THE HEIGHTS

By Greg Dutter

“The people who’ve owned and managed the brand have always had a very consistent business plan,” Sachs says, praising the founding Wagner family followed in 1993 by the Zanata family for their even-keel approach. “That plan has always been: Let’s make our product in Europe, using the best-quality materials and state-of-the-art constructions, and sell consistently at full price and not be discounting every day.”

WHEN IT COMES to Lowa Boots, no one is a more dedicated student of the brand—and the market it serves—than General Manager Peter Sachs. That’s because Sachs has spent his entire 47-year career working in the outdoor sports industry and the past 27 years at the helm of Lowa Boots. In fact, he is employee No. 1 of the German brand’s Greenwich, CT-based U.S. outpost and largely responsible for guiding Lowa on its path to becoming a specialty market leader here. It’s been a steady climb, one that has enabled Lowa to get acclimated at each new level before ascending to the next. Sachs has always held the brand’s long-term health top of mind. There have been no detours off the trail with misguided category extensions or chasing shortterm sales bumps at the expense of more stable, longer-term growth. Indeed, the key to Lowa’s longevity is consistency in its product, people, and passion for the outdoors.

The consistency, Sachs says, has enabled Lowa to capitalize on great years and weather downturns, avoiding huge roller coaster rides. “Even in 2020 when everybody took a hit, it wasn’t a big hit for us because of our consistent business plan,” he says, noting that the following two years saw healthy growth. “We had about a 30 percent increase in sales in 2021 and maintained it in 2022, and if we can get our inventory under control, we’ll end up with an increase in the mid- to high-single digits this year.”

Looking out five years, Sachs says the goal is to grow the business by at least 50 percent. He’s quite “bullish” on reaching that number, thanks to a growing overall outdoor category, market share gains, and new product introductions. These include the brand’s entry into the trail running category and its new tactical boot, the Zephyr MK2, this year, followed by the latest update to its No. 1-selling Renegade boot next year. “Having a really stable business gives us the platform to keep bringing new products to market, and that gives us opportunities to open some doors as well as to sell more pairs within existing shelf space, all of which adds up,” he says.

Sachs knows full well that another owner could have charted a far different path for Lowa. “A venture capital firm or public company could have set expectations that might have been achievable one year, but then the economy could have gone south, or there would have been an interruption, like the pandemic or a war like in Ukraine, and it would no longer have been sustainable,” he explains. “Suddenly, the business plan would have been put on the shelf and we’d have needed to make those numbers, so maybe we’d have cut prices so we could sell X amount more units…and then it becomes a roller coaster. We work hard to avoid those ups and downs, which I think is rare in this business.”

Another rarity is sticking to select retail channels and, more notably, standing by individual accounts, regardless of their order sizes. “We haven’t cut off that specialty dealer who may only buy 40 to 50 pairs a year,” Sachs says. “We’ve stayed true to those dealers through good years and bad years.”

Outdoor Sports Center in Wilton, CT, is one such longtime Lowa dealer. Arlo Tarr, footwear buyer for the past 11 years, says the relationship stretches back well before his time. “I’m guessing it’s 30 years or maybe longer,” he says. “And I worked at Diamond Brand Outdoors in North Carolina prior, and it was the same there.” Tarr credits Lowa’s “phenomenal” quality for its longevity. “Their boots break in the easiest,” he says, citing the Renegade as its bestseller for years. “Renegades are never returned for warranty or fit issues, and Lowa makes them in narrows and widths and doesn’t change them often, which customers love. They come back and say, ‘Hey Arlo, I’m ready for another size 10’ and boom, done.” Tarr adds, “Our customers know that if you buy Lowa, you’re getting the best of the best in hiking footwear.”

Jeff Langner, CEO of Morgan Shoes in Madison, WI, concurs on Lowa’s unsurpassed quality, having stocked the brand for 24 years. As a certified pedorthist, he loves recommending Lowa, particularly the Renegade and Innox light hiker, to customers. “They’re good for you!” he says, noting that the excellent grip soles are ideal for the area’s slippery winter conditions. “Plus, their use of PU vs. (EVA): One feels good today, the other feels great for years.” Langner describes the Innox hiker as a “great walking shoe” and a step up from other brands. “The rocker bottoms work to easily move forward with little effort and offer control vs. squishier options,” he says. “And they last longer, are waterproof, and made in Europe, where they’ve been making great shoes for 100 years.”

Count REI and Zappos as two more longtime, loyal Lowa accounts. Tad Summersett, REI’s merchandise manager for footwear, says the co-op has carried the brand for decades. “The foundation of our relationship is built on mutual respect for quality and customers,” he says. “Lowa consistently provides REI members with premium quality product that can be trusted to last for many adventures. It’s a part of their DNA and shows up in all the products they build.”

Bill Johnson, senior outdoor footwear buyer for Zappos, says the site has carried Lowa since 2006. Perennial best-selling styles include the men’s Renegade GTX Mid in sepia and the women’s version in stone, as well as the Zephyr Desert Mid tactical boot in stone. “Lowa attracts the core outdoor enthusiast who has a passion for the backcountry,” he says, adding the keys to the brand’s longevity are “outstanding quality, fit consistency, and a dedication to exceeding the consumer’s needs.”

It’s not like Sachs hasn’t had opportunities to land juicy orders from beyond the specialty sphere. Some, he confesses, have been quite tempting. “You look and say, ‘Oh my God, they have X number of storefronts and sell X number of units…let’s make that happen.’ But the reality is we might hit those numbers for a year or two and then, when outdoor isn’t hot as a category, they’ll move on to the next big thing and we’ll be left at the curb and won’t be able to go back to the retailers we will have lost.”

Sachs adds, “Our goal is to be here the next 10, 15, and 100 years. It’s better to have that stable business instead of that roller coaster ride.”

Sachs walks the walk. Mid last decade he added Amazon to its account base only to walk away from the business about two years later, in 2017. That’s despite Amazon amounting to about 10 percent of Lowa’s overall sales at the time. Why?

“We found that Lowa was on sale somewhere all the time,” he says. “It wasn’t worth having our other dealers calling me all the time saying they had to price match what they saw on sale on Amazon. So we cut them and told all of our dealers to stop selling on Marketplace, too.”

It wasn’t an easy decision to forego a sizeable chunk of existing sales. Amazon even flew a team of buyers to Greenwich in an effort to maintain the partnership. “It’s a big number, and our owners were a little nervous that I was walking away from that business,” Sachs admits. “But we had that percentage back within eight or nine months. More importantly, it just brought peace back under our roof, and there had been no peace for a while.”

Again, the overriding concern behind this decision was Lowa’s long-term health. “I just knew that the day would come if we’d kept selling Amazon that they’d become such a big part of our business that one day I’d basically find Jeff Bezos sitting on our doorstep offering $1 for our company because if Amazon were to stop doing business with us, our company would be only worth $1,” Sachs says. He refused to let Lowa succumb to such a fate. In fact, Lowa’s U.S. sales have more than doubled since the divorce.

Was this the best business decision of Sachs’ career? It ranks near the top—along with his decision to exhibit at the Shot Show about 18 years ago. That’s where Sachs got Lowa into the tactical boots channel, which now accounts for 20 percent of total sales. As Sachs recalls, the Shot Show was held at the same time as the ski show in Las Vegas, so he decided to take a look. “It hit me right away that everyone there—be it military, law enforcement, or hunters—all wore boots,” he says. “I thought, we’ve got to be here. The next year we had a 10x10 booth in the last row of the convention center, which was in Orlando.”

Tactical has been a steady, reliable growth