Skechers’ Wild Ride: From Grunge and Britney Spears to a $9.4 Billion M&A Deal

He has ended up becoming one of the most influential men in the footwear industry, but Robert Greenberg is actually a hairdresser. The entrepreneur is behind one of the largest international fashion groups, Skechers, with a 0.7% share of the global market, behind Louis Vuitton (0.9%) and matching Puma (0.7%), according to 2024 data from GlobalData. Greenberg failed in multiple deals before hitting the Skechers button, which he just sold for $9.4 billion to investment group 3G Capital.

The entrepreneur was born into a working-class Boston family in 1940. As the only boy in the family, he started working with his father, who forced him not to wear gloves in winter to make him strong. With that experience, when he finished elementary school, Greenberg opted for a career with more comfortable physical conditions: hairdressing.

Greenberg opened his first salon, called Talk of the Town, in 1962, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, according to a Forbes article. At that salon, the entrepreneur began selling hairpieces and, realizing that items purchased for $50 were selling for $300, he started a wholesale distributor in 1965 called Wig Bazaar. Greenberg eventually sold the bazaar and founded a store called Wigs'n Things, which did mail order hairpieces.

Skechers was born after founder Robert Greenberg tried multiple businesses, including the L.A. Gear brand.

In 1969, Greenberg sold his hair salon to focus on his other businesses and two years later ended up buying the publicly traded technology company Medata Computer Systems, which he renamed Europa Hair. His hólding, called Europa Group, began importing watches from South Korea, buying them for $16 and selling them for $129.

Encouraged by the margin he generated on hairpieces and watches, Greenberg went on to import items such as jeans, industrial tweezers (used to remove hair) or even skateboards. In 1979 he founded Roller Skates of America, a skateboard sales and rental company in Los Angeles. The entrepreneur tried everything: he even earned three million dollars thanks to the license to sell shoelaces with the image of the movie ET, which he had acquired for 10,000 dollars.

In 1983, the restless Greenberg started a women's fashion store in Los Angeles called L.A. Gear and began importing sneakers. He soon closed the store and left clothing to focus solely on footwear. Under the L.A. Gear brand, he sold sneakers much like Reebok's, riding the aerobics and body care wave that was beginning in the 1980s.

By the early 1990s, L.A. Gear's sales exceeded $800 million and the brand was rivaling Nike and Reebok in the United States. In 1992, however, L.A. Gear lost its momentum and financial problems set in (with losses of $66 million in 1991), prompting Greenberg to be fired from the company, where he served as CEO.

The same year that Skechers went public, the catchy Baby One More Time by Britney Spears, who became the brand's image, was playing on radios around the world.

Robert Greenberg was fired on a Friday and on Monday it was the turn of his son, Michael, who also worked at the company. Within hours, Greenberg decided that he and his son Michael were going to start their new business: a company dedicated to importing Dr Martens, in response to the growing grunge niche in the country.

Another setback awaited Greenberg, as in 1993 he lost the Dr Martens distribution agreement he had with R. Griggs Group, the then owner of the brand. But the entrepreneur already had his next idea, thanks to the footwear importing know-how he had gained over the years. The sneakers they launched were named Skechers, a street slang word for a person who can't sit still, and the brainchild of Greenberg's youngest son, Joshua.

The father of five children (all of whom work at the company), Robert Greenberg likes to call himself Captain Marvel. Michael, the second son, is the counterpoint to the intrepid father and it was he who, in 1999, encouraged the founder to take the company public. The same year that Skechers went public, Britney Spears' catchy Baby One More Time was playing on radios around the world. The singer, who would come to rival Madonna as queen of pop but ended up falling from grace, fell in love with a pair of gaudy sneakers with huge soles that elevated her on stage: they were the Skechers chunky shoes.

In 2000, Skechers' sales stood at $675 million, to touch $1 billion in 2001 and surpass it in 2005. In 2010, Skechers surpassed $2 billion in sales; in 2015, $3 billion; in 2017, $4 billion; in 2019, $5 billion; and in 2021, despite the Covid-19 hit a year earlier, the company ended the year with sales of $6.29 billion.

Celebration of Skechers' 20th anniversary on the stock exchange.

Since then, Skechers has accelerated its growth rate. In the heat of the sports and casual apparel boom, the company ended 2024 with revenues up 21.1% to $8.969 billion. The company also boosted its net income, up 17.2% to 639.5 million euros. The gross margin at the end of 2024 stood at 53.2%, two points higher than the previous year.

Unlike other major American groups, Skechers' business does not depend on its local market. At year-end 2024, 62% of the company's sales came from exports. By region, 49% of the business corresponded to the Americas as a whole, while 25% came from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 26% from Asia-Pacific. The company, whose production is concentrated in Asia (with sourcing offices in China and Vietnam), distributes its footwear in 180 countries around the world.

The international business is managed through a network of wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and distributors. Joint ventures include China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore (50%), Thailand (51%), Mexico (60%), South Korea (65%) and Israel (75%). When the company does not sell directly through its international subsidiaries and joint ventures, its footwear is distributed through a network of distributors and licensees. The company employs more than 20,000 people worldwide.

After being laid off from L.A. Gear, Robert and Michael Greenberg founded a Dr Martens distribution company before launching Skechers.

With 297 million units sold in 2024 and a distribution network of more than 5,300 stores, the company has logistics platforms in North America (located in California), Europe (located in Belgium), China and India, plus smaller centers in the United Kingdom, Central America, South America and Asia.

Skechers, which is in the process of expanding its headquarters (located in Manhattan Beach, California), has made a splash this year with a record-breaking corporate transaction. In early May, the investment fund 3G Capital, owner of Burger King, announced an agreement to acquire Skechers for 9.4 billion dollars, a deal that will result in the company's delisting from the stock market. 3G Capital took advantage of a moment of weakness in Skechers shares, whose dependence on China and Vietnam for supplies had punished the shares in the midst of Donald Trump's tariff crusade.

Despite the change in ownership, the company will continue to be led by the Greenbergs, with Robert remaining as CEO and Michael as chairman. Robert and Michael Greenberg, together with their immediate family (the children of the former: Jennifer Greenberg Messer, Scott Bruce Greenberg, Jeffrey Alan Greenberg, Jason Aaron Greenberg and Joshua Adam Greenberg, Joshua and Jason being executives of the company) control 12% of Skechers, for which they will pocket 1.1 billion dollars and one hundred million dollars in shares of the new company.