Cushe grows with backing from Wolverine Worldwide

 

Cushe (pronounced “Cushy”) is a new footwear brand under the Wolverine Worldwide portfolio that I have been seeing around a lot lately at trade shows, at surf shops and in Latin America.

The brand was founded in 2005 in the U.K., and Wolverine bought it four years later.

 

Wolverine Worldwide also owns and/or licenses brands like Chaco, Merrell, Patagonia Footwear, Sperry Top Sider, Harley Davidson Footwear and more.

 

This Cushe slipper is the brand’s best selling shoe

Cushe shoes have an original aesthetic, and while some appear heavy, they are actually extremely lightweight and comfortable.

 

Since being acquired by Wolverine, the brand has grown over 10 times its size. In 2011, it grew 89%, and is trending up 35% for 2012.

 

At the Outdoor Retailer Show I spoke with General Manager/VP Guillermo Perez and Patrick McNulty, who is the Director of Sales for the brand in the U.S.

 

Guillermo talked about the brand’s vision, Cushe’s growth, its designs, its distribution strategy, and how they are entering key action sports doors.

 

There are a ton of shoe companies here at OR. What sets Cushe apart and how do you describe the brand?

Cushe’s busy booth at OR

We are a design-led brand. Everything is about design and attention to detail, so we offer freshness in the market, but our lifestyle products are still comfortable, visually stunning and commercial.

 

As a lifestyle brand, we get inspiration from action sports and coastal living, adventure travel, and urban landscapes. Those are the three areas we actually sell, market and design under.

 

How big is the brand?

We have grown Cushe more than 10 times in size since Wolverine Worldwide bought it. North America has been a huge market, but in the first 18 months we went from five or six international markets to 65 countries and now we are in 80 markets worldwide.

 

Tell me about your products and your three-tiered strategy?

Cushe offers a wide range of styles

We have segmented our products categories under three categories: Urban Safari, Coastal Supremacy and Universal Traveller.

 

The Coastal Supremacy range is trending to be about 65% of our business. That range is at action sports core doors, surf shops, specialty shops and outdoor retailers like REI and Atmosphere in Canada. The Cushe Slipper for men and women is our top seller globally and transcends all the retail channels we sell to currently and transcends selling seasons. We are literally sold out of that slipper! Prices in Coastal Supremacy range from $26 for a molded flip-flop to $100 plus for premium “Surf Slipper moccs.”

 

A premium shoe in the Urban Safari range

Urban Safari products are inspired by casual city living and athletic lines and retail for between $55-$120 and we have a men’s limited collection called the Shumaker’s Mark in that line. We sell to Nordstrom’s and fashion right specialty retailers.

 

Universal Traveller products retail between $65-$185 and represent our more robust, premium, all-weather friendly functional and performance footwear, but with style, attention to detail and design-led points of difference.

 

 

See Page 2 for details about Cushe’s international business, surf accounts

 

 

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What types of action sports stores are you in?

We appreciate the representation we have with accounts like Brave New World, Cinnamon Rainbow in Maryland, Ron Jon Surf Shop, BC Surf and Sport, Tres Palmas in Puerto Rico, and Wet Mitten and Third Coast in Michigan.

 

Other leading influential retailers like Jack’s and Sun Diego are also in the mix as well as our growth and branded initiatives with the Flip Flop Shops of America. We are one of their core vendors and an all-store buy.

 

How many employees do you have and what’s the structure within Wolverine?

Cushe’s Surf Slipper

We have about 20 people who work 100% for Cushe. Our VP of Sales, Diana Dimitian, is out of Montreal, Patrick is based in Carlsbad, Calif., I am at the main headquarters in Rockford, Michigan, our design and global creative led by Martin Dean and Ciaran Henderson is out of London and other key influential players like Theo Malkin, Laura DeLoof and Ken Taylor manage the PD process, operations and marketing respectively out of Michigan as well.

 

 

What’s the biggest market for you? How big are you international versus the U.S.

Cushe also makes all weather boots

International vs. U.S. is split about 50/50. North America is our biggest market. We took a different approach than the other Wolverine brands in North America.

 

One thing we did different is instead of making Canada and the U.S. separate and divided markets, we created a North America sales division. That provided us to have one consistent strong voice so everyone is aligned and selling and telling the same stories for the brand, and it’s working like a charm. Canada and the U.S. are our two hottest markets.

 

After that, there are some strong international markets that took off immediately when we launched the brand in 2009.

 

In Asia Pacific, the Philippines have been huge, and Australia has positioned the brand prominently. In EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Italy and Bahrain are stellar markets for us.

 

Buyers checking out product at OR

In Latin America and worldwide, Chile is our biggest market in dollars and pairs because they buy and market our winter and summer collections. Central America, Costa Rica where we did our photoshoots, also does very well.

 

What else do you do for marketing?

We do a lot of product placement, PR, some magazine and trade advertising. but we mostly like to be where our customers are so we also sponsor and get involved in some grassroots events like SXSW (Texas), Pitchfork Music Festival (Chicago), the Katin Pro Am surf event (Calif.), the Slater Brothers Invitational in Coco Beach, Florida and a many other events, some with a strong community, awareness or artistic value.

 

We also do a lot of direct to consumer giveaways, in-store sales, and consumer awareness contests.