Kontoor advances Lee divestiture, doubles down on Wrangler and Helly Hansen

Kontoor is making a blunt fashion bet: Lee is out, and the future sits with Wrangler’s hard-wearing denim and Helly Hansen’s technical outerwear. The Greensboro, North Carolina company said it has started a competitive process to sell Lee and expects to reach a definitive agreement in 2026, a move that turns one of denim’s oldest names into a discontinued operation while Kontoor sharpens its focus on the brands that are actually moving.

The numbers make the pivot feel less like housekeeping and more like a reset. Lee brought in $195 million in first-quarter 2026 revenue, but that business is now being pushed out of continuing operations. Kontoor’s continuing operations delivered $613 million in first-quarter revenue, helped by 4 percent pro forma growth at Wrangler and a much punchier 16 percent at Helly Hansen. For the full year, Kontoor lifted its outlook to $2.66 billion to $2.71 billion from continuing operations, or $3.41 billion to $3.46 billion including Lee.

This is the kind of portfolio move that says a lot about where workwear style is headed. Wrangler is still the obvious backbone, with its Western DNA and jobsite credibility baked into the silhouette. Helly Hansen brings the weatherproof side of the equation, the kind of outerwear that reads as practical first and polished second. Lee, despite being established in 1889 and starting workwear production in 1912, is the brand Kontoor is willing to sacrifice to make the rest of the mix more focused and more lucrative.

Scott Baxter framed the divestiture as a way to sharpen strategic focus on Kontoor’s largest growth assets and improve capital allocation flexibility. The board backed that stance with a new $750 million share repurchase authorization, a loud sign that the company sees more value in tightening the machine than in carrying every heritage label for nostalgia’s sake. Kontoor completed its acquisition of Helly Hansen on June 2, 2025, and that deal now looks like the real accelerant in the lineup.

Kontoor itself is still a young standalone company by heritage-brand standards. VF Corporation separated the business in 2019 with Wrangler, Lee and Rock & Republic in the mix, and Kontoor now says it is a portfolio of three iconic lifestyle, outdoor and workwear brands, with 10,600 employees globally and about $3.15 billion in annual revenue. But the message from this latest move is clearer than any branding language: in today’s workwear market, the brands that win are the ones with real function, real weather protection and real jobsite credibility.