Rebecca Minkoff is relaunching her footwear collection in a major way for fall 2024.
In an exclusive interview with FN, the New York-based fashion designer noted that after historically licensing out the footwear category to external partners, she has brought her namesake shoe collection in house for the first time.
The move was made possible with the help of Sunrise Brands, which acquired the company in 2022 in a sale reportedly valued between $13 million and $19 million. Sunrise Brands also owns Donald Pliner, Current/Elliott, Equipment, Joie and more.
“Before our sale to Sunrise, we did a very small amount of shoes after Covid hit just to keep the lights on,” Minkoff said. “So after the sale, it was all about what comes next and developing our big growth areas for the brand. Footwear was the clear choice since handbags and shoes are the two categories that our customer loves. We spent the last year after the transition on getting everything smoothed out. We’re ready to go big now.”
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The new fall 2024 collection features 30 styles across 75 SKUs and showcases standout constructions with Rebecca Minkoff’s downtown, rock inspired design elements seen throughout the line.
Standout styles include a mix of women’s knee-high heeled boots, kitten heels, mules, loafers, pumps, riding boots, and studded ballerina flats. Each design is embellished in signature Rebecca Minkoff iconography like dog-clips, curb chains and mixed hardware. Newness includes patent materials, rich and luscious jewel-toned hues as well as sculptural shapes. The collection will retail between $148 and $598.
So far, Minkoff has shown the collection to a few major department stores at her New York showroom but plans to make the official wholesale debut at Atlanta Shoe Market next week.
Asked why the company chose to show at Atlanta, Minkoff said she had heard from her CEO that it was the “newest and hottest” shoe show in the country, and she needed to meet the buyers where they would be shopping for fall.
Going into the new season, though, Minkoff is being conservative. “We’d love to see great placement and it’s in our plan. But we would love for it to grow. Footwear really has the potential to be our next huge category for our business.”
Minkoff first launched footwear in 2010 via a license with Schwartz & Benjamin. The two companies worked together until Minkoff inked a new deal with the Camuto Group for her footwear category in 2017. The Camuto license remained until the sale of the company in 2022.
Now that she has full control over the footwear collection, Minkoff is ready for her brand’s new era. “When you have a licensed product, you aren’t able to put your full stamp on it,” she said. “With the handbags and shoes in-house, we now have the same design team working across both categories. It’s all one design language and everything is aligned.”
Asked what one of her biggest lessons in recent years, Minkoff stressed the importance of creating in-house. “When you are growing a brand and you are launching these core categories, I think they need to be in house,” she said. “But this is again, our next huge opportunity. And so, it needs to be in the womb of this place. And in the brain space of me and the team.”
The Rebecca Minkoff fall 2024 footwear collection will be available to consumers later this year. Interested buyers can see the collection at the Atlanta Shoe Market from Feb. 17 through Feb. 19 at booth 2017.
