Founder of Skechers, Michael Greenberg admits he spends a lot of time looking down. It is not because he is shy or introverted, but he is applying his enduring foot fetish to studying the feet of strangers for hints of what potential customers want to wear. He told SmartCompany that in the Sydney airport, “I was walking with my head down, not because I was depressed, but I was studying the shoes on people’s feet.”
Why did Greenberg start Skechers? Because he felt like it. There didn’t seem to be a gap in the shoe market. He had been working for L.A. Gear, his family’s business, in the 80s. There was no need for another shoe brand, but Greenberg started Skechers in 1992, and now the company is one of the leading names in shoes, with $2.7 billion in turnover by the end of 2014.
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Michael Greenberg keeps a healthy lifestyle, he avoids red meat and chicken, and just for the heck of it, joined in the 10 km race in the Sydney Marathon. The running also gives him new inspiration for light-weight running shoes. The one think Greenberg lacks is sleep; he confesses to getting only 4 hours of shut eye a night. What keeps him up? “When you run a big company, you have a lot of people who depend on the health and well being and stability of the company. I’m not saying it keeps me up at night, but it is certainly on my mind.”
Skechers is getting a lot of attention, with Boston Marathon winner, Meb Keflezighi, wearing Skechers in advertisements. Greenberg told SmartCompany, “We’ve achieved a lot of accolades from true hard core running editors. That’s something you can’t buy with advertising. You can’t demand it, you can’t will it.”
