Lifestyle sneaker brand Cole Haan has launched in Australia through a partnership with fashion distributor True Alliance, bringing its e-commerce offer to Australia.
The US-based footwear brand is well known for its fusion of classic, professional shoe styles with sneaker-based performance innovations, in order to create dress shoes that wear like sneakers.
True Alliance brand manager Adam Hendler said the Cole Haan brand embodies the essence of premium craftsmanship, innovation and style.
“Adding this brand to our portfolio is in line with the True Alliance philosophy of partnering with global, category leading brands and we are working very closely with Cole Hann to ensure their first foray into the Australian market will deliver exciting products as well as quality and value to our local customers,” Hendler said.
Hendler told Inside Retail the brand’s southern hemisphere offer, which will be explicitly focused on Australia and New Zealand, will get almost the exact same product has its operations in the US – barring its high winter range.
“The great news is that there is plenty of trans-seasonal and year round product in every range which means we can continue to introduce new product in all four seasons,” Hendler said.
“Speaking specifically with regard to Australia, our plan is simple; we want to make sure Cole Haan is accessible to Australians who are used to seeing it overseas on their travels, something we feel is more important than ever given international travel isn’t a certainty for some time.”
The business has a dedicated warehouse and distribution centre in Sydney, which will house and deliver all local product from March 2021. The business has also partnered with Australia Post as its shipping partner.
Cole Haan senior vice president of international Adrian Santos said the partnership with True Alliance was key to their ability to further grow in the APAC region.
“This is an important milestone for us as it marks yet another successful market introduction of the Cole Haan brand outside of North America,” Santos said.
“We take great pride in partnering with [True Alliance] as we continue to propel the Cole Haan brand forward in the Asia-Pacific region.”
