Lamo is getting a new look — and name.
The almost 30-year-old authentic sheepskin footwear brand is refreshing its identity and repositioning itself as a year-round comfort brand. Lamo, known for its sheepskin footwear products, will now be known as Mykos, a seasonless brand that offers sandals, boots, slippers, moccasins and sneakers for consumers with an active lifestyle.
“We didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a cold weather brand,” said Edna De Pamphilis, marketing director at Mykos, adding that the brand had also received mixed reviews about its former name. “[We thought,] what can we do better? What can we do different? What can we do to shake up our business and the footwear space as well?”
As Lamo approached its 30-year anniversary, the team brainstormed new potential directions. They ultimately landed on Mykos, a brand with a modern, minimalist aesthetic suitable for everyday comfort and travel. The brand launches with 28 men’s, women’s and kid’s SKUs available for wholesale purchase for Spring/Summer 2025.
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The brand’s new logo, an “M” made from cross-stitched laces, will adorn each product and various silhouettes will feature Mykos’ new patent pending outsole technology, “Advanced response outsole (ARO),” which is meant to maximize comfort.
“It’s not necessarily something that you might associate with Lamo,” De Pamphilis said of the new look. “Having the ability to have a fresh slate offers that opportunity. And this new collection allows us to really spearhead the comfort story in a very attainable aesthetic.”
Whereas Lamo’s business in the first half of the year has historically accounted for about 15 percent of overall sales, the new brand is expected to bring a more even sales split across both halves of the year.
To roll out the new products and brand direction, Mykos recently hired former K-Swiss footwear designer Kamaria Davis and has brought on Bearpaw veteran Todd Bennett as creative director. The first collection launches for Spring/Summer 2025 but the team is already working on new designs for Fall 2025 as well. Mykos also plans to launch into adjacent accessories categories like bags, blankets and socks as early as Fall 2025.
In terms of packaging, Mykos shoes will live in chic charcoal and teal branded boxes with luggage tags that evoke themes of travel and wanderlust. The tissue paper inside the boxes is printed to look like a newspaper with marketing copy that tells the brand’s new story.
Mykos will roll out the refresh to wholesale partners this weekend at the IR Show, a footwear industry trade show in Las Vegas, and then more broadly at the Atlanta Shoe Market in August. While no shoes will bear the Lamo name anymore, some products will retain the Lamo heritage but be reworked for a modern consumer. Mykos will also carry over other elements from its former self that retailers have grown to love.
“Our retail partners love our customer service, they love our comfort and they love our quality,” said chief operating officer Jerry Breig. “It was the brand name that they felt stopped them from engaging any deeper than what they were.”
Breig also noted that the Lamo sales team has already expressed excitement about the new brand direction.
“Making it through the pandemic, supply chain issues and financial uncertainty really made us want to focus on not just what we were doing as a business … but what is something that we really feel passionate about going forward,” Breig said. “And I think that really helped kickstart this whole transition.”
