MANHATTAN BEACH, CA, October 13, 2020 – Affiliates of CriticalPoint Capital, LLC (“CriticalPoint Capital” or “CPC”) announced today it has completed the acquisition of Shoes.com (the “Company”) from Walmart, Inc. Shoes.com is a leading online retailer of footwear, apparel and accessories, in the U.S. and internationally offering a broad assortment of the best brands spanning athletic to casual for women, men, and children.
Originally founded in 1999 as ShoeBuy, a pioneer in online shoe retailing, Shoes.com is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, the birthplace of American shoe manufacturing.
For over two decades, Shoes.com has been a trusted industry leader serving millions of customers via its diverse and vast selection of sought-after footwear brands.
“CriticalPoint Capital is the ideal partner to help us achieve our next phase of growth including optimizing product assortment, delivering a best-in-class footwear shopping experience, while also leveraging operational capabilities and strategies,” said John Foristall, President & CEO of Shoes.com. “CPC has extensive knowledge and experience in the footwear industry, including an understanding of our key brands and how these brand relationships have been the cornerstone of this business for over 20 years. CPC also has a strong track record of giving companies the advice and backing they need to succeed as standalone businesses.”
The acquisition marks CPC’s most recent investment in the footwear industry, having completed previous transactions with JackRabbit, Clever Training and Olympia Sports. Brad Holtmeier, Partner at CPC added, “We are thrilled to leverage our operational and consumer-focused expertise to help Shoes.com continue its long-standing position as a leader of online footwear and further the Company’s strategic evolution.”
About SHOES.COM
Shoes.com is a leading online footwear, clothing and accessories retailer. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and originally founded in 1999 under the name ShoeBuy; it is one of the first eCommerce companies to sell footwear online. Today, Shoes.com carries hundreds of top brands for the whole family, helping every person find the best pair of shoes for their journey through easy, accessible, expert-guided shopping.
About CriticalPoint
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CriticalPoint is a leading full-service financial M&A firm that uniquely combines the best of investment banking, private capital, and valuation service offerings. CriticalPoint executes, sources, and invests in deals across a wide variety of industries for the traditionally underserved middle market. Since our founding in 2012, our mission has been to serve the needs of owners, entrepreneurs, management teams, and stakeholders with our experience, knowledge, and expert judgment, to help them realize their companies’ greatest potential. From our deep-rooted foundation in private equity and investment banking, and our devotion to deal origination and business development, combined with being entrepreneurs at heart, we believe we are differentiated and well positioned to help companies wherever they are in their life cycle.
