The Wall St. Journal recently shared how Skechers has become a major shoe player by marching to its own drumbeat. 

Started in 1992, Skechers is the third largest seller of shoes in the world. But the company's history goes back even further: the founder's first company, LA Gear, which flamed out, was started in the 1980s.

Skechers grew by focusing on comfy and affordable shoes and didn't sign expensive promotion deals with active athletes. (It does partner with ex-athletes like Howie Long.) 

When I read this article, I couldn't help but think of us here at Shop Local. How do we compare?

A brief recap of our history:
 

• 2007: 

  We started with a sketch on a bar napkin for the Product Syncing service. (Did Skechers start with a napkin sketch, too—hence their name? 😂)  We had a handful of brick-and-mortar retail clients, including William-Wayne & Co., which is still a client today. (They joined us in 2002). 

• 2010: 

  We launched the Online Store. (Before this, we only offered custom websites that cost $5k+ and took months to code.) We had about 10 indie retail clients, including Shulan’s, Marel Gifts, Sallie Home, The Pink Daisy, and William-Wayne.

  We built an online wedding registry for a merchant’s custom website.

• 2025:

  This year marks our 18th year of revenue and client growth. (We’re at nearly 1,500 retail clients). We’ve seen businesses grow and surpass us in this time (We see you, Nvidia! 😜). We’ve seen an equal number fail and/or close (One Kings Lane, Gilt Group, Net-a-Porter, Yoox, Juniper, etc.).   

Skechers' path shows us there is room in a market for doing things "your way," and it can pay off. There will be Nikes and Shopifys—and there will be Skechers and Bridges. A few examples of us doing it ‘our way’: 

• We’re the only company to make an online store and a wedding registry service. This saves our clients time and costs and makes it easier for them.
• We’re the only company that makes an online store service and a product data syncing service. This helps indie stores avoid $3.5m in labor costs each year for 100+ brands, including Kate Spade, Le Creuset, and Juliska.
• We’re the only company that makes a wholesale service and a gift registry service. Trust us, there's a need: when a store sells a gift registry item, it has to order that product at wholesale. We've helped brands sell $3.5m in wholesale.

To my team, thank you for your great work. Cue the Frank Sinatra song "My Way." You did it your way.

WSJ article details:

• Skechers did $8b in revenue in 2023 and is projected to do $10b in revenue in 2026.
• Two-thirds of its revenue comes from outside the U.S.
• Skechers is bigger than Nike in India.
• Skechers doesn’t seek to be a trendy or cool brand.
• Their stores sometimes use a franchise system.
• Robert Greenberg started Skechers in 1992, and it’s his second shoe company. The first was LA Gear in the 1980s.

• During the pandemic, Nike reduced its models to under $100 and stopped selling to indies, and Skechers filled the gap. 

   

Read the full article about Skechers' growth:

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/skechers-went-after-the-customers-nike-didnt-it-paid-off-9426644e?st=5eaWkU&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink