Footwear brands across the spectrum are making headlines with their public debuts, new funding, product drops and international expansion.
On Running finalizes IPO share price
On Running, the Roger Federer-endorsed Swiss performance brand active in more than 60 countries, finalized the share price for its initial public offering. The Zurich company made 31.1 million Class A shares available for $24 apiece. The athletic sneaker and apparel firm, which produced all of its footwear in Vietnam so far this year, said it’s offering 25,442,391 Class A ordinary shares and while shareholders are kicking in 5,657,609 of their own. On, seen as a rising challenger to Nike, Adidas, Puma and Under Armour, opened its first store late last year, planting a tech-fueled flagship in New York City’s NoHo neighborhood.
Brunt Workwear
Brunt Workwear raised $8.4 million in a Series A round, underscoring its potential to innovate in the $12 billion market serving the on-the-job outfitting needs of construction workers and skilled tradespeople. After coming to market last year offering boots that sold out almost immediately, the Boston-based brand leveraged its strong reception by expanding into apparel and now will use the new funding to ramp up production, tackle new categories and add talent to a leadership team helmed by co-founding CEO Eric Girouard, a veteran of M.Gemi and Rue La La.
The direct-to-consumer startup credits purpose-built technology for much of its success, with inventory analytics partner Singuli raising its own $3.7 million seed round earlier this summer. Brunt co-founder Dave Chernow says Singuli has been key in helping the brand de-risk its assortment.
“Individual attributes can be binary for specific consumers based on what they need to do their job,” he told Sourcing Journal. Not all workers will need a safety toe on their boots, and even then, what goes into that component—steel versus a composite material, for example—can vary by application, too.
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Singuli’s machine-learning-powered platform offers “a lot of different ways you can cut the data that works really well for our business,” Chernow said. Brunt also compares the market sizing data it gleans from Singuli with its own supply-chain data to “remove some of the risks…inherent in launching new products.”
In business for half a century, TF Cornerstone led Brunt’s founding round, which drew participation from Theory CEO Andrew Rosen and Rue La La founder Ben Fischman.
Underserved trades workers toil in jobs that “can be very tough on the body, elevating the importance of having high quality footwear and apparel for their well-being,” said Marc Klein, TF Cornerstone’s director of diversified investments.
Mallet London x Coogi
Mallet London and Coogi reunited for their second collaboration, following a previous pairing in 2019 whose two styles sold out in an hour, they said. Australian knitwear label Coogi, known for multicolored swirls made famous by ‘90s hip-hop stars, brings its signature styling to the British premium footwear brand created by Forbes 30 Under 30’s Tommy Mallet of “The Only Way Is Essex” reality fame.
“Our Cyrus silhouette provides the perfect canvas for Coogi’s bold designs on knitwear,” Mallet said.
Available in black or white, the limited-time sneaker launched on Sept. 11 through mallet.com and Saks Fifth Avenue, with retail prices starting at $350.
Sans Matin
Sans Matin, a premium casual sneaker maker in the vein of Greats and Koio, landed in the U.S. after previously selling its unisex trainers only in its native United Kingdom.
The brand plans to release a new shoe each month in the coming years and expand into new categories like espadrilles and platform sneaker styles.
For Lockie Cunningham, who co-founded Sans Matin with cousin Charly in 2015, “sustainability is at the forefront of our minds.” Workers at a Medellin atelier ethically handcraft shoes for the brand, which curbs carbon and waste by tapping locally sourced materials, he said. Recycled inputs and sugarcane feature in Sans Matin’s packaging while recycled cottons and plastics form the shoe bags sheathing each pair. “We also have a sustainable closed loop of sourcing and producing 60 percent natural rubber soles,” he added