BUSINESS SEGMENT INFORMATION

The Company's reportable segments are Famous Footwear and Brand Portfolio.

The Famous Footwear segment is comprised of Famous Footwear and Famous.com. Famous Footwear operated 992 stores at the end of 2018, primarily selling branded footwear for the entire family.

The Brand Portfolio segment is comprised of our branded footwear, our branded retail stores and e-commerce sites associated with those brands. This segment sources and markets licensed, branded and private-label footwear primarily to national chains, online retailers, department stores, mass merchandisers, independent retailers and catalogs as well as Company-owned Famous Footwear, Allen Edmonds, Naturalizer and Sam Edelman stores, and e-commerce businesses. The Brand Portfolio segment included 146 branded retail stores in the United States, 82 branded retail stores in Canada, and one branded retail store in Italy at the end of 2018.

The Company’s Famous Footwear and Brand Portfolio reportable segments are operating units that are managed separately. An operating segment’s performance is evaluated and resources are allocated based primarily on operating earnings (loss). Operating earnings (loss) represents gross profit, less selling and administrative expenses, impairment of goodwill and intangible assets and restructuring and other special charges, net. The accounting policies of the reportable segments are the same as those described in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements. Intersegment sales are generally recorded at a profit to the selling segment. All intersegment earnings related to inventory on hand at the purchasing segment are eliminated against the earnings of the selling segment.

Corporate assets, administrative expenses and other costs and recoveries that are not allocated to the operating units are reported in the Other category.

Following is a summary of certain key financial measures for the respective periods:



($ thousands)	Famous Footwear		Brand Portfolio			Other			Total
Fiscal 2018
External sales	$	1,606,808	$	1,228,038		$	—		$	2,834,846
Intersegment sales	—		85,513			—			85,513
Depreciation and amortization	28,816		20,768			13,113			62,697
Amortization of debt issuance costs and debt discount	—		—			2,210			2,210
Operating earnings (loss)	85,268		(42,206		)	(42,661		)	401
Segment assets	502,507		1,211,008			125,053			1,838,568
Purchases of property and equipment	17,552		41,993			2,938			62,483
Capitalized software	351		814			3,251			4,416

Fiscal 2017
External sales	$	1,637,627	$	1,147,957		$	—		$	2,785,584
Intersegment sales	—		85,124			—			85,124
Depreciation and amortization	29,990		16,873			17,207			64,070
Amortization of debt issuance costs and debt discount	—		—			1,761			1,761
Operating earnings (loss)	92,230		80,212			(44,759		)	127,683
Segment assets	500,862		814,508			174,045			1,489,415
Purchases of property and equipment	22,920		15,865			5,935			44,720
Capitalized software	483		232			5,743			6,458

Fiscal 2016
External sales	$	1,590,065	$	989,323		$	—		$	2,579,388
Intersegment sales	—		91,415			—			91,415
Depreciation and amortization	27,832		11,028			17,271			56,131
Amortization of debt issuance costs and debt discount	—		—			1,726			1,726
Operating earnings (loss)	83,735		76,248			(63,991		)	95,992
Segment assets	526,555		838,328			110,390			1,475,273
Purchases of property and equipment	37,697		8,828			3,998			50,523
Capitalized software	3,468		50			5,521			9,039

Following is a reconciliation of operating earnings to (loss) earnings before income taxes:



($ thousands)	2018			2017			2016
Operating earnings	$	401		$	127,683		$	95,992
Interest expense, net	(18,277		)	(17,325		)	(13,731		)
Loss on early extinguishment of debt	(186		)	—			—
Other income, net	12,308			12,348			14,993
(Loss) earnings before income taxes	$	(5,754	)	$	122,706		$	97,254

For geographic purposes, the domestic operations include the Company's domestic retail operations, the wholesale distribution of licensed, branded and private-label footwear to a variety of retail customers, including the Famous Footwear and Brand Portfolio stores, as well as the Company's e-commerce businesses.

The Company’s foreign operations consist of wholesale and retail operations primarily in the Far East, Canada and Italy. The Far East operations include first-cost transactions, where footwear is sold at foreign ports to customers who then import the footwear into the United States and other countries.

A summary of the Company’s net sales and long-lived assets by geographic area were as follows:



($ thousands)	2018		2017		2016
Net Sales
United States	$	2,656,928	$	2,603,725	$	2,385,111
Far East	93,883		98,287		134,430
Canada	63,354		75,764		59,847
Latin America and other	20,681		7,808		—
Total net sales	$	2,834,846	$	2,785,584	$	2,579,388

Long-Lived Assets
United States	$	771,705	$	450,323	$	617,211
Europe	79,320		177,755		286
Canada	8,256		10,878		10,141
Far East	1,560		1,686		1,814
Other	1,280		1,984		2,076
Total long-lived assets	$	862,121	$	642,626	$	631,528

Long-lived assets consisted primarily of property and equipment, intangible assets, goodwill, prepaid pension costs and other noncurrent assets.