Walmart just named Denise Incandela a Sam Walton Entrepreneur of the Year — one of the highest honors inside the company, and one rarely given to merchants. It's a fitting recognition for the EVP of Fashion leading one of the largest fashion transformations in American retail.

In this episode of The Retail Pilot, Ken sits down with Denise Incandela -- EVP of Fashion at Walmart U.S. and a 20-year luxury retail veteran (Saks Fifth Avenue, Ralph Lauren) -- to unpack the three pillars driving Walmart's strategy: assortment, shopping experience, and perception. They explore the 80% insight that reshaped everything, how Denise's team modernized 15 private brands while bringing in 1,000+ national brands, why Walmart pop-ups in Soho became a viral cultural moment, how AI is collapsing the design-to-shelf cycle from nine months to under one, and why the $100K+ customer is now the growth engine. This is a conversation about scale, democratization, and changing how an entire country thinks about Walmart fashion.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why Denise won the Sam Walton Entrepreneur of the Year Award -- and why merchants almost never receive it

• The three pillars of Walmart's fashion transformation: assortment, shopping experience, and perception

• The 80% insight that changed everything: Walmart's customer spend was happening at higher price points than it offered

• The private brand playbook: six $1B+ brands, four $2B+ brands, and the New York design team behind them

• How Free Assembly, Scoop, Joy Spun, and Weekend Academy were built -- and why some legacy brands had to be sunset

• The Soho pop-up that did 40% more daily volume than an average Supercenter with just three brands

• Cashmere for $45 and silk for the first time in Walmart's history — and what sold out almost immediately

• Why Walmart is "very different than fast fashion" -- and how quality sets the guardrails

• The Zeekit acquisition and virtual try-on driving higher conversion and lower return rates

• The creator strategy changing perception faster than any traditional media buy

• The $100K+ customer: where Walmart is winning her from, and why she's the growth engine

• Why "you had to shop at Walmart" is becoming "you want to shop at Walmart"

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Retail Pilot podcast for more conversations with retail industry leaders and visionaries shaping the future of commerce.

If you missed our last episode, where Tanya Golesic unpacks exactly how she's scaling Mackage beyond its outerwear roots, be sure to tune in.

Connect with Ken:
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When Tanya Golesic took the helm of Mackage in July 2021, she inherited a Canadian brand with extraordinary product and almost no story. "The minute you put the product on, you wouldn't want to take the product off," Golesic tells Ken. "But it was lacking a brand story. It was lacking storytelling." Four years and a record-breaking 2025 later, the former Jimmy Choo president has transformed a down-outerwear specialist into a global luxury lifestyle brand—stretching price points to $3,500, balancing the men's-women's split, and betting on the Croatia national team at the World Cup. This is a masterclass in brand building from someone who learned the craft at Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Canada Goose, and LVMH.

In this episode of The Retail Pilot, Ken sits down with Tanya Golesic, CEO of Mackage, to trace her journey from a Croatian immigrant family in Canada to the top of global luxury fashion, and to unpack how she's scaling Mackage beyond its outerwear roots. This is a conversation about craftsmanship, curation, building inside a private-equity-backed startup, and why fashion has more in common with sports than most people think.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How Tanya went from a Croatian immigrant family in Canada to leadership at Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, LVMH, Canada Goose, and Jimmy Choo

• Why she turned down Mackage the first time—and how a "six-and-a-half-year interview" led her to the CEO role

• The "aesthetics that protect" brand ethos: why Mackage product must be fashionable, functional, and technical all at once

• How Mackage shifted from 50% heavyweight down to a 12-month lifestyle business spanning leather, cashmere, ready-to-wear, and rainwear

• Why 2025 was a record year with double-digit growth—and how launching a real spring collection unlocked it

• The logo strategy: segmenting between a "quiet luxury" customer and a streetwear customer with flexible branding

• How she stretched price points from $850–$1,200 up to $3,500 without raising prices across the board

• The wholesale discipline: applying the 80/20 rule and pulling back doors to focus on top-tier accounts

• Mackage's global retail expansion across Canada, the US, Paris, Japan, China, and Korea—and when to use partners vs. going in-house

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Retail Pilot podcast for more conversations with retail industry leaders and visionaries shaping the future of commerce.

If you missed our last episode, where Pete Nordstrom unpacks the eight-year journey to go private, the strategic partnership with Liverpool that made it possible, and what's actually changed since May 2025, be sure to tune in.

Connect with Ken:
-Follow Ken Pilot Ventures on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

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In this episode of The Retail Pilot, Ken sits down with Pete Nordstrom – Co-CEO of the 125-year-old fashion retailer – to unpack the eight-year journey to go private, the strategic partnership with Liverpool that made it possible, and what's actually changed since May 2025. They explore why the Saks-Neiman Marcus merger created an opening Nordstrom is now seizing, how the Rack is scaling toward 25+ new stores a year, and where AI is genuinely moving the needle.
Pete is candid about the failed 2017 take-private attempt, the Canada expansion that became his generation's "biggest black eye," and why no department store has ever successfully exported its model abroad. This is a conversation about staying relevant across generations, competing with Amazon and Walmart, and the unglamorous discipline of just trying to be the best Nordstrom you can be.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why Nordstrom went private in May 2025, and why the 2017 attempt failed

• How the Liverpool partnership came together: 51% Nordstrom family, 49% Liverpool, zero pressure to merge or exit

• The real downsides of being a public company: morale, distraction, governance overhead, and a stock price tied to a struggling sector narrative

• What's actually changed day-to-day since going private and the one thing Pete misses about public-company rigor

• Why Pete sees the Saks-Neiman's merger as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Nordstrom to capture market share

• How Nordstrom is winning brand partnerships, top talent (like Yumi Shin from Bergdorf Goodman), and customers from struggling competitors

• The Rack expansion strategy: 25 stores this year, with capacity to potentially open 50 annually

• Why Nordstrom Rack competes more with Macy's than with TJ Maxx—and what that means for store growth

• The competitive reality of Amazon and Walmart in beauty, marketplace, and replenishment, and why Nordstrom can't get left behind

• Why Nordstrom's marketplace (launched 18 months ago) is one of the company's biggest untapped growth levers

• The Canada lesson: Why no department store has ever succeeded outside its home country – and what Pete learned from trying

• What Pete hopes will be true at Nordstrom's 150th anniversary – and why agility matters more than any specific plan

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Retail Pilot podcast for more conversations with retail industry leaders and visionaries shaping the future of commerce.

If you missed our last episode, where Mickey Drexler tells all on how he operates with startup intimacy and five decades of wisdom, be sure to tune in.

Connect with Ken:
-Follow Ken Pilot Ventures on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.