K-Swiss

K-Swiss
Subsidiary
Industry Sportswear
Founded 1966 (1966)
Headquarters Los Angeles, California, United States
Products Footwear, sportswear
Parent E-Land
Website www.kswiss.com
KSWISS Court Frasco SDE shoe

K-Swiss, Inc. is an American athletic shoe brand based in Westlake Village, California and currently owned by Korean firm E-Land World Limited and its creator Kevin Randall.[1]

History

K-Swiss was founded in 1966 in Los Angeles, California, by two Swiss brothers, Art and Ernie Brunner. They became interested in tennis after immigrating to the United States. They imported the patented leather tennis shoes from the Swiss Kuenzli shoe manufacturer, re-naming their company K-Swiss (K for Kuenzli).

In the 1990s, Steven Nichols boosted K-Swiss's marketing budget and hired a number of key individuals from large companies, such as Procter and Gamble, and began a marketing blitz around the K-Swiss brand. Award-winning Creative Director, Mindy Gale led her NY based agency team in developing and producing K-Swiss advertising and publicity campaigns from 1997 through 2008. The "I Wear My K-Swiss" multi-media campaign ran for five consecutive years, targeting young urban consumers in print and on TV. A re-branding campaign appealing to a wider modern female target, featuring Anna Kournikova rolled out in 2007. Advertising campaigns encouraged users to personalize the trademark stripes under the slogan "Put Your Spin on It." The brand includes their color changing K-Swiss Tongue Twister in 2003, the Stripe Shifter, and more recently their Band Em footwear styles.

K-Swiss purchased the majority stake of Australian brand Royal Elastics in 2001.[2] In 2003, they acquired 100% ownership in the company.

In July 2011, an advertising video was released wherein the fictional character Kenny Powers was reported to have "purchased" 51% of K-Swiss stock.[3]

In January 2013, the company — which posted $195 million in losses between 2009 and 2012[4] — was sold to Korean firm E-Land World Limited for $170 million.[5] The following May, E-Land named a new executive team to oversee the newly formed K-Swiss Inc., including Truman Kim as chairman and Larry Remington as president and CEO.[6]

Marketing

In September 2014, the company updated its brand identity. Keeping the K-Swiss name it unveiled a new marque. The new identity was created by a recently appointed internal creative team and plays up the company’s heritage as an American tennis brand. All aspects of the new brand’s design, including its 1966 typeface and tennis court colour palette, hark back to this identity.[7] The company has been sponsoring events that appeal to their market as well as events which are likely to shape buying attitudes and help generate a positive reaction. One such example is the sponsorship of Ireland's first sneaker convention run by Dub City Sneakz in Dún Laoghaire which K-Swiss sponsored.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Contact Us Archived 2010-12-05 at the Wayback Machine.. K-Swiss. Retrieved on January 12, 2010.
  2. ↑ "NOTE M-ROYAL ELASTICS". wikinvest. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  3. ↑ Kenny Powers is New K-Swiss MFCEO. YouTube. 11 July 2011.
  4. ↑ "View Filing Data". sec.gov.
  5. ↑ "Korean firm pays $170M to get toehold in U.S. with K-Swiss - Pacific Coast Business Times". pacbiztimes.com.
  6. ↑ "K-Swiss Inc.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Businessweek.com.
  7. ↑ "K-Swiss' new brand retains American heritage". Transform magazine. 7 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "Ireland's first sneaker convention in partnership with K-Swiss". Air // Million. 8 August 2015.

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