A lot has changed in the 10 years since Florsheim's former owners filed for bankruptcy. The men's shoe brand has moved into online retailing, international licences have changed hands and a highly publicised design collaboration with menswear label Duckie Brown has seen the label courted by a more fashion forward man.
But the biggest change of all has been the return of the Florsheim family to the helm of the international business. Today, Thomas Florsheim and his sons Thomas Florsheim Jr. and John Florsheim are among the directors of Weyco Group, the company that acquired Florsheim after it buckled under financial strain in 2002. It was a “proud” moment to buy back the family business, says John Florsheim.
The Milwaukee man with an accent to match has just stepped off a plane from China and is seated in Westfield Sydney's food court, drinking a long black amid the clatter of commercial cooks. The trip is to promote Florsheim's newest retail store at Westfield Sydney, a flagship for the nation.
“The key is taking that heritage and making it relevant,” Florsheim begins. “That is what this [Sydney] store is all about. There's an ode to heritage when you look at the physical structure of the store, some of the details - whether it's the Florsheim crest in leather, the façade, some of the artwork we've done. But there's also from a design standpoint very much a contemporary feel to the store. It's the blending of those two things that we were really after”.
The store was designed by no less than Eric Carlson, an American-born architect who now heads up the Carbondale in Paris and has moulded boutiques for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer. Florsheim says Carlson's design, combined with the management approach of Florsheim Australia president David Venner, means Australia is at the forefront of Florsheim's retail operations.
“Some of the things David's doing in retail are a little bit ahead of where we're at. We look to them for some guidance in terms of of where we may go next in retail,” Florsheim says.
Florsheim Australia's retail operations differ in part due to the ownership structure of the brand here. While Weyco Group own 60 per cent of local operations, Venner himself owns a 40 per cent stake. The arrangement came into being when the now defunct Figgins Holdings choose to unleash Florsheim from its brand stable in the late 2000s as it tipped closer and closer towards administration. Today, Florsheim Australia not only manages local distribution and retail operations but operations in Asia and South Africa too.
“We're really happy to have David come on board,” Florsheim says of the joint venture. “We've become much more engaged. It's one thing to have a licence, it's another thing to have a partner. There's much more communication and sharing of ideas and design direction and philosophy.”
Venner agrees.
“We probably became a bit more proactive and aggressive about building the business here. There was a sense of energy created and I think suppliers felt that and the staff felt that. Our retail business in Australia has had year over year compound growth – we're running this year comparable 18 per cent up on last year – and those things are happening because there's an energy in the business, there's a passion within the staff and they're not feeling scared about their jobs.”
Florsheim says there's other peculiarities he has noticed about retail and fashion in Australia too.
“What is interesting about the Australian market is I think you've had a better experience in building a reach down to the younger consumer than we have. We're envious of that. If you walk into Florsheim [Australia] today you've got some of the classic footwear that your Dad wore and all that, but you also have a fair amount from a fashion standpoint, a pretty good contemporary collection, a little bit more of a European influence than what we have in the US market. I think that's helped bring the brand to a whole new generation of consumers.”
This capacity to lure younger consumers could be put down to Florsheim Australia's decision to source product from many offices worldwide. Currently, shoes are procured from Florsheim's design centres in the US, Hong Kong and Florence, and others are designed here in Australia. Perhaps the biggest difference between Florsheim Australia and the Weyco Group, though, can be traced back to 2003 when Florsheim Australia moved into women's shoes. It was a move that Florsheim's previous US parent company had tried, and failed.
“The brand is so synonymous with men's shoes in the US market that it was always the stepchild of the business,” Florsheim explains. “There was a decision made before we got back the brand to discontinue women's shoes.”
The new category has proven more successful for Florsheim Australia, with Venner claiming to have experienced 33 per cent year on year growth in the women's category this year. Florsheim women's designs are now available throughout the southern hemisphere.
Florsheim says he gives Venner and his team “a lot of credit for sticking with it and building a successful business”, but there are no immediate plans to reintroduce women's designs back into North America.
“I'm sure the women's market is very competitive here but the women's market is very competitive in the US,” Florsheim says.
Which brings us to more uncomfortable territory: how is Florsheim faring in this difficult and “very competitive” retail environment?
“It's interesting, it really varies by market,” Florsheim says. “I think the retail model here in Australia works very well. We've just opened a store in Rome and it's going very well. Our store in Milan is excellent. In the US, it's actually a tougher retail environment and what we're really focusing on in the US is 'less is more'. We're doing more experimental things.”
These include a trial of pop up stores such as one in New York's SoHo. Then there is the ongoing collaboration with Duckie Brown which has seen Florsheim produce more fashion forward designs, such as wingtips in blue or yellow rather than traditional tan and black.
“We love it because they are shoes and lasts that we've been doing for 100 years,” Florsheim says. “It's not like we're trying to do something new and modern. We're taking something we're already doing and now we're doing it in yellow.”
There are other strategies too, to fight the way through the current retail mire.
“We'd like to evolve the brand,” Florsheim says. “We'd like to get the brand more casual, incorporate more of a casual aspect to what we're doing worldwide. We're really at the beginning of that and we're starting to have some success in the US market... Then we really want to continue the global expansion”.
Florsheim Australia is integral to the latter, and Venner says he hopes to open Sydney-like flagship in Hong Kong to “drive this whole region's growth”.
“The reason I want to eventually get one in Hong Kong is because most of the belief in brands in mainland China is driven by what the tourists from mainland China see in Hong Kong. It's a ten year plan, don't get me wrong, but you've got to set the right image in the market so that it then flows into mainland China.”
In addition to the just opened Florsheim stores in the Philippines and Malaysia, there are another five stores planned for Australia. That will bring the local door count to 30.
“We see this area of the world as being so important,” Florsheim concludes. “We have a lot of opportunities...”