Cole Haan Men's Fashion Brand

Trafton Cole and Eddie Haan began Cole Haan in 1928, resolving to make good goods and nothing but good goods. Cole Haan is a global lifestyle brand with a focus on men's and women's footwear and accessories. Founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1928. Two founder names, a city, a date and a motto: the record is compact, including the motto's repetition - good goods, and nothing but good goods - which is a maker's promise, not a marketing line.

The distribution record shows what that promise built. Cole Haan products are sold at retailers such as Nordstrom, Shoe Carnival, Zappos, Macy's, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Hudson's Bay Company and other department stores and independent stores nationwide, as well as through its own outlet stores found in outlet malls throughout the country. Additionally, Cole Haan has stores and shop-in-shops globally. The list maps the brand's position precisely: a footwear and accessories label carried from shoe chains to luxury department stores, with its own outlets and a global shop-in-shop presence - the full retail ladder, in order.

From Nike to Apax Partners, November 2012

On November 16, 2012, Cole Haan was bought by Apax Partners Worldwide LLP for $570 million from Nike, Inc. - dated to the day and priced to the dollar. The seller matters as much as the buyer: Cole Haan came to Apax from Nike, which places the brand inside the same athletic parent as Converse, its neighbour later in this letter, until 2012 - a pairing the directory itself underlines, because this page points onward to the Nike brand for men, in this page's lists. A researcher dating a Cole Haan shoe can therefore place its corporate home from this page alone: Nike ownership until November 16, 2012, Apax Partners thereafter, at a recorded price of $570 million.

There is also a second company record: the About Cole Haan link onward to the company's profile in the guide's names section, in More to Explore, where the corporate record sits at greater length. Read as a buying guide, the Cole Haan record reduces to its founding resolution. A global lifestyle brand focused on footwear and accessories is judged, in its founders' terms, on whether the goods are good - leather, construction and finish in a dress shoe, comfort and making in a casual one - and the breadth of its retail list means a man can test that standard at almost any price point of department-store shoe department. No model names or prices for individual shoes are stated.

Reading This Cole Haan Record

The directory frame is the same as on every page in this letter: the Men's Fashion Brands index and its further pages, the Fashion Designer Directory, the popular brands section, and the shopping, retail, wholesale, buyers and news areas ride in the navigation and More to Explore list, along with the About Cole Haan and Nike pointers. The official Cole Haan men's range is in References. Set beside Bass in the B letter - another American footwear heritage sold between corporations - Cole Haan's record is the C letter's version of the same American story: founders, a motto, a national retail ladder, and a dated, priced change of hands.

Cole Haan, under C in the Men's Fashion Brands directory: a global lifestyle brand focused on men's and women's footwear and accessories, founded in Chicago in 1928 by Trafton Cole and Eddie Haan resolving to make good goods and nothing but good goods, sold nationwide from Shoe Carnival to Neiman Marcus, and bought by Apax Partners Worldwide LLP for $570 million from Nike, Inc. on November 16, 2012.

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