SOUTH SHORE INSIDER - MICHAEL RUPP
Michele Watches CANTON
The retail shoe industry has been good to Michael Rupp. The German native has worked for the Adidas Group since 1987 and was recently appointed chief executive of Canton-based Rockport Co., a division of Adidas that sells comfortable dress and casual shoes.
Before he joined Rockport in 2008, he was the chief operating officer of the Reebok Brand, another Adidas division, where he was responsible for business operations in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Rupp, 49, moved to the U.S. from Germany in 2005, and currently lives in Wayland.
Rockport is an international brand and has about 400 employees worldwide.
Under his direction, the company has relaunched its DresSports brand that was first introduced in 1983 and offers shoes made from high-quality leather and athletic soles.
What makes Rockport stand out from its competitors?
Rockport has a really rich history that not many brands have. This brand was founded in 1971 and has really made a number of groundbreaking achievements in its history, so that has led to a very strong and very loyal consumer base. There are a big number of people out there that truly love the brand. On the brown shoe (meaning leather dress or street shoe) side, that's not something that is very common.
People buy what they like. They don't really worry too much about the brand, but those Rockport consumers, they want to have Rockport product and they're very loyal to the brand.
We are one of the very few brown shoe brands that have a truly global appeal - one of the very few that has very global recognition.
Has the retail shoe industry been affected by the recession?
Of course it has. I think of course the industry has been - in particular, in the United States - affected by the economic crisis as consumers have held back spending. I think what is very important for us to say that we as a brand have done much better Replica A Lange & Sohne Watches than the industry. We've done much better than the market, and we have pretty nice international growth. We really grew our business in that environment in Europe and Asia and Latin America, and we expect that for next year in the U.S., we will also have a very good opportunity (for growth).
What have you achieved in the year and a half that you have been president of the company?
The first thing that we have achieved in that time is we have really re-ignited a passion for the brand, and people are getting really excited about the brand and are happy to work for the brand. In the last year and a half we have really brought back that ambition for taking a leadership position on the global stage.
Those are the biggest changes. Of course, we've done many, many things - expanded our distribution worldwide, we have opened new stores, we have relaunched our women's line and given our women's business a completely new direction.
What's your favorite part of this job?
My favorite part of the job is to interact with people on a global scale. That's always something that's really enriching in everybody's life to really get the global view on how people live, think and work all around the globe, in Asia, China, the U.S. and Europe.
And for me, as a non-American, of course the oth
