BY GREG DUTTER
FRESH PERSPECTIVE Glen Barad, PRESIDENT OF TAOS FOOTWEAR, on how t h e b r a n d ’s n u m b e r - o n e g o a l — t o g e n e r a t e r e p e a t c u s t o m e r s — serves as the basis for its every move.
LEN BARAD IS a dyed-in-the-wool product person. He’s an industry lifer who made his bones working on the private label side of the business for decades before crossing over to the branded world with the launch of Taos 12 years ago. His product-first principles (i.e. no detail is too small) have served as a guiding light, leading to the brand’s steady growth that, of late, appears to have reached a tipping point with double-digit sales gains the past few years and 2016 going down as the best in its history despite a difficult retail climate. Taos’s recent run of success will require a move this summer—its second in the past three years—to nearby Carson, CA, to accommodate the increasing need for office and warehouse space. “Our customer has been coming back to us, and she’s bringing her family and friends,” Barad says when asked what fueled the recent growth. “She really likes what we are doing, and that’s the main reason for our success. We’re capturing a great fan base.” Indeed, Taos has arrived. No longer a hot item or seasonal business, the brand has become a yearround cornerstone for many of its retail partners. Perhaps the most impressive facet of Taos’s growth is that it’s being achieved through a distribution
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platform of primarily better independent and specialty chain brick-andmortar retailers. In the age of Amazon and the recent death spiral of physical stores across all tiers and formats, the brand’s recipe for growth runs counter to conventional industry wisdom. In fact, many industry pundits would argue it’s statistically a long shot or even a fool’s errand. But Barad is nobody’s fool when it comes to the shoe business, and Taos is living proof. He’s confident the brand can continue to grow by adhering largely to its current distribution strategy. For starters, he says there are still plenty of retailers in existence, an opportunity that is magnified as other vendors shift their attention to larger volume, online retailers and direct-to-consumer (DTC) efforts. Their neglect is Taos’s gain. “When other key brands choose to move out of the better independent and specialty retail distribution channel, there are openings for us,” he says, adding, “We’re just grabbing market share.” And while the numbers might not be big on a business-by-business basis, they add up. More importantly, for a brand like Taos, he says those channels are the preferred choice. “If you are looking solely for big numbers, then you are going to have to move elsewhere,” he suggests. “But if you are looking to build a full-price, full-service brand, then I believe we are in the right channels.” Barad has been determined since founding Taos to build a meaningful and long-lasting consumer