🠈  The Walking Company  🠊

The Walking Company

The Walking Company is a shoe store based in Santa Barbara, California that targets people who are serious walkers. The store has mid priced durable shoes and sandals for an active lifestyle. The company also owns FootSmart.com which is an online source for shoes.

The company engaged in an interesting reverse merger in which the company Big Dogs bought The Walking Company. For a brief moment, Big Dogs was the fastest growing retail store. The market for oversized shorts was a short lived phenomena; So they were smart to make the transition.

Big Dogs changed its name to The Walking Company and eventually sold the Big Dogs brand (BigDogs.com currently lists a single store in Pigeon Forge, Tn).

Corporate History

Since Big Dogs acquired The Walking Company, I will present the merger chain from their perspective.

• 1983: A group of river-rafters go on a trip in which they sported brightly colored oversized swimming trunks. They then began manufacturing with the name Sierra West Manufacturing
• 1992: An investment group led by Andrew D. Feshbach bought the company which had five stores and began aggressive expansion.

• 1997: The company, with 137 stores, goes public on the NASDAQ with the symbol BDOG.
• 1999: Big Dog entered a licensing agreement with Golden West Specialty Foods to make a line of spicy foods.
• 2000: Big Dogs signed licensing agreements with BHPC Marketing for worldwide marketing and a cross licensing agreement with PETsMART.
• 2001: Big Dogs attempted to acquire Crazy Shirts, Inc. based in Hawaii.
• 2004: Big Dogs acquired The Walking Company

  History of the Walking Company

  • 1991: Steve Adler and Jim Argyropoulos created The Walking Store.
  • 2003: The company's rapid expansion to over 100 stores forced it into bankruptcy.
• 2008: Big Dog acquired Natural Comfort Footwear which had 18 stores in Florida. Big Dogs had 138 stores and TWC had 174 stores.
• 2009: Big Dogs Holdings changed its name to The Walking Company Holdsings Inc..
• 2009: TWC declared bankruptcy. This happened because Deckers Outdoors pulled its UGG shoes and the company had a huge drop in sales (reference).
• 2016: TWC acquired Benchmark Brands Inc. which owned FootSmart.com.

  I could not find a history of either FootSmart nor Benchmark.

  • 1989: FootSmart was founded.
• 2018: TWC filed bankruptcy with $40 million in outstanding loans and $10 million bonds. They had 208 stores.
• 2018: TWC exits bankruptcy with 185 stores.

profile page

References:

1. Funding Universe - Big Dogs (Drawn 7/5/2019)
2. Wikipedia - The Walking Company (Drawn 7/5/2019)
3. SGB Online: Big Dogs Acquires The Walking Company (Drawn 7/5/2019)
4. Just Style - Big Dogs to Change Name (Drawn 7/5/2019)
5. Footwear News - The Walking Company Acquires Footsmart (Drawn 7/5/2019)

Directory Listings:

• Phoenix Color - Shoes: Walking Company
• Pima County - Shoes: Walking Company
• Denver Color - Shoe Stores: Walking Company
• Salt Lake Sites - Shoe Stores: Walking Company

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