Merrell (company)
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Textile |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Founder | Clark Matis Randy Merrell John Schweizer |
| Headquarters | Rockford, Michigan, U.S. |
| Products | Footwear |
| Parent | Wolverine World Wide |
| Website | merrell.com |
Merrell is an American footwear company founded by Clark Matis, Randy Merrell, and John Schweizer in 1981 as a maker of high-performance hiking boots. Since 1997 the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of shoe industry giant Wolverine World Wide. The company recorded total sales of footwear and clothing of nearly $500 million in 2010.
Merrell was established in 1981 when two executives for the Rossignol ski company, Clark Matis and John Schweizer, decided to launch a new maker of hiking boots, The pair decided to join forces with Randy J. Merrell (R.J. Merrell), a maker of highly praised custom boots which retailed for $500 a pair. Matis set to work designing a more affordable high-performance boot, which was developed in 1982. Plans were made for production of the new line in factories located in Italy, a leading exporter of footwear to the world market at the time.
In 1983, the new Merrell company delivered its first product to the market, making shipments to a pair of east coast retailers specializing in hiking gear.
In 1986, Randy J. Merrell sought to return to his previous life as a maker of custom boots and sold his share of the company bearing his name. That same year the company sold its 25,000th pair of boots.
In 1987 Merrell was purchased by Karhu. The new owners moved production of Merrell products to Asia, reducing retail prices and expanding sales. In 1988 sales of Merrell products topped the $4 million mark.
A period of rapid growth for Merrell followed with 1989 sales increasing by 50%, to the $6 million mark. By 1990, some 300,000 pairs of shoes and boots were being sold annually, with sales for the year topping the $10 million mark for the first time. The company became a global enterprise, with divisions established in Canada, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and the United States.
The year 1992 saw another doubling of the company's sales volume, topping the $20 million mark. By the middle of the decade, Merrell products were being sold in 22 countries.
In 1997, Karhu sold Merrell to Wolverine World Wide, a large footwear corporation which manufactured Hush Puppies shoes and Wolverine brand boots. In the year of the Wolverine acquisition, Merrell sales volume totaled $23 million.
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