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All or nothing for Van Bommel. 1983.

The 1950s and 1960s were marked by stiff competition between shoe manufacturers. As a result, shoe retailers gained more influence and power. One of the ways this was palpable was the rise of private labels. Shoe retailers demanded that their own name or house brand be stamped into the shoes. Schoenfabriek van Bommel had no choice but to meet these demands and thus produced dozens of private labels in those years. Sometimes, you could still see a small name indicating that it was made by Van Bommel, but oftentimes you could not.

In the early 1980s, director Frans van Bommel made a radical decision: he stopped making private labels. At a time of rapid globalization, marketing became increasingly important, and Van Bommel had to pull out all the stops to promote its own brand. However, they would not succeed in doing so if a large part of their shoes left the factory with private labels. Frans took the risk that his clients would order their shoes from other manufacturers. Dealers were not happy with his decision. As a concession, Frans offered to supply loose insoles for his shoes, still bearing the retailers own private labels. The retailer had to remove the Van Bommel insole from each shoe themselves though, and glue his labelled insole back in. As expected, this was way too tedious for dealers and soon, the demand declined.

(Image below: Insole stamps for private labels produced by Van Bommel between 1950 and 1980 (Stamps are always in mirror image. For readability, we have mirrored them here.)

In the 1980s, Frans van Bommel also embarked on product diversification. He introduced the brand name ‘Manhattan by Van Bommel’, a label under which more fashionable shoes were sold. Later, the name was changed to ‘New generation classics’ for legal reasons. To gain more shelf space in shoe shops, Frans intensified his product diversification in the early 1990s. He introduced ‘Van Bommel ultra fit’, a shoe that felt like a sports shoe, ‘Van Bommel discover’ a neat trekking shoe and ‘Van Bommel nature’, an eco-friendly shoe with the eco-label. In 1996, three years before his retirement, Frans introduced the brand ‘Floris van Bommel’, named after his middle son, as a successor to the ‘New generation classics’ line.

(Image above: ‘Manhattan by Van Bommel’, a more fashionable line within the classic Van Bommel of the 1980s.)

The 1950s and 1960s were marked by stiff competition between shoe manufacturers. As a result, shoe retailers gained more influence and power. One of the ways this was palpable was the rise of private labels. Shoe retailers demanded that their own name or house brand be stamped into the shoes. Schoenfabriek van Bommel had no choice but to meet these demands and thus produced dozens of private labels in those years. Sometimes, you could still see a small name indicating that it was made by Van Bommel, but oftentimes you could not.

In the early 1980s, director Frans van Bommel made a radical decision: he stopped making private labels. At a time of rapid globalization, marketing became increasingly important, and Van Bommel had to pull out all the stops to promote its own brand. However, they would not succeed in doing so if a large part of their shoes left the factory with private labels. Frans took the risk that his clients would order their shoes from other manufacturers. Dealers were not happy with his decision. As a concession, Frans offered to supply loose insoles for his shoes, still bearing the retailers own private labels. The retailer had to remove the Van Bommel insole from each shoe themselves though, and glue his labelled insole back in. As expected, this was way too tedious for dealers and soon, the demand declined.

(Image below: Insole stamps for private labels produced by Van Bommel between 1950 and 1980 (Stamps are always in mirror image. For readability, we have mirrored them here.)

In the 1980s, Frans van Bommel also embarked on product diversification. He introduced the brand name ‘Manhattan by Van Bommel’, a label under which more fashionable shoes were sold. Later, the name was changed to ‘New generation classics’ for legal reasons. To gain more shelf space in shoe shops, Frans intensified his product diversification in the early 1990s. He introduced ‘Van Bommel ultra fit’, a shoe that felt like a sports shoe, ‘Van Bommel discover’ a neat trekking shoe and ‘Van Bommel nature’, an eco-friendly shoe with the eco-label. In 1996, three years before his retirement, Frans introduced the brand ‘Floris van Bommel’, named after his middle son, as a successor to the ‘New generation classics’ line.

(Image above: ‘Manhattan by Van Bommel’, a more fashionable line within the classic Van Bommel of the 1980s.)