Please stand by. We are about to begin. Good morning and welcome to the Wolverine World Wide’s first quarter 2008 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of the conference call. This call is being recorded at the request of Wolverine World Wide. If anyone has any objections you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce Ms. Christi Cowden, Director of Investor Relations and Communications for Wolverine World Wide. Ms. Cowden you may proceed.

Thank you, Dana. Good morning everyone and welcome to our first quarter conference call. On the call today are Blake Krueger, our CEO and President, and Steve Gulis our Executive Vice President and CFO. Earlier this morning we announced record first quarter results. If you have not yet received a copy of the press release please call Libby [Neinheis] at (616) 233-0500 to have one sent to you. The release is also available on many news sites or it can be viewed from our corporate website at www.WolverineWorldWide.com. Before I turn the call over to Blake Krueger to comment on our results, I would like to remind you that the predictions and projections made in today’s conference call regarding Wolverine World Wide and its operations may be considered forward-looking statements by securities laws. As a result, we must caution that as with any prediction or projection there are a number of factors that could cause results to differ materially. These important risk factors are identified in the company’s SEC filings and in our press releases. With that being said I would now like to turn the call over to Blake.

Thanks Christi. Good morning and thanks for joining us today. I am pleased to report that our company prevailed in the face of a challenging retail and economic environment to post our 23rd consecutive quarter of record revenue and earnings per share. Rigorous execution against our long-standing business model led to our record Q1 performance. This model is focused on three key elements. First, marketing a strong portfolio of eight lifestyle brands. Second, leveraging our brands in almost 200 countries and territories around the world. For Q1, for example, about 70% of our profits were generated outside the U.S. Third, marketing our brands to different global consumer groups through a number of different distribution channels. This model enables us to consistently achieve strong results while reducing our exposure to any single country, consumer group or fashion trend. Revenue for the first quarter of $288.2 million increased 2.6% from the prior year. We achieved revenue increases in all regions; North America, Europe and International markets. Our sales results also include a revenue reduction of about $3 million due to the exit of our transition businesses. That is Slipper Stanley and Private Label. Q1 earnings per share were $0.46 up 17.9% from last year’s $0.39 per share. At quarter end inventories were down 4% and our order backlog was up over 10%. We are pleased with our first quarter results which were achieved in a tough retail environment. We believe 2008 will be another record year for the company and we are increasing our 2008 earnings per share estimate to a range of $1.83 to $1.90 per share. I would like to begin my brand review with Hush Puppies. Hush Puppies revenue declined in mid single-digits in the quarter as a strong increase in the global licensing business was offset by lower…

Thank you, Blake. Good morning everyone. This morning I will review the first quarter 2008 financial highlights for you and give a brief update on our estimates for the remainder of the year. We are extremely pleased to announce record financial results for the first quarter of 2008 as revenue of $288.2 million increased 2.6% over the $281.1 million reported in 2007. Earnings per share increased to $.046 per share, a 17.9% increase over the $0.39 per share reported in 2007. These record results reflect the strong balance of our business model as our brand diversification, international reach and distribution strategy all provided benefits during the quarter. We had several areas of the business with solid revenue growth in the quarter; the Merrell brand, Sebago brand, our own retail operations and royalty-based licensing and distributor businesses had the strongest revenue growth rates during the quarter. Also, currency benefits of 2.6% were offset by reductions in re-order rates in several of the branded operations as the retail environment in a number of key markets impacted at-once order rates. Despite these retail challenges, consumer acceptance of our brands around the world has never been stronger. Record earnings per share totaling $0.46 in the quarter were driven by strong gross margin improvement in the business, a 160 basis point improvement. This resulted from an improved mix of higher margin goods being shipped in our branded footwear businesses – 40 basis points, initial pricing margins generated by the brands in footwear – 70 basis points, and the positive impact of foreign currency – 50 basis points which occurred primarily in our continental European operations which operate with the Euro as their functional currency. The company’s selling and administrative expenses increased 4.9% to $85.2 million. As a percent of revenue, 2008 first quarter selling and…

Thanks Steve. We are pleased to have delivered another quarter of record revenue and earnings. Our business model which is multi-brand, multi-country and multi-category in nature minimizes risk and permits us to outperform in a variety of economic climates. This model also enables us to consistently deliver excellent financial results while investing in growth initiatives and product innovation. We will now turn the call back to the operator so we can take your questions. Thanks.

Thank you. The question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. If you would like to ask a question please do so by pressing the * key followed by the 1 on your touchtone telephone. If you are using a speakerphone please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. We will proceed in the order that you signal us and we will take as many questions as time permits. Once again, please press *1 on your touchtone telephone to ask a question. We will pause for a moment to assemble our roster. We’ll go first with Jim Duffy with Thomas Weisel Partners.

Thanks very much. Great quarter guys. A question for you on the license business, in aggregate what type of growth rates have you been seeing on your license business portfolio? Is that seasonal or is it growing as a percent of the mix?

Our royalty-based licensing businesses are growing a little bit faster than the base of our business, Jim. We have strong international partners that really represent our brands well in their local markets and it is driving really nice improvements for the overall business right now.

When you look at it in terms of a return on capital decision are there businesses in that international licensing portfolio that it would make sense to acquire or bring in house? Or are there not many that are at that stage?

Jim this is Blake. I think at this time we are constantly reviewing that precise issue in our internal meetings but we still have lots of upside opportunity in Europe. As you know we own our operations in greater Europe, Canada and the United States. Europe has been a very good growth vehicle for the company for some period of time, so whether we will vertically integrate at some point in the future and select countries around the world I don’t know. But right now we are focusing on where we are at.

So as for now it is a prioritization of resources, I presume?

Correct.

And then a question on the Bates business. That was, I suppose, stronger than you had suspected. Does that change your outlook for the Bates business for the year?

Not really. We think Bates really has found a normalized level. I’m not sure our government is the best merchandisers that exist out there, but they hit us with some unexpected requirements in the first quarter and we were able, frankly, our manufacturing team to respond and meet those needs. We think it hasn’t really changed our full year outlook for Bates.

Okay. And then the final question…you’ve been doing a good job on the expense side by having Steve do two jobs. How is the CFO search coming along?

Very good. We’re going to announce something next week.

Okay great. Congratulations again guys.

We’ll go next to Mitch Kummetz with Robert Baird.

Thanks. Let me offer my congratulations. Can you just comment a little bit more on the retail environment. You made a comment that re-orders were soft in the quarter. I know it is tough to do but how much of that do you think is a function of it is a tough environment in general versus unfavorable weather and can you talk about how you guys see inventory levels at retail right now given that business has been soft?

Yeah. Let me address a few of those issues. I think retailers probably starting last summer were looking to plan excitement in their stores through their future orders. So future orders I think in general have stayed pretty steady across the industry and the smart retailers are planning that excitement period by period. I think where volatility maybe has increased a little bit is in the at once still in orders. Retailers are looking to adjust their inventory levels through at once orders. So for example the first six weeks of this year you might see at once orders are down and then a surge up in the next 5-6 weeks a they start to get a handle on their spring season. So the orders are volatile. I would think at once still in orders are a little bit more volatile across the industry than future orders. As far as inventory levels I think we have all seen the March numbers and I think the small independents out there and the outdoor specialty shops that are operating fewer stores and they are really very good operators and they keep a good eye on their business. We do a lot of business with those people. If we continue to have some high single-digit and double-digit decreases in the mid tier department stores and other retail channels you are going to see some inventory continue to build up there. There is probably again right now a little more athletic inventory out there than brown shoe inventory.

Okay. Blake you just mentioned that if your futures orders had been a little more steady than the at once business…I know your backlog is up over 10%. When you look at that obviously at this point into Q1 that backlog is a mix of still some spring deliveries and obviously some fall stuff as well. When you look at the two prebook orders for fall versus spring are they pretty comparable? Is fall coming in better than spring was or vice versa?

I think if you looked at our order backlog right now just to give you a little bit of an idea on timing you would find that our Q2 scheduled deliveries at this time are lower than our Q3 and Q4. That is not saying that Q2 is weak at all right now it is just that our backlog right now is skewed into the fall season.

Okay. And how about…it sounded like as you went through the different segments of the business that backlog is up across all of those businesses. Is it also up U.S. versus international? It sounds like international business might have been a little bit softer in that first quarter.

International business was actually pretty good in the first quarter and we don’t break it out by brand but I think virtually all of our brands have a backlog increase and several of them, half of them, double-digit. So we feel good.

Okay. Then lastly, are you guy’s still expecting stronger sales growth in the back half than the first half? I guess a lot of because the backlog for the back half is a little bit stronger…because when you look at your full year sales guidance at least the high end of that guidance would suggest stronger growth in the back than the first and to your comments Blake it sounds like the backlog skews a little bit more towards Q3 and Q4 than Q2 as well?

Yeah Mitch. That would be correct. I think we are still anticipating a challenging retail environment for the back half but we feel that the growth rate could improve on the back half over the first half. That is correct.

Okay. That’s all I have. Thanks.

We’ll go next to Kate McShane with Citigroup.

Hi. Good morning. Most of my questions have been answered but I was wondering if you could provide us with any commentary on the global macro environment? We have been hearing conflicting things about Western Europe I guess in particular in terms of the strength or the weakening of the economies over there. I was wondering what you were seeing in your business as a result of that?

Well we can give you a little insight. We try not to frankly over concentrate on macro economic issues. We figure if we can continue to develop superior product we are going to win in any environment but I think it seems to be a little bit softer right now in Europe. I would say that the U.K. maybe is a little bit softer than the continent at the present time. You also have to remember that going back 3-4 years ago the U.K. had a very strong 3-4 year run for footwear and really apparel. So I think the U.S. economy still is the engine for the world. Maybe that won’t be the case 100 years from now but at the present time it is still the engine for the world. There is a little softness in markets out there but with our global business model it mitigates a lot of that risk.

Okay. Thank you. The numbers that have been coming out of Sebago have been improving and very strong and I wonder if there have been any further plans to expand Sebago’s distribution beyond its current distribution channels?

I think in the United States…in Europe as you know the Sebago brand is a premium brand in all the better footwear shops. We think frankly there is a lot of growth for Sebago. We do not, however, intend to take Sebago down market at all. We have plenty of growth opportunities in our designated distribution channels.

No plans to bring it in to the malls? Not to be specific, but we’ve seen Sperry at Finish Line for example.

Yeah we don’t have any of those plans at the present time.

Okay. Thank you.

We’ll go next to Todd Slater with LazardCapital.

Thank you. Great job everyone. Just on the international…70% of your EBITDA came from international this quarter, is that correct?

That is correct.

Is this an appropriate run rate that we should be considering for the year?

It is a little bit higher than what our average was last year, Todd, for the full year. So I think in later quarters in the year you’ll see the mix come down a little bit. But probably a 60/40 international-U.S. mix for operating profits is probably still a pretty good ratio to look at for a full year basis. Any one quarter can deviate from that a little bit but I think that is the appropriate range to look at going forward.

Okay. Well maybe it would be helpful to look at what sort of the revenue run rate is and if that is obviously growing faster than domestic revenue?

The revenue run rate…we actually were up in all regions of the world last year so our international revenues were solid. We were up mid single-digits in most of our international areas in the first quarter so that was pretty solid performance.

So that’s running a little faster than domestic?

Yeah.

And you would expect that to continue for the next…the back half?

We think that there…our market share in the international markets is not as developed as what it is in the U.S. market for several of our brands so there is more opportunity in those international markets.

Right. Okay. And that’s a high margin…obviously higher margin business?

The licensing drives a higher and royalty based business drives a higher operating margin, but the wholesale businesses which we own are pretty parallel to the U.S. wholesale businesses.

Okay. With licensing that all is higher. Now can you just remind us how you manage the currency fluctuations? What would happen to the PNL theoretically or directionally if the dollar strengthens or slides against other currencies in the back of the year? Is that a potential issue?

We’re buying forward contracts for product being bought for our own international wholesale operations. So we are out a little bit…6 or the 9 month range. It depends on where we are at in the calendar buying forward contracts so we are locking into our product costs for a 6-9 month basis. So there is a pretty significant delayed impact and the reason we do that is that way we can protect our initial pricing margins by taking appropriate actions at the wholesale level. So if we saw the dollar strengthen quickly and we knew that our product cost was going to go up in those markets we’d have to take other actions to protect our pricing margins. So we have the time built in to take appropriate actions to protect our gross margins.

Okay. Just remind me…I apologize…how much of the quarter had – what kind of a core expense was there in the quarter also relative to OI?

There was about a 50 basis point of the 160 basis points in gross margin improvement came from the weakening of the U.S. dollar primarily against the Euro.

Okay. And then just as a guidance question. Tax rates came in at about 33.5% which is higher than your tax rate guidance for the year of I think 32.8%. How should we be modeling the rest of the year?

Right now that is our annualized estimated tax rate. One thing that is out there is that Congress has not approved the recent R&D tax credits. So we’re not allowed to include any benefits from R&D credits in our annualized tax rate. So if…depending on what happens with the elections and Congress and everything else we would expect that to happen some time in the year but at this point we can’t provide for that and that does have some fairly positive benefits for us.

But in the mean time that is not in your guidance?

That is not in our guidance because we are not allowed to project it.

Okay. So we should be using maybe a little higher tax rate?

The tax rate of 33.5% would be an annualized rate.

Got it. Okay. Perfect. Thanks very much and best of luck.

We’ll go next to Jeff Edelman with UBS.

Thank you. Good morning. A couple of questions here. One, how much is your royalty income running at this point? And where is it classified? Is it classified as revenue or just to the cost of goods?

No it is in our revenue base and it runs around 5-7% of our overall revenue on any quarter.

Okay. Secondly, how much is your fill in business running on average overall?

If you look at the averages on a long-term basis our future to at once order mix is right around 50/50. With the changes to the market right now it might be sliding a little bit more futures driven to where we might be seeing it a little bit more 60/40 in a year like this. But still a significant portion of our overall business does come from at once weekly reorders.

Okay. Now your futures are in U.S. dollars, correct?

All of our orders steps that we indicate are translated into U.S. dollars.

Okay. Then could you help me reconcile? At the beginning of the quarter you had a 10% increase in futures. Second quarter you have got a 10% increase back weighted. Your sales would have been roughly flat if we exclude currency…which would suggest a fairly noticeable fall off in first quarter fill in business and if we are looking at some shift in timing in here do we see a worse or let’s say a more negative comparison in the second quarter in terms of top line?

I think, Jeff, the most difficult…there is no direct correlation behind what our order backlog rate is and what the next quarter and the next two quarters are going to be because there are so many variables out there. We get at once orders in the quarter. We also get future orders in the quarter which are shipped in that quarter. So there are all kinds of things that can impact the overall environment. I think the way to look at it and the way I encourage people to evaluate the backlog is – is there adequate backlog or does there appear to be adequate backlog to drive the revenue growth that the company is estimating? And beyond that it is very difficult to say gee Q2 should be this because the backlog did this or what all the changes are. We are in a difficult retail environment right now or a challenging retail environment. That has probably more impact on our at once and in quarter futures. So there is a lot of variables in there. So I think you have to take a little bit higher look at that and to try to drill down…I haven’t been able to do it in my 15 years as CFO…find a direct correlation.

I’m trying to help you figure out a way.

If you get it can you email me?

Let me ask you another way. You want to make sure you get enough inventory to ship and so if we take into consideration everything you have said and your inventory is down 4% is this just because you have been turning it faster? Or you have been conservative on the take in and therefore if you get the fill in business you’ll have to scramble even faster?

I think one of the things we have done over the past couple of years is try to focus our inventory on being narrower and deeper because retailers frankly are also waiting longer to place their at once orders and some of their future orders. They want it and they want it when they want it. You can’t blame them. It is challenging out there. So we’re just narrower and deeper with the right stuff, more than we were say 2-5 years ago.

Okay. I follow. Okay great. Thank you. One other thing. When does the other expense in there? It looked like it was a significant increase versus income last year?

That had to do with some of the translation in our European operations I believe it was. But I’ll follow-up back with you, Jeff, to confirm that.

Okay. Thank you.

We’ll go next to Scott Krasik with CL King & Associates. Scott Krasik - CL King & Associates: Thanks. Blake you didn’t mention Merrell Apparel this quarter. Where are we at with that?

Merrell Apparel is on plan for the year. We are really as excited as we have ever been about the opportunity. We probably couldn’t have timed our launch on Merrell Apparel in a worse environment but we can’t control that. Certainly our conservative approach is paying off given current market conditions. But in 2008 we will be in about 35-40 countries, about 40% of the apparel will be in the USA. The product line has been refocused and redesigned. The full impact of that will be seen in the spring 2009 line which will start to ship this fall. We expect Merrell Apparel this year to be roughly in the $12-$15 million range. Scott Krasik - CL King & Associates: Okay. So assuming you had some sales in the first half that was implied that the back half would actually be a little bit below a year ago?

No, I think both of them will be above a year ago. Scott Krasik - CL King & Associates: Above. Okay. Good. Then there was some talk about Merrell getting into the road running category. Are you guys still on plan with that?

Yeah we are. We’ve got a collection of great new shoes. We brought in some street running talent to develop those shoes and we’re on plan. We’re not expecting that to be a large out of the box. We are very interested in gaining credibility. As you know Merrell has incredible credibility in the multi-sport category and trail running category, and we want to get in those…get a beach head in the best 50-75 running shops across the country. So that may not be a large business out of the box but we think it is key to the Merrell brand going forward. Scott Krasik - CL King & Associates: Sure. Then just lastly sort of qualitatively. You had some planned and unplanned management changes in Outdoor and Hush Puppies. Talk about…have there been any hiccups? Have the transitions been smooth? Have there been any changes in philosophy?

No. I have to tell you the teams are performing well. I’m probably a little prejudiced but I think we have one of the very best teams in the entire industry and you don’t post these kinds of consistent results without some very, very talented people. There has been no let up at all in the Merrell or Outdoor group for example. Scott Krasik - CL King & Associates: And no changes in direction or anything?

Correct. Scott Krasik - CL King & Associates: Steve. Lastly, I’m sorry. The gross margin benefit you expect to get from the second quarter generally?

I would say that the second quarter should be or could be pretty much in the same range. Probably 30-50 basis point type improvement. Scott Krasik - CL King & Associates: Okay. Thanks guys.

We’ll go next to Jeff Mintz with Wedbush Morgan.

Thanks. Good morning. To follow-up on Todd’s question from earlier. Could you give us the break down U.S./International of the revenue in the quarter?

I think the best way to view it is low single-digits for the U.S. and followed by a higher increase for Europe and then the highest increase, upper mid single-digits for international if you wanted to break it down that way.

Okay. And what was just the percentage breakdown? You said 70% of EBITDA came from International but how much of your overall revenue came from outside the U.S.?

About 40% of our revenue base is outside the U.S.

Okay. 40%. Thanks. And then Steve probably the question for you in terms of the taking on of debt and the plans for the balance sheet in terms of the share buyback, how should we think about the balance sheet through the rest of the year in terms of increased debt and the need for that?

I think there is a couple of key things there, Jeff. One is that we do historically use working capital in the first three quarters of the year and then we generate a lot of cash at the end of the year as our peak working capital period is at the end of the third quarter. We felt there were some opportunities to accelerate our share repurchase program in the first quarter and we did that and I think it paid some good dividends to our shareholders. We’ll continue to look at consistent share repurchases if they are appropriate. But I think given the environment out there also we will maintain a very strong balance sheet position. I mean our net debt position is not that high and we really want to make sure we have flexibility in our capital structure if we see opportunities arise.

Okay. Great. Then my last question…just on the distribution issues in Canada. Kind of what happened and more importantly do you feel those orders are lost or is it just a delay into the second quarter?

We do not feel that those orders were lost, Jeff. There was some challenges. Our growth up there has outpaced the capabilities of the distribution center up there so we’re looking at some alternatives so we can address the same peak period which would happen at the end of the third quarter. We’ve got plenty of action plans underway to eliminate any further issues.

Okay. Great. Thanks very much and good luck.

We’ll go next to Chris [Zetia] with Susquehanna Financial Group. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: Good morning everyone. Congratulations. A couple of questions. Firstly can you just flush out some of the issues and opportunities with regard to the Hush Puppies business? Obviously the wholesale business having some challenges and the licensing business doing well. Maybe you can talk about what is going on the U.K. with the reorganization of some of your two key customers and do you anticipate backlogs to improve for the Hush Puppies business as you go into the back half of the year?

We think right now Hush Puppies is in a positive backlog position overall for the business. The U.K. retail environment, turning first to that country, it has been tougher. We did have some significant customers that went through some financial reorganization and parts of their business were sold. We have managed to keep a substantial portion of that business so that is the good news. Hush Puppies is one of the world’s great brands. It is 50 years old this year. Over 19 million pair. It is one of the top brown shoe brands in the world. We have had steady…very steady growth in our international markets over the last 5-6 years. We don’t see that changing. At over 400 stores and 650 shop-in-shops it is one of the biggest brands out there around the world for dedicated points of sale. So we’re as excited as ever about the potential for Hush Puppies. In the U.S. market we knew this year was going to be tough because of some of what we believe are the correct actions we took last year to separate the Soft Style business, for example, from the Hush Puppies business but we are getting a shot in the arm with the Guest Designer Series and some of the chatter that is going on about the brand right now. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: How has the transition for the Soft Style product at Penny’s…how has that done for you? Are you pleased with the performance?

Yeah we are. It is a question of now restaffing and allocating some appropriate resources to each of those two businesses; Soft Style and Hush Puppies, at least when you look at it domestically. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: And a positive backlog which you referenced, Blake, is that towards I guess the second half of a weight and see the improvement?

Yeah. That would be more second half weighted. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: Okay. Steve a question for you. On the gross margin trends, obviously the out performance included on the gross margin for the quarter…I guess as you look at the gross margin in the quarter and the pricing – is any of that being driven by the increase [inaudible] pricing that maybe you are passing on due to higher sourcing costs? Or has that not impacted the PNL? Is that more of a second half scenario?

I think it is going to be more prevalent in the second half. We did move a few prices in the first half of the year to accommodate some of the price cost increases that we had. But from a gross margin perspective we are expecting further improvement but not at the rate we had in the first quarter. Probably about half that rate overall for the remainder of the year if you took the balance of the year would be the appropriate way to look at it. We think, again, that is a balance of the things I mentioned in our prepared remarks. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: Okay. And is that also a function of continued reduction in terms of inventory? You were down 4%. I think you were down 10% coming out of last year.

It is not just the…the pure reduction doesn’t necessarily drive it as much as the proper management of it and the timing of when we are getting rid of stuff and getting the best prices we can and not purchasing close out merchandise basically. So yes a piece of that will be further inventory management but it doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a reduction in the inventory. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: I see. It is just an improvement in the quality in terms of the inventory as you go forward.

The efficiency of the use of the inventory. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: Okay. Then the last question I have…you didn’t talk too much about your direct to consumer business. Maybe talk about track and trail, what’s going on in the outlook business and any color possibly on same store sales performance for that division?

Just to give you an idea we closed the quarter with 91 stores. I think we had 72 in the outlet arena under a number of different fascias and 19 Merrell and Track and Trail stores. Our stores themselves were down between 1-2% comp store sales decrease in the first quarter. I have to tell you compared to the rest of the world out there that is pretty superlative performance actually. But those stores carry for the most part our brand so it is just an indication of how our brands are performing at retail. Our eCommerce business for the quarter was up over 40%. So we are very pleased with the growth in that vehicle. Overall for the first quarter it is a blended direct to consumer we would have been up close to 5% comp store when it is all blended together. Chris [Zetia] - Susquehanna Financial Group: Okay. Thanks very much gentlemen. Congratulations.

We’ll go next to Sam Poser with Sterne Agee.

Good morning and congratulations. Just a couple of follow-ups. In the U.S. other than the Merrell brand what are we looking for the rest of the year looking at Caterpillar and Harley and Hush Puppies and so on? Can we expect to see the top line start to improve? Clearly you are managing the businesses quite well.

I think, Sam, for example Cat had a sales increase in the U.S. in the first quarter. When you look at where that brand is positioned here that was pretty good performance. I think everybody is holding their breath a little bit about the retail environment for the rest of the year so it is difficult for us to sit here and predict. We can look at our backlog and look at the feedback we are getting from retailers and believe that we are going to have improvement in virtually all of our brands in the second half and the last three quarters. But we had a bit of a mixed bag in the USA in Q1.

How have the standards changed from the retailers of how they are viewing filling in business? Are they shifting in general to buy narrower and deeper as well? Are they raising their expectations of an item or of a brand so if it is not really performing extremely well are they backing off the fill ins more than they had a year ago?

Sam this is Steve. I think it is fair to say that retailers have gone narrower and deeper also and that benefits everybody because it is easier for us to make sure we are in stock on core products but it also keeps them from having all that fringe product which may not be what the consumer really wants and desires. So…I think that paralleling the merchandising mix and making sure there is an agreement between the provider of the product and the retailer as to what we’re going to sell to the consumer in the season is important. So that has had some positive benefit. You’re not out there trying to guess what the retailer is going to reorder. You pretty much know because you go into the season with a pretty focused perspective on a partnership basis really.

And some of your competitors have started to…are going through some large transitions and because of the way you price you goods, I believe you said 6-9 months out you are locking in your prices, I think some of your competitors might not have done that. Are you finding that has given you a competitive advantage when you are showing the product to people and working on your price value relationships across all of your brands?

I think what it really gives is it gives everybody time to merchandise in and to flow in the pricing that has to occur. So it is not an overnight and you don’t get that dramatic drop. We were criticized at one time, Sam, for not having as big a pick up in that arena because we were going out and the dollar continued to weaken and we didn’t get all the benefit of the steepness of the erosion of the U.S. dollar but having that time is very valuable. If you can work with your account base and say this is what is going to be happening down the pipe it does give you a benefit.

Okay. Well thank you very much and continued success.

At this time we have no further questions. I would now like to turn this call over to Ms. Cowden. You may proceed.

Thank you. On behalf of Wolverine World Wide I would like to thank you again for joining us today and as a reminder our conference call replay is available on our website at www.WolverineWorldWide.com.