Deckers Corp. is coming full circle with help from the Internet. The company has re-launched its venerable Deckers flip-flop line exclusively on the Internet in a bid to see if it can build a brand on-line, said Adam Druckman, who was hired from Deckers Teva Footwear division to launch the venture. The plan also aims to expand Deckers reach into the surf market, although Druckman said Teva will continue to dabble in that market. Deckers began pedaling its eponymous flip-flops on-line in June after a 14-year hiatus for the brand.
The company has thrived in recent years on the strength of Teva, Ugg and Simple-all brands it has purchased. But Deckers traces its name and origins back to the emergence of nylon flip-flops in Southern California in the early 1970s. Thats when company founder Doug Otto visited his brother, then working at a SoCal company making a new kind of very durable sandal. Locals were calling the sandals “deckas,” because of the layers, or “decks” of rubber they used in their soles.
Otto trademarked the name Deckers and began making sandals under a licensing agreement with a company called Lightening Bolt, Druckman said. Deckers became one of the first manufacturers to use high quality military spec parachute nylon webbing and closed-cell multi-density neoprene rubbers in their sandals.
In 1986, Deckers began making Teva sandals under a licensing agreement. When the company took the brand to the Outdoor Retailer show, the business exploded. In 1994, with its Teva business booming, Deckers folded the Deckers brand. The company acquired Teva in 2002 and went on to discover and acquire Simple and Ugg.
This year, Deckers executives decided it was time to bring back the brand with help from the Internet. Druckman is working closely with Google to promote the venture, which now features four mens and three womens thongs. They range in price from $40 to $65 for leather versions. The outsoles are guaranteed for life and the company is offering free shipping and return shipping.
Druckman is building a story around the theme “serious flip-flops,” an allusion to the sandals industrial strength design and So Cal heritage.
Deckers has purchased search terms from Google and is placing videos on its YouTube subsidiary. Its also advertising deckersbrand.com in free surf publications in places like Santa Barbara, CA and Hawaii and giving away coupons at events to create buzz among enthusiasts and drive traffic to its site, said Druckman. Eventually, the web site will include more interactive elements, such as shots of the wave of the day, a desktop tide calendar and applications for Apples iPhone.
Deckers will earn better margins and forge deeper customer relationships by selling direct online, said Druckman.
“With that added margin you can treat customers differently,” he said. “We can follow up with e-mail asking How are you shoes working out? One of the problems with retail for us was we never got that feedback. Now we get all the information, hear every story, read every letter.”
Druckman commended Deckers management for being willing to experiment. “There was a day when people said no one will ever buy shoes on-line and that has been totally disproved by Zappos,” Druckman said. “Its pretty exciting to see executives looking at the future and saying, Maybe this is where commerce it going.”
