Table of Contents Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Genesco Inc. Opinion on the Financial Statements We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Genesco Inc. (the Company) as of February 1, 2020 and February 2, 2019, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, cash flows and equity for each of the three fiscal years in the period ended February 1, 2020, and the related notes and financial statement schedule listed in the Index at Item 15 (collectively referred to as the "consolidated financial statements"). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at February 1, 2020 and February 2, 2019, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three fiscal years in the period ended February 1, 2020, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of February 1, 2020, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) and our report dated April 1, 2020 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon. As discussed in Notes 1, 2 and 8 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company changed its method of accounting for leases in fiscal 2020 due to the adoption of Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) 2016-02, “Leases (Topic 842)”. See below for discussion of our related critical audit matter. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB. We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures include examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate. Adoption of New Accounting Standards Basis for Opinion Critical Audit Matters 40