PETER KAISER IS BACK! The oldest shoe brand in Europe will again be presented in Russia, Caprice Vostok CEO Viktor Kunz spoke about this in an exclusive interview with SR

"Peter Kaiser is back!" – with this slogan, the German brand Caprice opens the spring-summer 2025 season. At the end of December 2023, it became known that Caprice acquired Peter Kaiser, one of the oldest, rich in tradition and most respected shoe brands in Europe. Caprice will continue the unique history of the Peter Kaiser brand and retain its essence. The new owner promises to maintain maximum comfort and quality of shoe materials, a younger audience will be attracted, and prices will become very attractive. “In the mid-price segment, Caprice and I offer excellent value for money. Thanks to the Peter Kaiser trademark, registered in more than 70 countries around the world, we will be able to position ourselves in a higher price segment. The lower and luxury segments are dominated by vertically integrated suppliers. The segment with the greatest potential for our non-vertical partners is in between. This is where Caprice and Peter Kaiser will be positioned,” says Managing Director of CAPRICE Schuhproduktion GmbH & Co. KG Jurgen Kölsch.

Caprice Vostok General Director Viktor Kunz spoke about plans for the development of the Peter Kaiser brand, about the new spring-summer 2025 collection and when it will appear in Russia, about its return to the Russian market in an exclusive interview with the editor-in-chief of Shoes Report magazine.

Victor Kuntz - General Director of Caprice Vostok LLC

Victor, today we will talk to you about Peter Kaiser, and not about Caprice...

Yes, and I'm very happy about it. It seems to me that this name is known to everyone without exception, especially shoemakers. Peter Kaiser is the oldest European brand, more precisely, it is the first shoe factory in Europe in the industrial sense of the phrase. At the time when Peter Kaiser opened his shoe workshop in 1838, the shoe industry practically did not exist, it was a shoe craft. There were many small sewing workshops that sold their products locally and regionally. He also became the first industrialist and trader who put shoe production on an industrial basis and actually expanded sales horizons. Literally within three to five years, he created an industrial enterprise called Peter Kaiser, went beyond his region and began supplying shoes to Belgium, Switzerland, and later, also the first, began supplying his shoes to North Africa and America, and began working all over the world. , conduct international trade the way the entire shoe industry operates today.

Was it a shoe factory or a manufactory?

“Shufabrik” is translated from German as “shoe factory”, and Peter Kaiser opened such an enterprise. It was not a manufactory, because any manufactory implies a more one-piece product, and Peter Kaiser was precisely striving for a wide assortment and mass production. Nevertheless, his know-how accumulated at a very high rate, and today we and many other shoe manufacturers use it.

What kind, for example?

One of the ones I really like is used to make pointed shoes. Tightening the sock so that the leather does not stretch, does not move, and the sock looks aesthetically pleasing is a very big difficulty for craftsmen; today there are even special machines just for tightening such narrow-toed shoes. One of Peter Kaiser's know-how is that he developed a tightening technology so that the leather does not become deformed, so that the shoes look beautiful and at the same time make the toes comfortable. The comfort of shoes was the most important thing for him, the main focus of his work. Therefore, in fact, he worked very intensively on the pads. The fleet of wooden lasts that we acquired along with the name Peter Kaiser is a jewel, a treasure, these are hundreds of lasts, among which there are lasts that are 50-60 years old. I think we will be studying and analyzing them for a long time.

Did Peter Kaiser have its own block production from the very beginning?

They also produced pads. Then, during the formation of the footwear industry, many were involved in everything; there was no clear division, as there is today, into component suppliers, shoe manufacturers, leather producers and other market participants. It was all together then

When did Caprice come up with the idea of ​​trying to acquire the Peter Kaiser brand with its values?

This idea has been brewing for a long time. We are in the same city - Pirmasens, and, of course, everything is in plain sight and everyone knows a lot about each other, how things are going, what the current state of affairs is, what is happening with their neighbors... The name of the city of Pirmasens is closely connected with the name of Peter Kaiser, you can say that it is associated with Peter Kaiser: the city is just over 200 years old, the Peter Kaiser company turned 185 this year. And they always lived together, grew, developed, changed, overcame difficulties. And when we realized that Peter Kaiser was, relatively speaking, on the brink, we began to think about what to do. Because we considered it unacceptable, simply impossible, to lose such a large part of history not only for the German city, but also for the shoe industry in general in both Germany and Europe. We have been closely monitoring their situation for many years, because problems became noticeable back in the early 2000s, but any economic decline of a company is a sluggish process. They tried to rectify the situation and for a long time sought to maintain their production in Pirmasens, where about 300 employees worked who sewed these famous shoes. But in 2005-2008. the moment came when they were forced to close the production in Pirmasens, because it became very expensive to sew shoes there. We left production in Portugal and continued to sew there. Then, after a few years, they were forced to close this production too. Then Peter Kaiser tried to stay on the market by placing orders with other factories - in particular, Spanish ones, but with such a brand this, of course, is unacceptable. Immediately the buyer noticed that the quality, processing of the leather and seams had changed... In general, there were many large and small problems that contributed to the failure. Then they found an investor, this allowed them to work for several more years, but Covid happened, which especially undermined them. By this time, so many problems had accumulated that it was no longer possible to overcome them.

Where is the brand currently sold?

Mainly in Europe, mostly in Germany. Peter Kaiser's traditional markets are European German-speaking countries, in the south of Europe - in Italy, Spain - it has always been less known, where the population has different preferences.

Are there no Peter Kaiser shoes in Russia today?

No. Russia was one of the largest markets for the brand, but the last delivery was in 2019. Perhaps someone still has small remnants of those supplies, but nothing has been officially supplied for the last five years.

Now a triumphant return awaits. Will the 2025 summer collection actually be the first in five years?

We will try to revive Peter Kaiser and return the brand to the Russian market. Spring/Summer 2025 will be our first Peter Kaiser collection. We decided to abandon the winter collection 2024-25, since there was too little time to create it, and the responsibility on us was too high. If we failed at something, it would only harm the brand. So we decided to spend more time on the next collection, but to do it the way it should be. In the spring-summer 2025 collection, we used a lot of models that Peter Kaiser has produced for years and even decades. For example, the legendary Milano textile model, now called Napoli.

On what basis were the models selected?

The designers of Peter Kaiser remained, did they somehow participate in this process and in the work on the new collection, did they help you? Not only designers stayed with us. When news of the deal became known, we were literally bombarded with letters and calls from former Peter Kaiser employees, many wanted to return and work further, many who were already retired simply offered to share their experience - these are a variety of specialists, from simple seamstresses to fashion designers. We were very lucky - we hired the former production manager of Peter Kaiser, a professional with more than 20 years of experience at the Peter Kaiser enterprise, who knows all the know-how and features of the brand. He shared his knowledge and best practices with us, and at the moment he is setting up a factory in Bangladesh, where Peter Kaiser will be sewing: he has changed the machine park, introducing new production and quality standards. We will sew the entire Peter Kaiser line in Asia, since in Europe today it is impossible to sew shoes at reasonable prices.

Victor, let’s return to the 2025 summer collection from Peter Kaiser. Tell us about her.

Peter Kaiser is, as CAPRICE Managing Director Jürgen Kölsch said, a craft on the verge of an art, we really wanted to show and emphasize this, and of course we must preserve this uniqueness of the brand. We quickly formed the opinion that the collection should include those hits of recent years and decades that Peter Kaiser always had, which people recognized literally at first sight. These models became the main core of the collection, but we also had to add something new to the collection. Because we didn't want to bring Peter Kaiser back to the market as a stale, conservative brand. Yes, it is the oldest shoe brand, but not outdated. With new elements of the collection we want to attract new, younger customers, this is also very important.

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What do you call new elements - Caprice know-how?

No, we strictly separate Caprice and Peter Kaiser: the brands will not overlap in any way, they have everything different, including different teams of fashion designers and technologists. Even in Europe, the sales structure is structured in such a way that someone sells Caprice, and someone sells Peter Kaiser.

What if we are talking about Caprice patent developments?

They will remain in Caprice. There is no great need to implement any Caprice patents into Peter Kaiser shoes, because they are completely different shoes. Caprice is a comfortable, innovative shoe with an optimal, almost ideal price-quality ratio, for which we have been awarded twice in the last two years in Germany. Peter Kaiser is, I repeat, shoe craft on the verge of art, it is high precision in detail, in processing, it is the most expensive leather, one of the most expensive in the world, which we buy from the same manufacturers as luxury high fashion brands.

Tell us about the Peter Kaiser design team. 

There are 7 people in the team, and for the first collection we sometimes brought in former Peter Kaiser employees for consultation. Thus, we built a collection matrix. Caprice designers were not involved in principle, otherwise there would have been a mixture of tastes and styles, which we wanted to avoid. This would not be good for either brand. We immediately divided the teams, and each one worked only on its own brand. Our leather specialists did a lot of work, because we had to find the really best leathers.

Are we talking only about leather, no synthetics, eco-leather?

Peter Kaiser only sells very expensive, high-quality leathers. There are 2-3 models that are made of textiles, also of very high quality. We took these models into the collection only because these Peter Kaiser models used to be extremely successful in this material. These are summer models - shoes, ballet flats, all the Peter Kaiser employees recommended that we return them to the collection. In winter models, if these are not insulated shoes, the lining will be leather, Peter Kaiser has always had this. Insulated models will use mixed materials for lining, which are more technologically advanced and durable. But while we are still thinking about the winter collection, the period of its development begins in early July.

In which segment in Russia will Peter Kaiser shoes be presented?

In Russia, in the premium plus segment, this will not be luxury; by optimizing production, we managed to significantly reduce the prices for Peter Kaiser shoes, the same as last year. In Germany, shoes with a retail price of 200 to 350 euros are already premium, and we managed to significantly reduce these prices for the Russian market. Thus, here we will be in the premium segment, presumably it will be 15-20 thousand rubles in retail for spring-summer shoes (the winter collection will be more expensive, which is logical). Peter Kaiser shoes will be qualitatively and aesthetically very different from other brands today represented in the premium segment in Russia, but we made a strong-willed decision that at least at the beginning, when introducing the brand to the Russian market, we will reduce our margins and costs as much as possible and provide retail more markup so that sellers would be interested in selling Peter Kaiser. For our partners, current and future, I think the markup will be about 170%. Plus, marketing support. For our long-term partners and potential ones, we will organize a presentation by Peter Kaiser, at which we will once again tell you everything in detail, and show shoe samples. The Russian shoe market is really looking forward to the release of Peter Kaiser; back in December 2023, I received a huge number of calls with congratulations, and almost everyone asked one question: “When can I see these shoes?” Therefore, there is a certain impatience in the market, and I am especially pleased about this.

In what stores can Peter Kaiser be sold in the same stores as Caprice?

Of course, these will be stores of a higher level, but Caprice is such a unique product that it can be sold in the lower middle segment, and in the high, and even in the lower premium. We are so unique that we can sell here and there. Where Caprice is the least expensive brand, Peter Kaiser may well sell.

It will be necessary to attract new buyers from among those who already work with premium brands...

Necessarily. We have already met with some - we got acquainted, talked about the product, and almost everyone was interested. This will be individual work with sellers, because the Peter Kaiser product itself implies a special, individual approach. By the way, do you see these white gloves (on Victor Kunz’s desk in his office there are several pairs of white gloves in which museum curators work with exhibits)? This is for Peter Kaiser samples, and this is justified, because in our first collection we use smooth leathers - beautifully crafted kid leather, the finest lamb velor - which are so delicate that you really need to handle them very carefully. We need to present the product, and if you take it with your hands, it will quickly lose its appearance.

Will Peter Kaiser be sold online?

There is no decision yet on whether to sell Peter Kaiser online.

Is Peter Kaiser a women's collection only?

Exclusively, out of 185 years of its existence, 180 it was only a women's brand. Therefore, now we are talking only about the women's collection.

The collection will include bags. Is this a new product line for the brand?

Peter Kaiser had bags before, because shoes of this level imply some kind of ensembles. Therefore, we decided to include in the collection a small assortment of bags that have something in common with some shoe models and are often made from the same materials.

Your target audience is in Russia?

Women aged 30 and older, with income, very good taste and an understanding of aesthetics. These are connoisseurs of classics, because these shoes are not conservative, but classic. We made one classic model with a youth style - we used printed leather, the shoes look very fun and hopefully will appeal to young women. The Peter Kaiser brand has always had and will have its own loyal audience, who appreciate it for the unique product that has been produced under this name for almost 200 years. This is a unique name in footwear, the oldest in Europe, with many traditions, a craft on the verge of art. And finally, this brand is returning to Russia.

Interviewed by Natalya Timashova

The PETER KAISER brand will be presented at the Euro Shoes exhibition from August 26 to 29 at Expocentre. We are waiting for everyone at the leading shoe exhibition in Russia, Euro Shoes. Pavilion 2.6 Stand No. 9-3.

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