A good fit for Clarks
U.S. subsidiary moves into Waltham HQ
Clarks Americas debuted its new headquarters yesterday, a 120,000-square-foot building along Route 128 in Waltham designed to help the comfort shoe brand better collaborate internally and with its U.K. parent as they adopt a more global mindset.
The subsidiary of the 191-yearold, privately owned C&J Clark Ltd. of Somerset, England — which contributes about $1 billion of the company’s $3 billionplus in annual sales — relocated from Newton after dropping $12 million on the renovation of a former Polaroid building.
The Waltham headquarters, home to about 400 employees, serves as one of Clarks’ two creative hubs along with its Street global headquarters in Somerset.
“This is a nice start to the next phase of where we’re going to take this business,” Clarks Americas president Gary Champion said. “We never harnessed the true strength of what a global business can be. There’s only pluses when you start combining the power of what we represent globally and bring that together into a focused ‘ one brand, one voice.’ ”
Clarks hired new U.K.-based CEO Mike Shearwood to lead that effort.
“The U.S. business was really designing and developing and creating for the U.S. market predominantly,” Shearwood said. “The way that we’re structuring the business is that the U.S. business is creating product for the global consumer, as are the creative teams in the U.K.”
Clarks also wants to present a more public face. “We’re trading in over 100 countries, but nobody knows,” Shearwood said. “This brand has been really recessive, and what we really need to do is go out there and show people what we do.”
In the U.S., Clarks sells the bulk of its shoes through 6,000-plus wholesale distribution points, including Macy’s, the QVC TV shopping network and independent retailers. It also has about 320 U.S. stores.
Clarks Americas’ upcoming projects include collaborating with Canadian rapper Drake on his own version of the brand’s Wallabees moccasins.