Almost everyone today knows the Skechers name. In fact, a good majority of people have owned at least one pair of Skechers at some point. Surprisingly though, few people know much about the history or where this brand came from. It seemed to appear out of nowhere before suddenly becoming a huge hit.

From there the Skechers brand quickly became a basic staple within the shoe industry. For being just over 20 years old, this is actually quite an amazing feat. For brands that do get popular quickly, the success is oftentimes short lived once a particular fad dies out. For Skechers, however, the popularity has been much more than a 15 minutes of fame type of success story.

Behind the Brand

Skechers was born in the U.S.A. and remains an American company; in fact, the brand has its headquarters in Manhattan Beach, California. One could say the Skechers brand actually started before it was Skechers in some ways. The company was founded by father and son team Robert and Michael Greenberg.

The CEO and elder Greenberg, Robert, originally started out at the once popular shoe brand LA Gear back in 1983. In 1992, however, Robert left his command post with the LA Gear company to look for greener pastures. Almost immediately following his departure, with LA Gear father and son started the Skechers brand company.

His son, Michael, was no stranger to the footwear fashion industry. At the time of starting Skechers he was a distributor for the famous brand Doc Martens. In fact, some of the early Skechers designs had the same type of utilitarian and functional look and design, focusing mostly on boots and skate shoes. The idea was to model the look in a way that would capitalize on the ever popular grunge trend of the day.

In the beginning and since the early days over 20 years ago, the line of Skechers shoes has widened to include:

Athletic
Casual
Work
Dress
Men
Women’s
Youth

The company has also branched out to include brands such as:

Shape-ups
Skechers Sport
Skechers Resistance
Skechers USA
Active
Skechers Work
Cali
Tone-ups
Skechers Kids

Staying Stylish

Once Skechers moved past the initial utility style boots and skate shoes, they opened up to include more stylish looks as well. To this day the focus of the brand is to stay trendy, cool, and hip so that a wide market seeks this look.

The Skechers advertising has long been celebrity driven; their first international celebrity spokesperson was Britney Spears in 2000, which is proof that the company had evolved quite a bit from its grunge look that it started with in 1992. Some of their other campaigns have included a variety of different types of famous people, such as:

Singers Christina Aguilera, Ashlee Simpson, and the Black Eyed Peas
Actors Rob Lowe and Robert Downey Jr.
Athletes Wayne Gretzky and Joe Montana
TV personalities Kim Kardashian and Brooke Burke

Although branded separately, the company also includes fashion footwear lines such as Unltd. By Marc Ecko, Mark Nason, and Zoo York. Skechers can be found at its own retail stores, as part of department stores, and as part of outlet stores. It operates in over 100 countries to date.

How the Growth Took Off

Part of Skechers becoming a worldwide popular brand in a seemingly short amount of time was due in part to the efforts of going global. Although Skechers started in 1992 with its functional logger type boots that were meant to ride the coattails of the grunge trend, they quickly outgrew just the Manhattan Beach home.

By 1994 Skechers was being distributed in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and even South Africa. In fact, this was before Skechers even had its very own retail space in California. This is certainly a move that helped the brand get noticed worldwide so quickly.

In 2005 the company reached record sales of over 1 billion in annual revenue and was named Footwear Plus’ “Company of the Year.” Just two years later the company had grown to be alongside footwear giant Nike as one of Forbes’ 400 Best Big Companies. Today the success only continues to grow.

What It’s All About

What started as a trend in grunge has now continued for over two decades, with no end in sight. The company’s goal is to meet the footwear needs of all men, women, and children. Their aim is to provide consumers with shoes that are functional while also being stylish. Additionally, the company’s goal is to have a global presence while staying wallet-friendly for the average consumer.

To get an idea of what’s trending currently in the world of Skechers these days, consider some of the following examples:

Women’s SKCH Plus 3 – This line of popular women’s shoes has an added bonus inside—a three inch wedge. This means that women get the height advantage and toning ability a three inch wedge shoe offers with the look of a trendy high top sneaker or boot. They are available in a variety of looks and materials, including leather and suede, and range from laces to Velcro straps.
Men’s GOrun 2 – Available for men and women, the GOrun 2 is a hot seller for athletic running shoes. These shoes are designed to be lightweight and offer the best in innovative technology to be a superior running shoe. The idea is to mimic the barefoot running experience while offering needed support for the best in performance.

There are also, of course, plenty of choices for men and women aside from these, as well as styles for boys and girls of all ages.

When it comes to getting even more “wallet-friendly” deals on Skechers, some shoppers opt for the outlet shopping choice. At some of the more popular Tanger Outlets alone you can find Skechers outlets; places like Atlantic City, NJ, Commerce, GA, Foley, AL, and Hershey, PA, just to name a few, all offer Skechers’ outlets.

When it comes to Skechers, it is hard to find another footwear brand that captures stylish and functional for the whole family like this brand.