Skechers Plans to Grow Talent, Categories After Breaking Ground on Corporate Office Expansion

Skechers USA Inc. broke ground on Friday on the expansion of its headquarters in Los Angeles County’s South Bay area, more than doubling its footprint to 330,000 square feet.

The project, expected to be completed in time for the company’s 30th anniversary in 2022, adds 175,000 square feet of office, design and showroom space in Hermosa Beach, Calif., across the street from its current corporate headquarters in Manhattan Beach (the coastal community where the company started in 1992 out of a condominium).

Executives told FN that the new digs will allow Skechers to centralize departments and recruit more talent.

“We want to continue to bring in design talent, international talent, additional management, creative thinkers and marketers — and with that, it requires one very important ingredient: space,” president Michael Greenberg said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

“We’re a worldwide company and are mostly controlled from here,” said David Weinberg, COO. “As we want to build more categories to fill the market for winter and spring, it’s important that our design team, international [team], retail and infrastructure all work together.”

According to Greenberg, Skechers’ plan has always been to expand within its current neighborhood rather than to look outside, as real estate in L.A.’s beach communities has a history of soaring in value.

“We had the vision to look for parcels of land well before we needed them,” Greenberg said. “What we’re sitting on what used to be a car dealership,” he explained. “The office where we reside today was a Saab dealership.”

The expansion takes over “dilapidated” buildings from when the beach community was home to several auto dealerships 20 years ago that have since moved to nearby Torrance, Greenberg added. As part of the revitalization of the area, Skechers is taking on a beautification project of its new community in Hermosa Beach, which includes moving utilities underground and refreshing city benches, sidewalks and bus stops. The measures continue Skechers’ long-standing corporate citizenship, including its annual Skechers’ Pier to Pier Friendship Walk, which is one of South Bay’s biggest fundraisers to support children with special needs.

Additionally, the buildings are being developed with green-friendly features, with the goal to achieve LEED Gold certification upon completion. Solar panels, daylight harvesting and motion-controlled lighting, high-performance glass, R30 insulation and Forest Stewardship-certified wood will be incorporated in the design.

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