LaCrosse Footwear, Inc. is Japanese-owned company based in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. Founded in 1897 in

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census w ...

, the footwear company moved to

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in 2001 where its Danner Boots subsidiary was based. In 2012, the company, which previously had been publicly traded, was bought by Japanese-based ABC-Mart.

History

LaCrosse was established in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

in 1897 as the La Crosse Rubber Mill in the city of La Crosse. The company became the largest employer in that city in 1930. In 1994, the company acquired Portland, Oregon-based Danner Boots in a merger that was expected to create a company with an annual revenue of $100 million. A month later the company announced plans for an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) worth up to $24 million in order to help purchase Danner. At the time, LaCrosse had annual sales of $82 million. The IPO went ahead in April 1994, raising nearly $18 million with a stock symbol of BOOT. LaCrosse bought footwear maker Lake of the Woods in June 1997 for $6.5 million. Company revenues had grown to $138 million for fiscal year 2000. The company closed its US-based manufacturing for the namesake brand in July 2001, and later that year moved its headquarters to Portland in order to consolidate operations and take advantage of the concentration of shoe companies in the

Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...

. Later that year, it also reported the first quarterly profit since 1999. In 2010, LaCrosse opened a new factory in Portland for its Danner brand, which helped it earn a contract with the

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

in September 2011 for making boots for the Marine Corps. In July 2012,

ABC-Mart of Japan is a Japanese footwear company, with stores in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. History The company was founded by Masahiro Miki in Shinjuku in 1985 as Boeki Shoji Inc. In 1987, the company moved to Arakawa and changed its name to Internation ...

purchased LaCrosse for $20 per share. ABC-Mart, a

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-based retailer, had approximately 800 stores in Japan,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. LaCrosse hoped to use those distribution channels to expand their brand in Japan where the company's US made boots were popular. At the time of the announcement, LaCrosse had 300 employees in Portland, and no layoffs were expected. The deal was finalized in August, with LaCrosse then becoming a private subsidiary of ABC-Mart/Japan. President and CEO Joseph Schneider then left the company in September 2012.

Products

The company manufactures boots and other footwear primarily for those in agriculture, hunters, construction workers, and for the outdoors. Other products include rubber boots for farm and hunting, all manufactured in Asia.

References

External links

LaCrosse Footwear
- ''Portland Business Journal'' {{FormerORCompanies Manufacturing companies based in Portland, Oregon Shoe companies of the United States Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Clothing companies established in 1897 La Crosse, Wisconsin 1897 establishments in Wisconsin 1994 initial public offerings 2012 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies