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How Merrell’s Jane Smith balances Heritage and innovation

Megan Glover

August 19, 2025

Industry interviews

Get the full episode here

TL;DR — What you'll learn:

Why authenticity is the most important factor for AI-powered search visibility
How Merrell’s collaborations with Jeep show the difference between aligned and misaligned partnerships
Why scaling through key cities beats trying to localize for every single market
How a community-first strategy unifies global messaging and reduces campaign clutter
Why “living the brand” — through activations like Out of Office — builds consumer trust
Jane Smith’s blueprint for balancing heritage storytelling with modern ecommerce growth

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Outdoor brands carry something modern DTC startups often dream of: heritage. But heritage alone isn’t enough to thrive in 2025. Legacy brands are under pressure to stay relevant in an era of AI-powered search, TikTok shops, global expansion, and cultural shifts like gorpcore—while still protecting their authenticity.

That’s why this episode of Ecommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives with Jane Smith, VP of Marketing at Merrell, is a must-listen for ecommerce leaders.

With more than 25 years in digital marketing—spanning agency roles in Seattle, London, and Paris to leading marketing at Wolverine Worldwide—Jane has seen how ecommerce has evolved and how heritage brands can modernize without losing their soul. At Merrell, she’s helping transform a 40+ year-old outdoor footwear company into a blueprint for balancing roots with innovation.

Key takeaways from Jane Smith’s playbook

Authenticity wins in AI search

Generative AI favors organic, human-driven content—not recycled SEO. Publish people-first stories that communities reference and share.

Collaborations must be aligned

Audience, product, and values have to click. The right fit drives both sell-through and brand heat; misalignment creates noise.

Scale globally via key cities

Focus marketing energy on globally influential hubs instead of spreading thin across every market from day one.

Consistency beats campaign clutter

A unified story across categories compounds reach and trust more than many fragmented, one-off campaigns.

Live the brand

When employees embody the lifestyle, customers believe the message. Real participation fuels credibility and word-of-mouth.

How AI-powered search Is changing brand strategy

Generative AI is rewriting the rules of discovery. Jane recalled visiting Google HQ just days before recording the episode, where executives revealed that traditional search results are already disappearing from Gemini AI outputs.

"The most important thing in terms of generative search is to have organic content—real, authentic, community-driven stories that AI can’t replicate."
— Jane Smith, VP of Marketing at Merrell

For Merrell, that means:

Publishing brand-owned storytelling that reflects its heritage.
Encouraging authentic conversations on Reddit, blogs, and forums.
Ensuring press coverage and community mentions fuel discoverability.

In other words: AI favors what people genuinely talk about, not what algorithms recycle.

Collaborations that work—and when they miss

Partnerships are often viewed as shortcuts to new audiences. But Jane emphasized that they only succeed when they authentically connect product, audience, and brand values.

✅ Success: Merrell x Jeep Wrangler Rubicon — the Moab 3 hiking boot and Jeep’s flagship vehicle aligned perfectly, creating seamless content and strong sales.
❌ Miss: Merrell x Electric Jeep — a brightly colored, athletic shoe that didn’t resonate with Jeep’s core audience, leaving the collab underwhelming.

Lesson: Collabs can’t just look good on paper. They need cultural and audience fit to drive both brand heat and revenue.

Scaling globally with a key city strategy

How does a heritage brand scale globally without drowning in complexity? Jane explained Merrell’s shift to a “key city” approach rather than trying to customize for every single market.

Europe: Paris & London
Asia: Tokyo & Seoul
US: New York

This ensures a consistent red thread of brand storytelling across continents, while testing resonance in globally influential hubs. Borrowed from CPG playbooks, it helps Merrell scale heritage storytelling without losing focus.

Why consistency beats campaign clutter

Merrell plays in three core categories—hike, trail run, and casual. For years, each ran independent campaigns, creating fragmentation.

Jane reflected:

“Sometimes when you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being nothing to no one.”

The fix? A community-first strategy that unifies messaging and lets authentic brand advocates amplify the story. By focusing on belonging, Merrell builds stronger equity than running dozens of disconnected campaigns.

Living the brand: Merrell’s “Out of Office” campaign

Perhaps the best example of Merrell’s authenticity is the Out of Office campaign, where four Merrell marketers trained for and ran a grueling 50K race in Sonoma, California.

One broke their ankle.
Another broke down mid-race.
The only woman in the group won her category.

It wasn’t polished—it was raw, human, and real. And it showed customers that Merrell’s team doesn’t just market the outdoors; they live it.

Final thought: Belonging is the new differentiator

For Jane Smith, the future of outdoor retail—and ecommerce more broadly—isn’t just about product or promotion. It’s about belonging.

“Everyone at Merrell feels in their bones the importance of getting people outside. It isn’t Kool-Aid; it’s real.”
— Jane Smith, VP of Marketing at Merrell

That belief runs through the brand’s campaigns, collaborations, and community work. And it’s why Merrell continues to thrive more than 40 years after its founding.

For ecommerce leaders, the lesson is clear: heritage is only powerful if it’s lived authentically—and shared through communities AI can’t fake.

Listen to the full episode now

Frequently Asked Questions

How does AI-powered search change marketing for heritage brands?

Jane explains that generative AI surfaces fewer traditional links, so brands can’t rely on classic SEO alone. The winning move is authentic, brand-owned content that communities reference and share—think credible articles, press, blogs, and Reddit threads that LLMs can cite.

What kind of content performs best in AI Overviews?

Content that is original, specific, and people-first. Merrell focuses on real stories, product education, and community initiatives that earn organic mentions. Avoid thin, AI-generated filler; LLMs prioritize trustworthy, human-centered sources with clear signals of expertise.

When do brand collaborations work—and when do they miss?

They work when product, audience, and values align (e.g., Moab 3 x Jeep Wrangler Rubicon). They miss when the aesthetic or audience fit is off (e.g., a bright, polarizing style paired to a newer EV skew). Alignment drives both sell-through and brand heat; misalignment creates noise without impact.

How is Merrell scaling globally without losing consistency?

By adopting a “key city” strategy—Paris and London in Europe, Tokyo and Seoul in Asia, and New York in the U.S. These hubs act as testing grounds and amplification centers, creating a recognizable red thread across continents without the complexity of hyper-localizing for dozens of markets at once.

What’s Merrell’s approach to emerging trends like gorpcore?

Merrell incubates trends in a higher-tier, limited distribution line to test appetite and aesthetics. If a look gains traction, elements trickle down into mainline product. This lets the brand explore progressive styles without alienating core consumers.

How does Merrell connect offline experiences to digital growth?

The team runs community activations (e.g., hiking clubs, events in key cities) to get shoes on feet—then amplifies those stories digitally. Campaigns like “Out of Office” showcase real employees tackling real challenges, generating trust, engagement, and word-of-mouth that feeds discovery and conversions online.

What’s the biggest lesson about brand consistency across channels?

Avoid fragmentation. Merrell is consolidating around a unified, community-first story across hike, trail run, and casual. Consistency raises effective reach and frequency, so each impression compounds instead of competing with the next.

How should brands prepare product pages for the AI search era?

Enrich product data with precise attributes (materials, use cases, fit), add FAQ-style Q&A, cite credible sources, and publish first-party stories tied to communities. These signals help LLMs answer natural language queries with your brand’s content.

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