Struggling Shoe Salesman: Where Is The Road?

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After entering the financial settlement, following the acquisition of $2 billion 200 million by 2 years ago, he now owes about $1 billion 700 million in debt.

Nine hee group focuses on ladies' leisure and

Shoes provide 3 women's shoes at the price range, from 25 dollars to a pair of shoes to 150 dollars a pair of leather boots, covering "high-grade", "high-end" and "mid-range".

Nine hee has been a success in the wholesale and retail business. Besides the nine self's retail store, its shoes are sold in department stores, franchised stores and independent stores in the US.

This brand is committed to providing consumers with fashionable and affordable shoes. Since its establishment, it has been a combination of fashion and active style.

And extended from fashion shoes to

Sunglasses, leg socks, coats, jewelry, belts, etc.

The expansion of the clothing brand began to decline, and the rise of the electricity supplier has become part of the financial disaster.

Not only the nine hee families are facing challenges, because consumers are shifting their consumption budgets from clothing and footwear.

Americans now spend more money on housing, technology and experience, and less in physical stores.

Qu Suyun, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings, told reporters, "because of the marketing mistakes and quality problems of some key brands, the leading position of the company in the footwear industry and accessories market in the United States is being eroded." (Suyun Qu)

She added that debt and weak operations may force Jiu Xi to carry out asset restructuring or trading this year.

Vincent Camuto, one of the founders of Jiu Xi

The rise of women's shoes Empire

Nine hee was founded in 1978, the name comes from the address when it was founded - 9 West 57 street, Manhattan, New York.

In 1983, he opened his first exclusive retail store in Standford, Connecticut, us.

In 1986, Jiu Xi released the first national advertisement.

The first international expansion of Jiu Xi was a branch opened in Hongkong in 1994. Since then, it has gradually become a brand with more than 800 global branches in 57 countries.

In May 1977, Jerome Fisher (Jerome Fisher) and Vincent Camuto (Vincent Camuto) founded a woman shoe wholesaler named Fisher Camuto, which is the predecessor of nine hee.

It uses Japanese finance, Italy's design, Brazil's manufacturing equipment and human resources, and the production cost is relatively low.

In particular, Brazil is abundant in raw materials and cheap in labor, which minimizes capital expenditure.

With the increasingly sophisticated equipment and maturity of cooperation in Brazil's factories, nine Hei grew rapidly, and its sales volume reached $9 million in the first year. After that, it grew to 300 million US dollars in ten years.

Although its design and market operations are based on the United States and manufacture abroad, they still try to maintain the same production plan as other American shoe manufacturers.

And Fisher and David cam are good at judging the company's design to cater to the fast changing fashion trend.

From 1989 to 1992, the company of Fisher and Kamino was ushered in an amazing growth.

The annual sales volume of the company increased from 338 million 700 thousand US dollars to US $464 million 600 thousand, and net income increased by more than 60%, from 14 million 300 thousand US dollars to US $38 million 200 thousand.

Taking into account the prevailing business environment (the tenth economic crisis in the US), these growth were particularly noticeable.

"At the beginning, we wanted to provide good women's shoes while keeping the price low.

Later, we became hot brands, retail outlets, and primary consumers.

Camuto recalled, "we repositioned the brand to attract consumers at a higher level."

Brilliant era: new concept of shoe retailing

In the late 1980s, Fisher and cam's company joined the wholesale and retail market of women's shoes.

In December 31, 1991, Fisher Camuto, Fisher Camuto, retail companies and Espressioni merged to establish a new company, renamed the nine Xi group.

In February 1993, Jiu Xi became a listed company and sold common stocks on the New York stock exchange.

At this time, nine hee is running 236 retail and wholesale stores, while designing and promoting brand and private brand shoes for consumers in more than 2000 department stores, franchised stores and independent stores.

In the 5 brands of Xi group, nine hee was the most successful. It redefined and positioned in 1989, and competed in the price range of US $50-65; the more expensive mid grade brand "Calico" represented the most traditional style shoes, which generally sold for 40-50 dollars; the other brand Westies was sold by independent stores only in the market of less than 40 dollars; while the company's designer brand Enzo Angiolini (Enzo Angiolini) was composed of leather shoes with a price of 65-80 dollars; fifth brands, "9", were mainly designed to attract younger customers, and the new retail concept shop, also named "9", was sold on the basis of the primary shoes product line of less than 50 dollars. In nine

The success of Jiu Xi depends largely on the use of manufacturing equipment in Brazil.

These factories initially produced 200 pairs of shoes for Jiu Xi everyday. By 1993, the production level increased exponentially, reaching 130 thousand pairs of shoes per day.

In the meantime, the footwear industry in Brazil employs 39 thousand workers.

So that after 8 weeks of delivery, he received the finished shoes, so that the company had a supplier network in the forefront of the footwear industry in the United States.

With a sound supply network to support, nine hee made full use of the fashionable trend beyond sports shoes and turned to heavier and stronger shoes, which was welcomed by young consumers before and after 1994.

At this time, sales figures of Nike and other large sports shoes manufacturers have declined.

While the company has experienced rapid progress in its efficiency, its share price has surged from $17.5 per share to $34 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1993.

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In 1993, the market share was $14 billion.

To this end, in 1994, nine hee plans added 20 Enzo Angiolini shops.

By 1997, nine year's management hopes that half of its sales will come from retail.

With 325 retail outlets and more than 5500 wholesale outlets for women's shoes, Jiu Xi is expected to gain a larger share of the US retail and wholesale market.

Hidden crisis: ups and downs since 90s

In the middle of 1990s, the outlook for the footwear industry in the United States was bleak.

The oversupply of shoe products, coupled with the rapidly expanding retail stores across the United States, once reduced the pre-sale volume to 2%-3%.

In order to reverse this situation, in November 1994, nine Hei began to set up some new boutiques in the downtown area.

Meanwhile, in the effort to diversify its product line, nine hee bought a LJS LJS LJS Collections (Ltd.), a women accessory manufacturer in January 1995.

In March 1995, he bought the US footwear industry (U.S.Shoe) for $600 million, which doubled the size of the company and became the third largest shoe manufacturer in the United States.

More important is the acquisition of big brands, including Amarfi (Amalfi), Evan Evan-Picone and Bandolino.

Especially valuable is the Easy Spirit shoe line, which achieved a sales volume of US $200 million in 1994.

By the end of the 1995, 35% of all women's shoes sold from department stores came from nine hee.

Contrary to industry expectations, the future of Jiu Xi seems bright.

In November 1996, the company moved back to New York.

This year, the company continued to grow, with a turnover of US $1 billion 600 million, an increase of 33% over the previous year and a net income of US $95 million.

On the basis of this success, nine hee embarked on a new publicity strategy, hoping to pform the image of its solid shoe manufacturer into a fashion brand.

In 1996, nine hee and Calvin Klein (Calvin Klein) reached a concession agreement, and nine Hei assumed the responsibility of 20 CK (Calvin Klein) shoe store.

In the meantime, the newly acquired accessories business was also far ahead of expectations, and its sales amounted to US $45 million in just 2 years.

In May 1997, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its intention to investigate the financial affairs of nine hee, and this growth has stopped.

By December, the stock of Jiu Xi had fallen by 45% from the peak of that year. In 1998, Jiu Xi was forced to reduce 5 million production units to 3 million, resulting in 2 factories and 100 retail outlets closed and nearly 1000 jobs removed.

There are more problems that followed. Some independent shopkeepers submitted an anti trust lawsuit against the company, claiming that the company had implemented unfair pricing schemes with large department stores.

In these difficult times, in March 1999, Jones fashion group announced that it would offer sufficient bidding to the company and a $885 million acquisition.

In June, Jiu Xi became a wholly owned subsidiary.

As a result of the merger, nine Hei was forced to shut down 3 factories and lay off more than 1900 (21% of its workforce).

In March 2000, Jones and nine hee shopkeepers discussed the mediation agreement. It seems that the shoe company is back to a steady state again. Analysts at that time expected that the new company's sales volume will increase to $4 billion 180 million in the coming year and its revenue will increase by 20%.

Struggling shoe salesman: where is the road?

In 2006, nine Hei began working with Vivian Westwood (fashion designer Vivienne Westwood), Thakoon (New York fashion brand Thakoon) and Sophia Kokosalaki (fashion designer Sophia Kokosalaki and its namesake brand) to launch a limited edition capsule series.

In 2009, New and Balance launched a series of shoes.

In 2012, nine Hei was rebranded and wanted to become a social celebrities shoe for everyone.

Jones intends to turn Jiu Xi into a fashionable brand of footwear and reopen its flagship store in New York.

Nine Xi used various forms of "9" in its brand name, including the new slogan: "9 West, we make shoes well."

(9W.We Do Shoe.)

The theme wall of the new shop opens with high heeled women's shoes designed to show the sexy side of shoes.

There is a room called "9 club" behind the shop, featuring gold and pink sequins, and displaying the brand "party" shoes series.

Nine hee also renovated all 1200 of its independent stores, highlighting brand new digital channels (such as hanging iPad on the wall) and sponsoring the new season's all star fashion design reality show.

A residential district store even used sausage rugs and sexy latex models to create a new nostalgia.

In fact, nine of these new strategies are closely followed by their collaboration with Karen Elsen (British supermodel Karen Elson) and the hot jewellery designer Pamela Love (Pamela Love).

In April 2014, Xi Mo card bought Jiu Xi's parent company Jones group, and bought Jiu Xi at the price of about 4 billion 400 million dollars, and then divided Jiu Xi into 4 companies Jiu Xi and Anne Klein (New York style high fashion brand Anne Klein, providing women's clothing, hand watches and other supplies), simple spirit (Easy Spirit, providing comfortable fashion shoes) and Jiu Xi (NW) jewellery group to extract more value from the famous brand.

In July 2015, Sherson Group, a Canadian retail distributor, submitted bankruptcy protection in Canada.

Nine of them still have time to find a way out. They still have a $more than 200 million revolving loan and there is no debt maturity until 2019.

Jeffrey Van Sinderen, a senior analyst at B.Riley, said that some of the new trends, such as the popularity of overalls, can also help fashion retailers focus on Jeffrey Van Sinderen.

Vincent Camuto, one of the founders of Jiu Xi, once said, "footwear is a love affair for me.

I love those shoes, fashion and those people.