Cole Haan opened its 500th store, marking its accelerated expansion since spinning off from Nike in 2012. The brand is sold in over 100 countries, up from 13 in 2013.
“From the early days of our launch of Cole Haan as an independent company following our acquisition of the business [from Nike], we envisioned the opportunity to bring this iconic American brand to a broader global audience. Over the past decade, we have expanded our product assortment, our talent, and our partnership with a network of world-class distribution partners globally. As we reach this important milestone, we are focused on a range of opportunities we have created for the future of Cole Haan,” said Jack Boys, CEO of Cole Haan.
The brand’s global retail presence includes premium shopping malls and international stores, including the World Trade Center in New York, Valley Fair Mall and South Coast Plaza in California, and Houston Galleria in the United States.
In the Middle East, the company’s partners opened stores in Dubai Mall, Emirates Mall, Place Vendome in Qatar, and Mall of Arabia in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In Asia Pacific, Cole Haan is at Taikoo Hui in Shanghai, LiVat in Beijing, Harbour City, the largest shopping mall in Hong Kong, and Ginza and Harajuku in Tokyo, Japan.
Within Central and South America, the brand has opened stores within the upscale Polanco district in Mexico City and MultiPlaza Mall in Panama.
Cole Haan has opened shop-in-shops in the UK at the prestigious Harrods and Selfridges department stores.
“The Cole Haan brand is committed to providing fashion-forward footwear that combines time-honored craft with modern innovation, which supports our customers from work to workout, to weekend and beyond. There is no other brand offering the same breadth of products or matching our innovative approach to re-imagining footwear for today’s on-the-go lifestyles. These 500 stores represent the future of Cole Haan,” said David Maddocks, brand president of Cole Haan.
To support its expanded global presence, the company recently opened its first regional office in Dubai, UAE, which joins existing offices and showrooms in New York, Toronto, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.
“Cole Haan has been a pioneer in the footwear industry from the beginning, and our growth over the past 10 years reflects the increasing customer demand for high-quality, fashionable, and innovative footwear,” said Adrian Santos, senior vice president, International at Cole Haan. “We’re excited to achieve this milestone and look to continue supporting and inspiring consumers in every part of their day in yet more locations over the next decade.”
In addition to this retail growth, the company and its distributors operate more than 55 regional and country-specific e-commerce websites globally.
Nike sold its Cole Haan handbag and shoe brand to private equity firm Apax Partners in 2012 for $570 million after nearly 24 years of ownership.
Photo courtesy Cole Haan
