Vancouver’s Shoes.com is buying California-based socks manufacturer Richer Poorer for more than $10 million, Shoes.com CEO Roger Hardy told Business in Vancouver November 12.
Richer Poorer, which has 16 employees, sells its socks and underwear through more than 800 retail outlets as well as online.
Sales are “beyond being in the millions,” Hardy said.
“They launched in 2010 and have been growing at 100% a year, every year,” he added.
“The category is growing very quickly as people have shifted away from just black socks and white socks and into ones that help define personality. We think socks are the new neckties.”
Shoes.com is on track to generate more than $300 million in sales in 2015 and Hardy projected that 2016 sales will top $450 million.
Hardy got into the online shoe business in mid-2014, when he bought both Vancouver’s Shoeme.ca and Seattle-based Online Shoes for an undisclosed amount.
Hardy was flush with cash given that several months earlier he had sold the then-Nasdaq-listed Coastal Contacts to French eyewear giant Essilor for $430 million . He and other family members owned about 20% of Coastal Contacts at the time.
Hardy then, in December 2014, bought the Shoes.com domain and brand from Brown Shoe Co. (NYSE:BWS) for an undisclosed amount.
Earlier this year, Hardy branded the company Shoes.com even though it continues to operate the Shoeme.ca and OnlineShoes.com domains.
He has also mused about taking the public through an IPO .
Recent “soft” market conditions have kept him from going through with that although he told BIV on November 12 that he will continue to consider the viability going public.
Shoes.com already sells socks but the Richer Poorer acquisition substantially increases its selection.
Hardy said customers should expect specials where shoes and socks are bundled.
“It would make sense to have some sort of bundle,” he said. “That will make it easy and fun for customers.”
Hardy plans to open his first bricks-and-mortar store in Toronto later this year and then a second one, early next year, in Vancouver on Robson Street .
