Bruce Richard Katz (February 17, 1947 – June 26, 2022) was an American entrepreneur who co-founded
The Rockport Shoe Company in 1971 and served as its CEO until its sale to
Reebok International in 1986.
He was the founder and CEO of The
Samuel Hubbard Shoe Company based in
Mill Valley, California
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 ...
.
Early life
Bruce R. Katz was born into a
Jewish Lithuanian family in 1947. He was a third-generation designer and shoe maker, grandson of Samuel J. Katz who founded The Hubbard Shoe Company in 1930. As the son of a
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
officer who served at the radiation laboratories at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Katz was fascinated with science and technology as a boy in Rochester, New Hampshire, and Newton, Massachusetts. He built his first computer in 1960 when he was thirteen years old. Katz went on to study Engineering Physics at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
.
The Rockport Shoe Company
The Katz family shoe manufacturing operations in Rochester ceased in 1970, a victim, along with most New England shoe factories of the time, of the growing flood of cheaper foreign shoes sweeping the markets. Katz’s father, Saul L. Katz, then formed the Highland Import Company and began importing shoes from Brazil for a variety of branded American shoe companies. After college and extensive travel around the United States, the younger Katz spent several years preparing to pursue his dream of sailing around the world. He set up shop in
Ithaca, New York
Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...
, and began building a 65-foot
ketch
A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...
. In order to help his father and to earn money to finish building the boat, the twenty-three-year-old began traveling from town to town selling off closeouts from his father's import business.
After a year, father and son decided to develop their own unique brand of shoes engineered for comfort, which they called Rockport,
and their business began to grow. Seven years later, after
Nike
Nike often refers to:
* Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory
* Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment
Nike may also refer to:
People
* Nike (name), a surname and feminine given ...
introduced the first lightweight running shoes, Katz moved to develop the first lightweight casual shoe using similar materials and with light
orthotics
Orthotics ( el, Ορθός, translit=ortho, lit=to straighten, to align) is a medical specialty that focuses on the design and application of orthoses, or braces. An is "an externally applied device used to influence the structural and functio ...
that had never before been offered in conventional leather shoes. RocSports, as they were called, were a huge success and the company’s annual sales reached nearly US$100 million by 1986. One reason for the success was the public awareness campaign launched by Rockport in 1983 about the aerobic benefits of what became known as Fitness Walking. Rockport sponsored walking clubs, events, films, medical research, and books about walking. In 2013 Footwear Plus inducted the Rockport “ProWalker” into its Style Hall of Fame, noting that the shoe was introduced before “walking shoes” had even been established as a footwear category.
The WELL
Following the sale of Rockport to Reebok International, Bruce Katz moved to the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
in 1987, where he involved himself with early online communities, which were then merely individual "Bulletin Boards" into which users would dial on phone lines through modems. Founded by
Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938) is an American writer, best known as editor of the ''Whole Earth Catalog''. He founded a number of organizations, including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. He is the auth ...
and
Larry Brilliant
Lawrence Brilliant (born May 5, 1944) is an American epidemiologist, technologist, philanthropist, and author, who worked with the World Health Organization from 1973–1976 helping to successfully eradicate smallpox.
Brilliant, a technology pate ...
in 1985,
The WELL
The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, normally shortened to The WELL, was launched in 1985. It is one of the oldest continuously operating virtual communities. By 1993 it had 7,000 members, a staff of 12, and gross annual income of $2 million. ...
(Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) had over 5,000 members by 1990. They gathered and conversed electronically around 270 different topic areas in what became known as a "virtual community". Katz acquired The WELL in 1994, and, when the Internet began to emerge from the early
ARPANET
The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...
, he moved to connect it to the early network, enabling users to log in from anywhere and access anything on the Net, not just The WELL’s discussion lists and servers.
According to Smart Computing Encyclopedia, The WELL was “one of the first major, worldwide online communities available on the Internet.” Around the same time, Katz also created a new company called Whole Earth Networks, one of the largest regional Internet service providers, that provided dial-up Internet access with a suite of tools, including e-mail and the new Mosaic web browser.
In 1995 The WELL became the first online service to offer its members direct self-publishing on the web. These pages, which allowed each member to present materials and links that interested them as well as their own discussion areas, were the forerunner of what became known as blogs.
In 1999 The WELL was sold to ''
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
''.
Well Engaged
Katz’s experience with The WELL convinced him of the need for web sites to support conversations between users. As a consequence, he created Well Engaged, a service bureau providing discussion-group capability within a web browser and on web pages, and he served as its CEO until the company was spun off and merged to become Prospero Technologies. Well Engaged has served Washingtonpost.com, Fox Entertainment, Ziff-Davis Media, E-Trade, Tribune Interactive, About.com, Business Week, Major League Baseball, and other leading Internet news and commerce sites.
Samuel Hubbard Shoe Company
In 2012, 26 years after Katz exited the shoe industry, he contemplated a return to the business. Katz's interest led him to a trade show in Las Vegas, where he encountered Werner Wyrsch, a former product development executive at Rockport. The two shared their disappointment with the direction of the shoe business, prompting Katz to say, “Let’s show them how to make shoes again.”
As a result, in 2013 Katz founded the
Samuel Hubbard Shoe Company in Mill Valley, CA, with a team including Wyrsch. The company name was an homage to Katz's grandfather, Samuel Katz, and Samuel's shoe company, which he had called Hubbard Shoe. To Katz, the state of the shoe industry offered limitless opportunity: "I saw that the men’s business had been decimated by ... the overwhelming success of Nike and others. There was a whole generation that had never worn shoes."
His strategy was to merge comfort with classic and stylish shoe design—making a range of lifestyle models for casual, business and outdoor wear. Katz delivered comfort by insisting on using high-quality materials, offering a wide range of sizes and widths, and focusing on details. Samuel Hubbard shoes are made in Portugal.
Philanthropy and board service
Katz joined with his friends Mel and Patricia Ziegler and Bill Rosensweig to help create
The Republic of Tea
The Republic of Tea is a privately owned American tea company based in Larkspur, California, that makes and sells more than 350 varieties of teas throughout North America. The Republic of Tea is known for packaging its loose teas and tea bags in ...
in 1992. He supplied the capital for the business and served on the board until 1994, when the company was sold to New Age Beverages.
Katz created the Springhouse Foundation in 1986, which later became the Katz Family Foundation. It supports a variety of environmental and educational organizations. In 1994 the Foundation provided early seed capital for the creation of Business for Social Responsibility, a global nonprofit organization that works with its network of more than 250 member companies to build a just and sustainable world.
In addition to having served on the boards of directors of The WELL, Whole Earth Networks, Well Engaged, and The Republic of Tea, Bruce Katz has served as a director of E-Greetings Network, Zing, GetMedia, Paradise Bay Salmon Farms, Esprit de Corps, and the Northern California Film Institute.
Later life and death
Katz died on June 26, 2022, at a hospital in
Greenbrae, California
Greenbrae is a small unincorporated community in Marin County, California. It is located south-southeast of downtown San Rafael, at an elevation of 33 feet (10 m), located adjacent to U.S. Route 101 at the opening of the Ross Valley. Part of ...
, of injuries after a fall at his
Mill Valley
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census.
Mill Valley is located on the western and ...
home.
References
External links
The Rockport CompanySamuel Hubbard Shoe Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Bruce R.
1947 births
2022 deaths
21st-century American businesspeople
American technology company founders
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
Cornell University alumni
People from Newton, Massachusetts