LA Gear

LA Gear was started by Robert Greenberg, Ernest Williams, and Stephen Williams. Greenberg had moved to Los Angeles from his native Boston in 1978, where he picked up the Hang 10 license for shoe skates. Once he realized that it was the “uppers” that held the most promise for sales, Greenberg began focusing on shoes instead of skates, leading to the birth of the LA Gear brand in 1983. He targeted the women's athletic shoe market, with an appeal to fashion and selection over technical features. The company went public in 1986.

As the 1990s began, company sales reached $818.8 million, and LA Gear was third in athletic shoe sales behind Nike and Reebok. Although its original lines were typically featured in high-end department stores, LA Gear shoes became easier to find in discount retailers. Caldor began carrying LA Gear shoes designed specifically for the store and its clientele.

Trouble began to appear for LA Gear in 1992. As its stock sunk from $50 to $10 a share, Robert Greenberg stepped down as CEO; within the year he founded the shoe company Skechers, which he still manages as of 2022. By 1993 LA Gear's popularity was beginning to wane. Within a year the company began restricting access to the shoes, returning to higher-end department stores to gain a more upscale clientele. However, in doing so the company was so desperate to sell the remaining inventory that LA Gear shoes began showing up at flea markets, swap meets, and supermarkets.

In 1994, LA Gear abandoned its men's performance footwear line and began marketing the lifestyle brands for women and children more aggressively. They also tried to acquire the struggling Rykä brand of women's shoes, but the deal failed. In 1995 Walmart and LA Gear signed a three-year contract to design lower-value and specific-to-store shoes for Walmart, but the venture failed as sales for LA Gear shoes at Walmart had declined. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998, in the process greatly reducing the lines of shoes it was selling. Since the bankruptcy filing LA Gear has made three concerted attempts at coming back. The first was in 1999, with an emphasis on casual shoes for men and women and the return of the popular LA Lights line for children. The company's largest initial licensee was LA-based footwear manufacturer ACI International, which also bought a majority stake. However, the brand failed to catch on.

In 2003, LA Gear went through a relaunch, this time with an emphasis on men's performance footwear as the Catapult line was reintroduced. Los Angeles Lakers rookie Luke Walton was signed as the brand's spokesman and appeared in several print ads. Ron Artest also was endorsed for a brief period in 2004 and 2005 in conjunction with his "Tru Warrier" persona, but the company dropped him as spokesman following the 2004 Pacers–Pistons brawl. LA Gear primarily marketed fashion athletic shoes for women and continues to do so to this day, although a recent relaunch of the brand has resulted in the de-emphasis of these lines (with LA Gear discontinuing the new Catapult line for men altogether). In 2008, LA Gear rereleased its Unstoppable retro range, which saw sneaker lines such as the KAJ and Starshooter High available in a variety of new colors. It rereleased its Stardust women's fashion line in 2009 and later released a new version of the popular LA Lights. LA Gear also joined the rocker bottom shoe craze that year by releasing the Walk N Tone sneaker line for women.

LA Gear released its Hollywood men's sneaker in 2012 alongside the Unstoppable range. In October 2014, LA Gear underwent another revamp of some of its product lines and announced its 2015 spring/summer launch with new sneakers such as the LA Lights Liquid gold edition and the T Raww Runner, endorsed by American rapper Tyga. In February 2022, Australian department store Big W launched an exclusive range of LA Gear to the Australian market.