Rockport founder dies
Founder of footwear brand Rockport, Bruce Katz, has died at the age of 75. He died at the end of June after a fall at his home in California.
Mr Katz’s family ran a business called the Hubbard Shoe Company in New England, but by the time he had finished college in the 1960s, the business was being severely harmed by cheaper imports in the US market and Bruce Katz had decided not to follow in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps.
But after helping out temporarily and finding he was good at selling shoes, he had a change of heart and set up Rockport with his father.
He promoted the brand as a maker of shoes for walking, insisting that walking was as much a sport as running or tennis and required appropriate footwear. From this, Rockport earned the reputation of being the first shoe company to put athletic shoe technology into casual shoes.
The Katz family sold the brand to Reebok for almost $120 million in the 1980s. As part of Reebok, it passed into adidas’ ownership and, from there, to New Balance. Venture capital firms later took ownership of the brand.
