O&A ny would not have been able to execute prior to the change in direction. Moreover, partnering with the likes of J. Crew, Nordstrom and better boutiques creates a halo effect. And before the change in direction… When Birkenstock had its moments in the past it hid in its comfort zone and acted almost like it didn’t want any new consumers to embrace the brand. The difference now is we do. Basically, we’re saying, “Hey, all of you fashion types who are now into Birkenstock, welcome to the club. You’re finding out what we’ve known all along: Our shoes feel great.” Rather than be afraid of it, we are embracing it but without changing our brand DNA. What we are doing differently is saying this is our place in the market and we want to own it. Anyone who has glommed business off of what Birkenstock established, we are now standing a lot stronger and saying we have the brand equity and this is how we expect to be presented at retail. The fact is the vast majority of brands in this space are interchangeable shoe suppliers and don’t trigger an emotional response like Birkenstock does. Our goal is to emerge as a true brand in the brown shoe world, where consumers traditionally haven’t been brand driven. In return for that, we are going to play the retail game a lot differently than we have in the past. Ugg is about the only brand with similar reconition is this space. I agree. And I use Ugg as a reference internally and with retailers with a lot of what we’re doing with Birkenstock. They are an example of a brand that evolved from an item into a $700 million business in the U.S. They have elevated themselves above every other footwear supplier in this space over the last 10 years. But the beauty with Birkenstock unlike, say, Sperry and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Ugg, is we have an arsenal of silhouettes to work with. Everyone knows us for our Arizona sandal, but one of our hottest styles this season was our Giza thong. And our Boston clog, which has been almost out of the market, is receiving increasing interest. Similar to the way Nike can go back repeatedly to its Air Force 1 and Air Max silhouettes, we feel we have the same equity in some of our iconic shoes that we haven’t even begun to manifest. We just need to activate them and manage them the right way with the right partners. We have a great chassis and all we need to do is, basically, play Mr. Potato Head on top of it. We can update uppers all day long to keep proven silhouettes fun, relevant and innovative. But it’s not just about updates on reissues, right? Absolutely. Birkenstock has enough equity that the consumer will allow us to introduce new silhouettes, which we haven’t done much over the years. Fall ’14 is when you see the needle move further in that regard. What kind of silhouettes, exactly? We’re not talking heels, but it’s only a short jump to do some new silhouettes that will still speak to the same consumer as well as new ones. It’s the ideal time to do so now that the brand has momentum. Introducing new looks should be met with greater acceptance. We are also going to introduce some fun brand extensions. For example, if you search online there’s a trend brewing of socks with Birkenstocks. There are hundreds of pictures online of people sporting the look. So next fall we are launching “Socks and ’Stocks.” We’ve partnered with Wheat, a California company, to make Birkenstock socks that will be merchandised together with select sandal styles in our leading accounts. We’ll have a POP displays promoting the look. We are also introducing, similar to what Ugg has done, a shoe care kit that includes a cork life extender. It’s all in an effort to bring the brand to life at retail.
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