LaCrosse plunges into the athletic footwear market - Portland Business Journal:

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But in one swoop last week, the Portland-based boot-maker plungec into the outdoor athletic shoe while simultaneously enhancing its image as a champion of In its first acquisition in abouta decade, LaCrosse said it will buy Portland-basexd END, or Environmentally Neutral Design, a startup focusedr on sustainable outdoor footwear, in a $500,0000 deal expected to close in cominbg weeks. “No question, it’s a new channel of distribution in addition to new consumers ayounger consumer, more urban,” said LaCrossd CEO Joe Schneider.
“It brings all new Officials withboth companies, as well as analysts, believe the move solicited by END — makese sense for both companies. For LaCrosse it meansz moving into a new market segment with a brand that in a shortg period of time has grownin reach, brand recognition and critical For END, the move gives the young company’s five employees the financiapl and logistical resources of a $128 million business. “We woulr not be growing globally for five or six saidPaul Curran, a spokesmamn for END. “But with LaCrosse, it will happeh a lot faster.” Reed Anderson, a Minneapolis-based analyst with D.A. Davidso n Co.
, said the move gives LaCrosse instantgrowth potential. “They’ve been trying to expand theieproduct line,” Anderson said. “It’s giving them a much bigger focus on active outdoor markets as oppose dto work-related markets.” END won’ft have a huge impact on LaCrosse’e revenue in the near future, which mightf explain why Wall Street’s reaction to the deal has been Shares spiked briefly in the first day of tradinf after the announcement, but have since dipped slightlyt in tandem with the market. LaCrosse has annual revenu e around $128 million, a 29 percent increase since 2005.
The company’d stock also outperformed the market in thepast year. END was launched in 2007 by Ben Finklezaand award-winning footwear designetr Andrew Estey, the former global design directof for sport culture at Nike Inc. The compan y made a splash last year bywinning $250,000 in seed monegy in the Angel Oregohn competition and by raising more than $1 million to launcnh the new brand. END released its firsr product to retail marketsin August, when it sold only on the Interne through four retailers: REI, Zappos, Rock Creeok and Backcountry.com. It branched out to retaik stores in January and quickly spread to 100 stores across theUnited States, Canada and Japan.
Critica l acclaim followed. END’s lightweight Stumptown shoe was anointedf Best Trail Shoe Debutby Runner’s Worldf magazine in March. Schneider said LaCross will likelyleave END’s creativw team untouched, with LaCrosse take over the company’s now out-sourced logisticxs operations. “Andrew and his team are very good at but they lacked the capacity to executed marketing the way we would like todo it,” Schneiderf said.
The move into the outdoorf athletic footwearmarket isn’t a stretch, Schneider