Bruce Katz, who together with his father began Rockport Shoe Co. in 1971 and established strolling sneakers as a colourful sneakers class, died June 26 in Greenbrae, California. He was once 75.
His brother, Roger, mentioned he died in a clinic from headaches of a fall at his house in Mill Valley, California.
Within the past due Nineteen Seventies, Katz evolved a comfy, informal shoe that changed into the basis of Rockport’s trade. The corporate was once a pioneer in using options similar to cushioned, detachable orthotics — or foot beds, as they’re also known as — to supply inner convenience and construction.
“Bruce was once the primary particular person, in an generation of leather-soled sneakers, to have the foresight to know the idea that of establishing sneakers for strolling and luxury,” Robert Goldberg, president of the New york store Harry’s Footwear, mentioned. “From that inspiration, the entire rubber-soled shoe trade actually evolved.”
Ads for the corporate’s in style RocSport shoe stressed out that “toes have emotions, too,” and that “for those who had been a foot, this is able to make you drool.”
Katz sponsored his strolling sneakers with a marketing campaign designed to show strolling right into a health motion. He backed a yearlong stroll, from 1984 to 1985, round the USA via chemical engineer Robert Sweetgall, who wore Rockport’s new Professional Walker shoe over greater than 11,000 miles to exhibit the cardiovascular advantages of strolling. Katz funded clinical analysis about strolling; allotted leaflets, books and movies; and promoted occasions with the American Lung Affiliation and different organizations.
“We need to be to strolling what Jane Fonda was once to aerobics,” Katz instructed The Boston Globe in 1984. “It takes anyone, no matter their motivation, to make it occur.”
The marketing campaign introduced higher consideration to Rockport, a fast-growing privately held corporate that during 1985 had gross sales of about $65 million. The following yr, when Rockport’s gross sales had been anticipated to exceed $100 million, Reebok obtained it for $118.5 million.
Katz went on to meet an established dream via supervising the development of a 143-foot crusing yacht, known as Juliet, which he took all over the world. He additionally invested in on-line and device ventures similar to the net neighborhood The Neatly, which he purchased in 1994, and Republic of Tea, a store.
Then, after 27 years clear of the shoe trade, he returned, beginning Samuel Hubbard Shoe Co., which he named for his grandfather and the corporate he based within the Nineteen Thirties.
Bruce Richard Katz was once born Feb. 17, 1947, in Newton, Massachusetts. His father, Saul, was once drafted via his grandfather to paintings on the Hubbard Shoe Co. and ultimately took it over. His mom, Dorothy (Golden) Katz, was once a social employee who later oversaw human assets at Hubbard.
Bruce Katz graduated from Cornell College in 1970 with a bachelor’s stage in engineering physics. Round that point, Hubbard Shoe Co. close down, a sufferer of reasonably priced imports that had been flooding the U.S. shoe marketplace. He and his brother gave their father, who were burnt up financially, $20,000 each and every from their agree with finances to begin a brand new trade: uploading sneakers, specifically a moccasin, from Brazil.
Bruce Katz had sufficient left of his agree with fund to enter trade. He imported English double-decker buses and taxicabs to the USA, his brother mentioned, and he additionally purchased and bought metal, in part within the hope of the usage of a few of it as rebar to construct a sailboat.
In the meantime, his father wanted any person to promote his imported sneakers.
“He had a container filled with sneakers from Brazil that had arrived too past due to be accredited via his authentic consumers and was once sitting in garage,” Katz mentioned in an interview for the Samuel Hubbard web page. “He mentioned, ‘Why don’t you attempt to promote the ones in your boat undertaking?’ So I began using across the geographical region peddling the moccasins and ultimately bought the lot.”
He stored promoting sneakers, and the boat was once placed on grasp. Ultimately he got here up with a design for a light-weight, comfy shoe — the type 2105 — which changed into Rockport’s first in style product.
Roger Katz mentioned that his father and brother shaped a balanced partnership.
“My father was once a producing genius; he knew the place to make product and supply fabrics,” he mentioned. “However he had no thought of selling. My brother knew the right way to create a emblem and a presence.”
However he mentioned they bought the corporate to Reebok as a result of his father was once “growing older out” and his brother “actually had no existence” and was once nearing burnout.
Along with his brother, Bruce Katz is survived via his spouse, Dasa Katz, and his kid, Lee.
As Katz pondered his go back to the shoe trade, he attended a industry display in 2013 in Las Vegas, the place he encountered Werner Wyrsch, a former govt at Rockport who was once making ready to retire.
“He mentioned, ‘Let’s stroll round,’” Wyrsch mentioned. “He picked up a shoe right here and a shoe there, imports from Vietnam and Cambodia, and he mentioned, ‘That is horrible, let’s do it once more. Let’s display them the right way to make sneakers once more.’”
Katz quickly began Samuel Hubbard, with Wyrsch serving as senior vp of product building and sourcing. The corporate is a type of Rockport 2.0, with a persevered emphasis on light-weight, informal convenience however the usage of extra sumptuous Eu leathers and complicated era.
Roger Katz, an architect who designed a distribution middle for Rockport and its first retailer, in Marlboro, Massachusetts, mentioned he was once now not stunned that his brother returned to the shoe trade.
“Bruce attempted a large number of endeavors in between, and to be candid, he didn’t have the kind of luck he sought after,” he mentioned. “He reached some extent the place he sought after every other actual luck. He brazenly mentioned the truth that the only position he was once actually a success was once in sneakers.”