Target has announced the addition of two seats to its board of directors, less than two weeks from COO Michael Fiddelke taking the reins.

The timing isn’t a coincidence, as the company frames it; the new members’ backgrounds complement what incoming CEO Fiddelke has defined as his strategy for reestablishing the beleaguered retail giant: a renewed focus on style and design.

John Hoke, III, former chief innovation officer at Nike, joins the board March 1. Steve Bratspies, former CEO of HanesBrands, joins April 1.

“Their appointments reflect Target’s focus on delivering style, design, and value through products and experiences grounded in a deep understanding of consumers,” the Minneapolis-based company stated Thursday in a press release.

Hoke worked at Nike for more than 30 years, becoming the company’s first chief innovation officer and leaving late last year. He oversaw brand development across Nike, Jordan, and Converse. Before joining the Oregon-based company in 1995, per his LinkedIn, he worked for two years as a designer for Michael Graves Architecture & Design. Graves is a notable erstwhile partner of Target’s, who designed the avant-garde teakettle that in 1999 kicked off the retailer’s series of chic-for-fairly-cheap partnerships, spotlighting designers like Philippe Starck and Isaac Mizrahi. Hoke also serves as board chair for the Michigan-based furniture company MillerKnoll and as an advisor to Massachusetts-based robotics company Piaggio Fast Forward.

Steve Bratspies served as CEO of the North Carolina-based HanesBrands starting in 2020, per LinkedIn, and stepped down last year. Before that, Bratspies spent 15 years at Walmart, serving as chief merchandising officer from 2015 to 2020. Bratspies has also worked in senior leadership positions at Frito-Lay’s North America division, part of PepsiCo, and as chief marketing officer for the UK-based Specialty Brands spirits distributor. He is also on the board of the California-based Clorox Company.

Their additions expand Target’s board from 12 seats to 14. When Fiddelke becomes CEO on Feb. 1, he takes a board seat, as well, bumping the count to 15.

In Target’s most recent quarterly report, released mid-November, the company saw a continued sales decline in discretionary categories. Net sales dropped 1.5% year over year. The retailer maintained its fourth-quarter guidance of a low single-digit sales decline, and it lowered its full-year profit guidance.

In the report, Target announced it would improve guest experience and sharpen merchants’ trend savvy using AI tools. Chief commercial officer Rick Gomez said its holiday season would feature more than 10,000 new, Target-exclusive products as well as slashed prices on food, beverage, and essential items. It is also investing $5 billion in new and remodeled stores—$1 billion more this year than last.

Target’s Q4 and full-year earnings come out in March.

With Fiddelke joining the board next month, it would appear two out of 15 board members will be based in Minnesota. (Former Ecolab CEO Doug Baker, founding partner of the Minneapolis-based E2SG Partners private-equity partnership, is the other.) Board appointments are removed from day-to-day operations. Members monitor the company, oversee governance, and evaluate the CEO.

Onlookers have questioned Target’s ability to recapture the higher-end-for-lower-cost excitement that made it an envelope pusher in the 2000s. Fiddelke has described a three-pronged strategy: reassert Target’s merchandising credibility, elevate the shopping experience, and use technology to make operations more efficient.

Target’s struggles have been multifold, and such efforts leave the company’s authenticity problem untouched. Target scaled back DEI efforts last year, ceasing participation in external diversity-focused surveys, for example, and sunsetting its five-year pledge to carry more products from Black- or minority-owned businesses. Boycotts ensued. CEO Brian Cornell said the response hurt performance, and Placer.ai has tracked flagging foot traffic to Target stores.