Kandui Holdings, established by the founding family of the Hurley surfwear brand, through its new operating entity Simple Shoes, has acquired the outstanding assets and intellectual property of Simple from KTSimple. Simple Shoes will continue all ongoing operations with plans to enhance and evolve the Simple brand over time, Kandui said in a statement.
Simple, founded in the early 90s by Eric Meyer, enjoyed growth and success throughout the early 2000s until the brand eventually went dormant in 2011. In 2015, the Simple trademarks were acquired by Denis Ryan, a savvy, design-focused shoe industry veteran who has since revived the brand, running a primarily direct-to-consumer business at simpleshoes.com for the last two years.
Ryan, who also owns ICB, Int’l, a footwear design and development group, will work closely with the Simple team as both a partner and an owner in Simple Shoes, the statement said.
“We are really excited about the future of Simple and honored to have a talent like Denis as a partner in this venture. Simple always had a cool vibe – consumer-focused, no-nonsense, anti-hype way of approaching things. They were way ahead of their time in terms of innovation and sustainable manufacturing practices and prioritized making the right decisions for the benefit of the planet at a time when the masses didn’t necessarily care about lofty concepts like sustainability. We’ve always been fans of Simple and, when this opportunity presented itself, it just seemed like a great fit,” Jeff Hurley, Kandui co-founder and chief executive officer, said.
