K-Swiss celebrates its rebirth in Los Angeles

This Tuesday, sneaker brand K-Swiss, founded in Los Angeles in 1966 and acquired by Chinese company Xtep in 2019, invited press, influencers and employees to attend its “K-Swiss Reborn Spring Summer 2025” project. 

Wearing a pink and black T-shirt, K-Swiss international brand President Barney Waters presented a new chapter for the company in front of Victor Yang, CEO of K-Swiss and the brand new team: “K-Swiss is a big brand that everybody knows but nobody knows,” said Waters. “Today, we are waking up a sleeping giant. K-Swiss is one of the oldest and most unique and incredible American brands. We have history, heritage and authenticity. K-Swiss had its moment and still has a huge potential to grow and we want to show this to you now.”
 
China’s Xtep Group, also behind the Palladium and Supra brands, “is the main reason for our renaissance,” added Waters who spent a good 15 minutes praising the Chinese company. “It’s a $2 billion company. It makes 50 million pairs of sneakers a year for all its brands. It makes 50 million apparel units a year and has 8,000 stores in China and around the world. It’s a huge, powerful company. These are the strengths we have behind us. We’ve never had that before. Access to design resources, innovation labs and much more benefits us all over the world.”

Present in 60 stores, located in premium and high-end malls throughout Asia, at The Venetian Macao hotel, Taipei 101 mall, and also in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, the K-Swiss brand is banking on its growth in the Chinese market. “Chinese consumers love American brands and T-zero brands,” added Waters. “Having 60 door fronts in the best malls gives us a window across all Asia,” added Waters. 

Regarding distribution strategy, Waters explained that “retail is our strategy in China, but we’re primarily a wholesale brand in the rest of the world. We may end up opening a flagship store in America. And it should be in Los Angeles, but who knows! Our aim is to expand our audience in the American market and re-establish the relevance of our brand through partnerships.” 
 
Turning to the European market, Waters has also announced a partnership with sneaker and streetwear retailer Snipes owned by Deichmann Group, which has over 400 stores in Europe. Distribution in Snipes stores will begin with the Summer Spring 2025 collection.
 
Following the presentation of the new Chinese ownership and distribution strategy, Waters introduced the brand-new K-Swiss team responsible for reviving the brand, including VP of Sales Andrew Richard, Director of Marketing Ain Smith, Director of Product Rudy Manival and Director of Sales West Coast Sameer Walia. 
 

Waters went on to extol the Californian roots of K-Swiss, presented through a series of photographs of the brand’s early beginnings, the many athletes and celebrities who have worn the brand, from Princess Diana to Joe Biden, basketball player Baron Davis, and Mike Tyson, and its various collaborations, including one with artist & A&R Brock Korsan.
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Entrusted to IDW, a design agency, the Reborn collection unveiled a new technology explained by IDW founder Ron Deardon. “K-Swiss has a very good reputation in tennis and pickleball, sports where stability is vital,” said Deardon. “We invented K-Frame, a technology-platform that evolves infinitely and is entirely designed for stability. A stability system that joins top to bottom. Every detail, every texture, every surface has been carefully considered. A super-clean, super-comfortable, super-simple spirit whose iconic K-shaped architecture marks the shoe. It’s not a brandmark, K-Frame is a technology.”
 
The K-Frame collection is divided into three categories including tennis, pickleball and K Classic. The new collection also features a series of new designs by Director of design MJ Kim. Among them, the Impulse Tubes Lite from K-Swiss “is a fusion of elegant design, cushioning and versatile lifestyle”. The K-Swiss Techna Trainer pays homage to the style and urban culture of the 90s, and the K-Swiss Metro Trainer is designed to combine style and functionality.