Bass Puts Its Best Foot Forward Again
When G.H. Bass & Co.’s former corporate parent finally found a buyer for its shoe manufacturer in 1987, prospects for Bass looked so bleak that the new owner got a bargain.
Today, 113-year-old Bass is winning back a following after rescuing its reputation for quality and updating its traditional styles.
Bass was on the block when the British-Dutch consumer products giant Unilever acquired Chesebrough-Pond’s Inc., which had owned Bass since 1978.
No eager buyers rushed forward because the U.S. footwear industry was being stomped by foreign competition, and Bass looked as if it lacked the market toehold to wage a successful fight.
Struggled in 1983-87
“Bass had done nothing but struggle from 1983 to 1987,” says John Thorbeck, the current Bass president. “During this time, Bass was a prominent example of how a domestic manufacturer was under great pressure and at the same time was dealing with its own misdirection and mismanagement.”
U.S. shoe manufacturers in the early 1980s had to adjust to radically changing U.S. tastes in shoes while coping with an influx of imports.
Orderly marketing agreements with South Korea and Taiwan controlling U.S. imports of non-rubber footwear--meaning virtually all types of shoes--were allowed to expire under the Reagan administration. At the time, the two countries were major foreign suppliers of everything from tennis shoes to dressy pumps.
Imports surged. By 1986, imported leather and plastic shoes had expanded to about 1 billion pairs, from 520 million in 1981, said Peter T. Mangione, president of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America.
The supply went to satisfy a burgeoning demand for athletic shoes; the jogging craze evolved into the aerobics fad, both of which were part of a bigger fitness movement that has influenced consumers’ shoe selections ever since.
“The driving factor in the footwear market in this country is fashion, and the athletic trend drove this market for the last decade,” Mangione says.
In such an environment, a company like Bass--known for conservative, sturdy, leather lace-ups and loafers--was not where it was at.
“Nobody was crazy about traditional Bass Weejuns,” Thorbeck says of the shoe, named for its Norwegian inspiration, that made its debut in 1936. “These were the years when Nike and Reebok were becoming billion-dollar companies. The casual shoes were being swept aside by the Nike and Reebok hurricanes.”
During those troubling years for Bass, which had been a private, family-owned business for most of its history, the firm branched out in directions that turned out to be the wrong ones.
It introduced Bass Air, a line of athletic shoes that flopped. It imported a line of women’s shoes from Brazil; the quality was so poor that every retailer returned its shipments to Bass. It neglected to advertise or place marketing emphasis on its hand-sewn leather moccasins and other shoes. With cost-cutting in mind, it allowed quality to slip.
Most of Bass’ U.S. factories were shut down, leaving just one in Wilton, Me., and one in Puerto Rico. The company lost $46 million on sales of $150 million in 1986.
The next year Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., famous for making and marketing women’s and men’s apparel, particularly shirts, bought Falmouth, Maine-based Bass for $79 million--well under its book value of $130 million.
Thorbeck, formerly with Timberland Co. shoes, says when he was brought in by Phillips-Van Heusen in November, 1987, he thought Bass needed to reassert its identity after mistakenly ignoring its own strengths for too long.
Bass decided to win back affluent consumers--those willing to pay about $100 for loafers. It took a targeted advertising approach and placed 12-page promotional pitches in the upscale magazines Vogue and GQ.
Early Successes
Some early successes under the new ownership helped restore the company’s confidence. Contemporary versions of some of Bass’ old favorites appealed to retailers, who were probably looking for shoe lines to satisfy nostalgia-mad, grown-up baby boomers. Saddle shoes and buckskins were enjoying renewed popularity in some yuppie circles
“In one season we proved ourselves as traditional yet contemporary,” Thorbeck says. “We were hitting on all cylinders by the fall of 1988.”
Some of Bass’ recent updating touches have proved timely. The company capitalized on the demand for so-called status sneakers this spring by bringing out a version of the canvas, rubber-soled shoes with brass eyelets, leather-padded trim and leather laces. Instead of selling a projected 30,000 pairs in the first year, Bass now expects to sell 400,000 pairs.
Bass has concentrated on a relatively small selection of retailers, including department stores Bloomingdale’s, Marshall Field and Nordstrom.
It does not sell to discounters at all and controls the markdowns on its merchandise by offering reduced-price shoes at outlets. These Bass-owned stores are carefully located in areas with many factory outlets that attract bargain-hunting tourists.
Bass has returned to profitability. It earned $16 million in 1988 on sales of $180 million and expects to report significantly better results for 1989.
