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For the past 150 years, Blundstone has been a brand synonymous with good quality boots. The Hobart-born brand has seen an impressive evolution, from providing boots to soldiers during World Wars I and II, to being the official thermal boot of the Australian Olympians at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. More recently, Blundstone’s switched the focus to a brand new style: the heeled boot.

Blundstone’s Joint CEOs, Adam Blake and Darryl Wilkes, explained that heeled boots for women aren’t a new range for the brand (in fact, some of the first-ever designs were for heeled styles). But driven by their growth into fashion-led markets like Milan, New York and Seoul, they’re focusing more energy on this area. “In the last decade we’ve seen, or finally recognised, a huge uptake in women buying our boots,” they said. “So, we knew that a women’s-specific series was an untapped segment for us.”

Their current range maintains the quality, craftsmanship and comfort the brand has always been famous for. “Our range is ever-evolving, and we see it as imperative that we don’t lose that Blundstone DNA that we are known for,” the co-CEOs said. “We built our women’s heeled boots on the same principles.”

We sat down with Blake and Wilkes to find out more about the brand’s evolution and exactly how it has pivoted so successfully to maintain a market share since its inception 150 years ago. A huge part of the brand’s success, they said, is that it resonates with a broad demographic of consumers, from eight to eighty-year-olds, construction workers to festival-goers, and musicians, too. Keep on reading to hear more.

How would you describe the feel of a Blundstone to someone who hasn’t worn them before?

Adam Blake: Simplicity and comfort. We are the original and iconic easy on, easy off elastic side design. And we produce boots you can wear all day and be comfortable in. Our patterns and designs are backed by decades of research to ensure we’re always using the best materials, technology and design practices to provide the best products we can.

The fit of our products is key to our DNA—we’ve had 151 years of consumer feedback to draw on. People often comment that Blundstones mould to the shape of their foot, delivering a personalised fit. And that’s what it’s all about—making the boot work for you.

What has been the reaction to the Blundstone heeled boot, so far?

Darryl Wilkes: It’s been phenomenal. As soon as we launched them they sold out, and in their first year, we sold three times as many pairs as we’d forecasted. Now that we’ve leant back into designing women’s styled footwear, we realise there’s an onus on us to keep refreshing and extending the collection for our consumers; new colours, heel heights and styles join our range every season.

How has the business model for Blundstone shifted over the years (more recently as well as since its inception)?

AB: Throughout this change, we’ve always kept our heritage front of mind. Our vision remains focused — first and foremost we’re a footwear brand and we don’t see that changing any time soon. We’ve been making fit for purpose footwear for 151 years and we believe we’re still only just scratching the surface of the potential.

The transition has been fuelled by our strategy of putting our customers, consumers, and wearers at the centre of our thinking. This extends to every element of our operations — design, materials innovation and sourcing, manufacturing, sales, and marketing.

As a globally distributed brand in over 70 countries, our primary goal is to continue to stay relevant to the people who wear and love our products. We’ve had extraordinary growth in the last 20 years and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down, so we must be doing something right.

Has the design of the boot evolved much or has it predominantly been minor tweaks here and there?

DW: The old adage of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” is one you could certainly apply to our brand. Our iconic #500 has been a key part of our range for more than 50 years, albeit with updated comfort technology. We’re the opposite of fast fashion. The manufacturing and design techniques we employ mean that our boots are perennial staples. Our boots are considered and timeless in their style, and durability is our cornerstone. And while we do continue to develop our range to meet the demands of our wearers, we never stray too far from our DNA.

Even though we’re 151 years old, in many of our global markets, we’re still a discovery brand. We are happy for that “underground” element to remain a part of our brand identity.

What is Blundstone setting its sights on in the next few years?

AB: We’ll be continuing to open up new markets and regions to continue to grow the brand.
Growing our product sets means opening up new categories and providing consumers in all segments of the market the best boots we can. This applies to both lifestyle and work products. We see our work and safety range as an important anchor for the brand. The design, research and technology we leverage for safety products is filtered into our lifestyle range so that every boot we make is fit for purpose, comfortable and durable.

As the current custodians of Blundstone, we’re conscious to ensure that our growth is sustainable for the long term and leverages the capabilities and innovation of our team and value chain partners. We have a responsibility to protect and enhance the legacy of the brand and the business for the next generation. This means doing the right thing by people, products and the planet. Not only meeting consumer demands for products but for ethical and sustainable business practices. This is something we’ve been working toward for a while and we’ve begun to share more about our efforts in this area on our digital platforms as we know transparency is increasingly important to our consumers.

How do you decide on the material being sourced? Are you conscious of environmental impacts?

DW: As a brand built on quality and craftsmanship, the materials we use are pivotal to our product offering. We only work with suppliers that can demonstrate their commitment to quality, minimising environmental impact, practices and ethical supply chain, and people management.

Corporate social responsibility, or as we call it simply “doing the right thing”, is built into every element of our business and value chain — from our suppliers to our distributors — because we recognise the significance of it to the longevity of our brand.

As an iconic business and brand, Blundstone has always sought to be an active, positive and contributing member of our communities. It’s important to our people both internally and our wearers so it’s important to us. Every day, we strive to make every step better than our last.

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