K-Swiss, Inc. (Nasdaq:KSWS), known as K-Swiss, designs, develops, and markets a range of high performance tennis shoes, casual lifestyle shoes and casual apparel under the K-Swiss brand name. The company also design and manufacture a line of slip-on footwear under its subsidiary company, Royal Elastics. The company is headquartered in Westlake Village, CA. When Art and Ernie Brunner, two brothers and avid skiers from Switzerland, moved to southern California in the 1960's and developed an interest in tennis. Formerly top skiers, the Brunners took to tennis a way to pass the time in the often sunny, warm climate of California. In 1966, most tennis players, including those at Wimbledon, were wearing canvas shoes, but brothers found the lack of quality in these shoes to be highly disappointing. So what do former skiers turned tennis players do? They create their own performance tennis shoes, of course! In 1966, the K-Swiss classic was introduced as the first all-leather tennis shoes using shock-absorbing insoles. The Classic was advertised as the world's best tennis shoe and it sold for an unheard of $20 a pair at time when most players only paid about $8 for their tennis shoes. The design was simple. The characteristic K-Swiss 5 stripes were meant to keep the shoes from stretching, and the d-ring lacing system, directly inspired by mountain hiking boots, was meant to provide a secure anchor for the laces. The K-Swiss Classic also feature a one-piece rubber outsoles and reinforced toe design.
In the mid-1980's, Steven Nichols, then the president of children's shoes for Strike Rite company, makers of Keds, encountered the K-Swiss shoes and fell in love with them on first sight. Nichols immediately tried to sell his boss on the idea of buying the company, and when that didn't work, he put together a group of investors and raised $20 million dollars to buy the company in 1986. Nichols knew that the timeless, clean look of the Classic would be a "50-year shoe" and would sell long term so he undertook a massive overhaul of the marketing plan.. In a drastic move, he raised the price from $40 to $60, cut sales to discounters because he believed they made the brand look cheap, and started marketing K-Swiss as a conservative casual alternative to the flashy, oft-changing styles of Nike and other competitors. After three years of blood, sweat, and tears, K-Swiss went public and managed to wipe out most of their startup debt. The preppy, country-club style of K-Swiss took off in the late 1990's after the company stopped advertising it as the #1 tennis shoe and began advertising on cable networks like MTV. A series of ads in 2002 feature trendy youths in urban settings rapping lines like, "I wear my K-Swiss, at my place with my crew, I like them white and new." But even a classic shoe has limitations. New models introduced by K-Swiss have not done as well as the Classic. The Ramli andthe Gorzell are two examples of of successful models, but others like a line of outdoor shoes licensed under National Geographic have been spectacular failures.
In 2002 K-Swiss continued its history of innovation by launching an unheard of feature called the "Tongue Twister." The Twister gives the wearer the power to choose the look of their shoes with a simple twist of the tongue, revealing either the leather side or the colored mesh. K-Swiss shoes are durable, original, and performance oriented, and they are considered some of the best shoes on the market. K-Swiss has also started to encourage customization of the Clasic allowing customers to choose their color combination on the K-Swiss website and encouraging them to add personal touches with graffiti or laces. The K-Swiss Classic a blank canvas for consumers. It's up to you what you do with it.
K-Swiss, Inc. is headquartered in Westlake Village, CA, employs approximately 240 people, and is publicly traded on Nasdaq. The company operates in two sectors: Footwear and Apparel and Accessories under both the K-Swiss name and their wholly owned subsidiary Royal Elastics. K-Swiss products are sold primarily in the United States to specialty athletic stores, sporting goods stores, and department stores.
K-Swiss Classic, K-Swiss Ramli, K-Swiss Gorzell and K-Swiss Celano
Nike spends more on the salary of one of their athlete endorsers than the entire annual advertising budget for K-Swiss.
K-Swiss shoes tend to be returned less often than any other brand because of their high quality (Unconfirmed).
