K-Swiss , Inc. (NASDAQ: KSWS) is an American footwear company based in Westlake Village, California. They design, develop, and market a range of athletic shoes under the K-Swiss brand and its wholly owned subsidiary Royal Elastics, Inc.
K-Swiss was founded in 1966 in Los Angeles, California, by two Swiss brothers who became interested in tennis after immigrating to the United States, where they introduced the first leather tennis shoes.
In 1986 S...
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K-Swiss , Inc. (NASDAQ: KSWS) is an American footwear company based in Westlake Village, California. They design, develop, and market a range of athletic shoes under the K-Swiss brand and its wholly owned subsidiary Royal Elastics, Inc.
K-Swiss was founded in 1966 in Los Angeles, California, by two Swiss brothers who became interested in tennis after immigrating to the United States, where they introduced the first leather tennis shoes.
In 1986 Steven Nichols, while working at Stride Rite, was so impressed with the K-Swiss tennis shoe that he tried to convince his bosses to purchase the K-Swiss company. When his superiors passed on the opportunity he headed a group of investors that bought the company for $20 million. Mr. Nichols called the K-Swiss white stripes on white leather tennis shoe a "classic 50-year shoe", and in 2005, global sales passed $500 Million.
In the 1990s, Steven Nichols boosted K-Swiss's marketing budget and hired a number of key individuals from large companies...
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