SGB Update Footwear

Fleet Feet Franchisees Acquire Flying Feet Sports Shoes in York, PA
With stores in Mechanicsburg and Harrisburg, PA, this marks the third Fleet Feet store location owned and operated by Shelby and Fred Joslyn.

Fleet Feet Concord Opens in North Carolina
Mark and Kristin Harris’ Concord, NC store, in the Christenbury Village, is the second for them, as they also own a Fleet Feet store in Huntersville, NC.

Superfeet Makes Four Key Strategic Leadership Hires
The manufacturer of performance insoles has promoted Annie Quammen to chief people officer and hired Dan Bailey as chief growth officer, Mike Donnelly as VP of Marketing, Jiewei Fridgen as VP of Operations, and Heather Allerdice-Gerow as head of Digital Product.

Archive Raises $30M Series B Funding to Expand Resale Intelligence Software
Archive said it has launched new partnerships with New Balance, Fjällräven and Dr. Martens, among others, in addition to expanding existing resale programs with The North Face, DVF, Faherty, and M.M.LaFleur.

JCPenney Launches B2B Website for Commercial Bulk Orders
The department store retailer said its new business-to-business website offers current and potential bulk order customers exclusive access to JCPenney’s vast catalog of products across several divisions.

Black Diamond Wilderness Exchange to Host Grand Re-Opening
The store’s renovation has been ongoing since October 2024, during which BDE reportedly invested in much of the related costs. The newly branded Black Diamond Wilderness Exchange store will host a grand reopening from February 8-16, 2025.

Timberland Appoints New Global Creative Director of Marketing
Drew Villani is responsible for bringing the company’s creative vision to life, including brand marketing, art direction, photography, store design, styling, and video production. Villani joined Timberland from Calvin Klein, where he was the senior director of global creative.

Caleres Appoints Brian Costello as Chief Merchant at Famous Footwear
Costello was, most recently, the footwear DMM at Nordstrom. He will oversee all buying and merchandising, including women’s, men’s and kids’ athletic and fashion footwear and accessories, for the brand’s U.S. and Canada stores and e-commerce sites.

Taos Footwear Gets $65 Million Influx, Loans from Investment Firm
Prospect Capital Corp. has provided a first lien senior secured term loan, a first lien senior secured convertible term loan and a preferred equity investment to Taos Footwear Holdings, LLC in collaboration with the company’s founder and leadership team.

Cole Haan Opens Store in Flatiron District, its Third Location in New York City
The store is in a 1904 Neo-Renaissance landmark building. The company said the 1,622-square-foot retail space represents the company’s global store expansion initiative.

Nordstrom, Inc. Plans to Open New Rack Store in Lake Grove, NY
The new retail location expands the company’s physical footprint and economic impact in New York, where it currently operates five Nordstrom stores and 10 Nordstrom Rack stores, generating over 1,900 jobs statewide.

Ortholite Appoints Commercial Director for OrthoLite India
Pankaj Kumar joins OIN in its newly expanded manufacturing facility in Ambur, Tamil Nadu, India, which “enables increased capacity to two million pairs of insoles per month.”

Report: Flat U.S. Footwear Retail Sales Led by Sport Lifestyle Growth in 2024
Circana reports that U.S. footwear industry sales totaled $89.2 billion in 2024, a flat performance year-over-year, with the sport lifestyle category generating $31 billion in sales to lead all categories for the year.

Outdoor Retailer and Surf Expo Parent Re-Works Term Loan and Revolver
A portion of the proceeds of the Term Loan Facility were used to refinance all existing loans outstanding under Emerald’s previous senior secured credit facilities, and to pay costs and expenses in connection with the refinancing.

Arc’teryx Makes Three Strategic Leadership Appointments
Industry veteran Matt Bolte has been named chief merchandising officer, with Marissa Pardini as general manager and Ben Stubbington as creative director of its Veilance brand.