-to-school seasons is that it used to be that you have to go out and buy your kids whatever they need for school early because you were fearful that you wouldn't get it. Today, with Amazon and all the online -- the ability to buy everything online, I think that people don't worry as much about not being able to get the products they need. So I think that's pushed back the timing a little bit. So I think to answer your question, what I've heard is, it's been mixed.

Okay. Are you hearing anything about holiday sales? I mean that's going to come pretty quickly after back-to-school. Any feedback from retailers regarding holiday sales?

Yes. Yes. I think that in general, retailers are very optimistic still about holiday and just in general about the second half of the year.

Okay. That's helpful. A quick question on Forsake. What glitches occurred there? We were hoping to see an impact sooner than the second half of 2023. What exactly is happening with Forsake?

Right. Forsake manufactured most of their product at one factory, and we have diversified the factory base going forward. But for the spring season, we were largely still at the original factory and the original factory shipped weight both for fall '21 and spring '22. And so there really was very little new product in the market, and we're still having some issues with getting the product in here on time. And we're going to be in a better shape for fall '22, but the other thing that we are doing with the brand, John, is that we're really retooling it. The brand had a lot of platforms that were several years old. And so what we're doing is, we've -- we're running the Forsake brand out of the same office in Portland as our BOGS brand, and our BOGS merchandise people are very, very good at product. I think you've seen that in the results that we've shown with BOGS over the last basically decade. And so we're doing some of the same type of work that we've done with BOGS with Forsake, and we're broadening the product assortment and basically retooling the brand. And it has taken us a little more time, honestly, than we expected, but we are going to have some new product out there for fall '22. And then we're introducing some sandals for spring '23, and then you're going to see a big change as far as the assortment being more -- a broader assortment going into fall '23. So we're really -- that is really when we're relaunching the brand. And so unfortunately, it's just taken us longer than we expected and a lot of that is due to the supply chain and just the issues we've had getting some of the product to market.

Okay. Are those supply chain large factory issues behind you at this point?

I would say that we've made progress. They're not 100% behind us.

Okay. All right. Fair enough. And just a housekeeping question. On the buyback of $2.5 million during the quarter, how many shares was that?

One second. Judy will get that number.

That was 29 -- I'm sorry, 29,600.

29,600 for the $2.5 million. Okay. Great.

[Operator Instructions]. Showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to Judy Anderson for closing remarks.

I just like to say thank you, everyone, for participating in our call today, and I hope you have a good day.

All right. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.