Calvin Klein’s provocative new denim campaign is drawing attention, but PVH heads into Wednesday’s earnings with weak retail engagement, international headwinds, and a stock that has lagged apparel peers.
- Sadie Sink’s “Feel the Fit” campaign is drawing comparisons to Sydney Sweeney’s viral American Eagle campaign, which helped drive sales, engagement, and a major AEO stock rally.
- PVH trades at just 5.9x forward earnings, with analysts seeing roughly 26% upside, but message volumes on Stocktwits have plunged 96% over the past year.
- Wall Street expects EPS of $3.08 on $2.09 billion in revenue Wednesday; PVH has beaten earnings expectations in each of the past four quarters.
"Stranger Things" star Sadie Sink is generating buzz for PVH Corp.'s Calvin Klein in a style reminiscent of how Sydney Sweeney made American Eagle Outfitters go viral last year and drove a surge in denim sales. There's just one problem: PVH stock isn't seeing the same kind of pop AEO did from the Sweeney moment, and quarterly earnings are right around the corner.
Calvin Klein on Tuesday launched the second installment of its Fall 2026 "Feel the Fit" denim campaign fronted by 24-year-old Sink, who recently starred in Marvel's "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and received a Tony Award nomination on Broadway. The commercial shows Sink prancing around in Calvin Klein underwear before pulling on a perfectly fitting pair of jeans, with electronics sparking around her, then turning to the camera with the tagline "Feel the fit." Media coverage has described the campaign as "flirty," "bold," and steeped in Y2K nostalgia.
The campaign has drawn polarizing reactions. On X, users quickly noted the contrast with Calvin Klein's 2020 Pride ads, which featured diverse body types, LGBTQ+ models, and a body-positive message.
Side-by-side comparisons circulated widely: some users welcomed what they called the end of the "woke" era, while others connected the pivot to the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs or questioned the commercial implications. Calvin Klein has not commented publicly.
The Sydney Sweeney Effect On AEO
American Eagle's fall 2025 campaign starring Sydney Sweeney set the template. The ads were described as equally provocative and bold and built around the tagline "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans." Its deliberate double meaning sparked great controversy but eventually led to a genuine commercial payoff. AEO saw meaningful gains in sales, customer counts, and online engagement, with President Donald Trump even weighing in to praise the ads while criticizing what he called "woke" campaigns from brands like Jaguar and Budweiser. AEO's stock surged with meme-stock-like energy, and retail trader interest on Stocktwits spiked sharply.
The broader trend has been partly attributed to a post-election cultural shift, with conservative fashion sensibilities reasserting themselves. Victoria's Secret has leaned back into its glamorous roots under CEO Hillary Super, abandoning its earlier neutral rebranding in favor of the sensuality and spectacle the brand built its identity on, even changing its ticker from VSCO to VSXY to signal the pivot. The strategy has paid off: VSXY has outperformed even Nvidia this year on the back of strong earnings and an upbeat outlook.
GLP-1 anti-obesity drugs are another factor. As the drugs become more accessible and more U.S. consumers drop sizes and refresh their wardrobes, apparel retailers stand to benefit, with Bernstein estimating the category could see an annual boost of up to $13 billion in consumer spending.
So Why Isn't PVH Catching The Wave?
PVH generates more revenue than AEO, but the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger has significantly more exposure to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia — markets that have faced headwinds from the U.S.-Israeli siege on Iran and its broader economic ripple effects. That exposure forced PVH to reaffirm an outlook that missed consensus estimates, even as retailers were already absorbing the impact of Trump's tariff war.
Over the past 12 months, PVH stock has lagged AEO, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, and other retail peers, as well as the Consumer Discretionary sector (XLY), in what remains a difficult macro environment.
PVH Stock: Are Wall Street And Retail Traders In Sync?
On paper, PVH looks attractively valued. The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 5.9x — cheaper than AEO at 9.3x, Gap at 8.7x, and ANF at 11.4x. The consensus among 13 analysts covering the stock is 'Buy,' with an average price target implying roughly 26% upside from current levels.
Retail engagement, however, tells a different story. One-year message volumes on Stocktwits have fallen 96% for PVH, and watcher counts have slipped 0.4% — a stark contrast to AEO's 5% follower growth and VSXY's 11% bump over the same period. Sentiment has remained broadly 'bullish,' with recent posts acknowledging the potential GLP-1 tailwind and looking ahead to Wednesday's quarterly results.
Last month, JPMorgan flagged "double-digit downside risk" to PVH's fiscal 2028 consensus estimates, citing concerns about in-season wholesale sell-throughs and "choppy" direct-to-consumer store traffic. Extreme heat in Europe, the firm added, is providing an additional drag on the current quarter.
Analysts expect earnings per share of $3.08, up from $2.52 a year earlier, with revenue forecast to slip slightly to $2.09 billion from $2.17 billion. PVH has beaten expectations in each of the past four quarters.
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