Dive Brief:

• Comfort footwear company Skechers deepened its relationship with spokesperson and lifestyle magnate Martha Stewart when it announced a new capsule featuring seven co-branded looks.
• Separately, Skechers began a new partnership with singer and actor Ashley Park, who will be featured in commercials for its Uno sneaker.
• Both partnerships build on Skechers long history of celebrity-promoted shoes, which has included turns with Wayne Gretzky, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg and Ringo Starr.

Dive Insight:

Building on its stable of collaborations and partnerships, Skechers announced two new pairings for spring 2023.

The first is a new line created with Martha Stewart, who initially came on as a brand spokesperson in 2022. Stewart’s capsule features seven slide and sandal styles, including two versions of Skechers’ Hands Free Slip-ins.

The collection is called “A Day in the Life of Martha” and it seeks to capitalize on Stewart’s appeal as a practical fashion icon. The 81-year-old former model has previously had fashion lines at Kmart, Walmart and QVC, plus her own branded Martha line launched with Marquee Brands. Still, Stewart is almost as famous for her lackluster wardrobe as she is for her over-achieving homemaker skills. This will be her first footwear collection with Skechers.

The shoes focus on wearable ease rather than high style, and this feature is highlighted by the Slip-ins construction, which lets customers put the shoes on without bending or handling of the footwear. In a press release, a Skechers spokesperson also noted that most of the Stewart-branded styles are machine washable. Pairs start at $65, and will be available on skechers.com and at select Skechers retail stores nationwide. 

The Skechers spokesperson also said another Martha Stweart capsule would launch later in 2023. The casual comfort line is positioned by Skechers as being for “daywear, entertaining and weekend wellness,” according to a press release. The launch was teased in a Super Bowl LVII commercial that also featured musician and Stewart’s friend Snoop Dogg.

Notably, Snoop Dogg is also a current spokesperson for the Sketchers, and the California-based athletic brand announced that he planned to wear Skechers Slip-ins on his upcoming "I Wanna Thank Me" tour. Skechers’ other current collaborations include Diane Von Furstenburg, and muralist JGoldcrown.

Skechers also launched new ads Wednesday featuring Ashley Park. Park, who is currently starring in Netflix’s “Emily in Paris,” is featured in the ads singing about Skechers and sporting Skechers Uno sneakers. The campaign is the latest in a series of flashy ads featuring musicians, which dates back to 1999, when the brand hired Britney Spears as its first celebrity spokesperson.

Skechers’ collaboration history has not been without controversy. In 2003, its relationship with Britney Spears ended when the singer sued the company for $1.5 million, claiming the company had used her to promote its own line instead of one she had created. That lawsuit ended in a settlement.

Yet footwear industry expert Matt Powell, which recently joined BCE Consulting as a senior analyst, said in an email to Fashion Dive that collaborations are rarely commercial in nature, because quantities are limited. 

“Collaborations are intended to bring the brand's exposure to the fans of the celebrity,” he said, adding the caveat that “too many collaborations can become nothing but noise.”