Brown Shoe takes a stake in new handmade men’s footwear brand
23/09/2014
Brown Shoe chief executive, Diane Sullivan, said her company had identified Jack Erwin as “a great incubator brand”. She said Jack Erwin had high growth potential and “an interesting, new business model”.
Ms Sullivan went on to say: “Lane Gerson and Ariel Nelson, the founders, have an unwavering commitment to quality and detail and represent the next generation of business in our industry.”
For his part, Ariel Nelson said: “This investment provides us with the unique opportunity to build Jack Erwin using the knowledge and expertise of a respected industry leader.”
He and Lane Gerson started Jack Erwin in 2013, setting themselves the goal of providing luxury, handmade men’s shoes for under $200. They have said that they toured “dozens of factories” in various parts of the world before choosing a number of family-run footwear businesses in Portugal in Spain as its partners.
Jack Erwin has described these suppliers, typically companies that have been in operation “for hundreds of years” and produce handmade men’s shoes using leather from tanneries in Italy and France, as “generations of skilled artisans and close proximity to the finest raw materials in the world”.
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