Luxury Briefing: How Moon Boot became a luxury brand 

On Tuesday, the Italian brand which has focused on snow boots for the last 55 years, announced a sneaker style dubbed the Park. It’s among the first moves in a grand brand makeover that kicked off in 2020 and centers on reaching Gen Z. 

“We want to see the Park on 14-year-olds going to school, and if they have cool parents, on their parents, too,” said Allegra Benini, the brand’s head of marketing. 

Moon Boot’s original “Icon” style is not a typical boot. For example, it’s ambidextrous, gender-neutral and available in just four sizes. And, made from materials including PVC, polyester and rubber and selling for $240, it’s not “luxury” in the traditional sense. However, it’s sold at Saks Fifth Avenue and Net-a-Porter, and earlier this year, it launched on Tmall via the Luxury Pavilion. 

“Our shoes are quite accessible,” Benini said. “But we have this ‘luxury’ perception across markets, especially in Asia. Maybe it’s because most people who wear Moon Boots are usually going skiing in the mountains, and that’s not for everyone.”

Inspired by the 1969 lunar landing, Moon Boot quickly gained a cult following in the Alps before becoming widely synonymous with chunky snow boots and earning an entry in the dictionary in the 1980s. After being hailed one of the “significant design objects” of the 20th century by the Louvre, it was picked up for permanent exhibits in NYC’s MoMA among other museums. 

But in the early 2000s, the brand’s umbrella company, Tecnica Group, turned its attention to its ski and ski boot businesses, keeping Moon Boot afloat but with minimal energy. In 2020, Mirko Massignan, who’d spent 11 years managing wholesale for Moncler, was brought on as Moon Boot’s gm to set a new strategy and lead a full rebrand. Massignan enlisted Benini, whose background is in editorial and marketing, and they set off on a multi-pronged mission: become synonymous with snow boots again, expand to new markets and reach a new, younger generation of shoppers.

Collaboration was key to re-entering the market and re-establishing the brand’s reputation. In late 2021, Moon Boot released a product collab with Chloé to target women. Months later, to reach men, the brand debuted a boot with Moncler and Palm Angels through the pair’s Genius partnership. And more recently, in 2023, it connected with kidswear shoppers through a collection with the children’s brand Bonpoint. Finally, to reconnect with the art world, it hosted a Moon Boot Café and sponsored an exhibition of emerging artists’ work at Milan Design Week in April. 

According to Benini, the efforts to fuel hype have paid off, with Gen Zers discovering Moon Boot and embracing the style, in keeping with their widely reported love for nostalgia. On TikTok, where the brand has 20,000 followers, more than 18,000 posts are currently tagged with #moonboot or #moonboots. From 2020 to 2023, the brand’s sales grew fivefold.

However, Benini said, early posts often showed young people wearing the boots as they do Uggs — casually around L.A. or at the beach. That “confusion” cued up a new marketing strategy that involved pausing collabs for most of 2024 and rolling out campaigns clearly featuring snow. “We needed to re-educate the audience,” she said. 

Before 2020, Moon Boot had a limited presence in the U.S. and APAC, with the majority of the business focused in Europe. But the U.S. is now the brand’s fastest-growing market and the third largest, following Europe and Asia, the latter of which is also growing fast. In the U.S., it sells through department stores including Saks and Nordstrom, as well as through specialty stores including The Webster, Maxfield and Kith. 

Moon Boot has feet on the ground in the APAC region, where its business, enabled through retail partners, has taken off fastest in Korea. Benini said members of K-pop bands including Blackpink and NewJeans have worn the brand’s styles fueling its popularity — Moon Boot gifts its styles to influencers and celebrities but never pays people to wear them, she said. In addition, following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, local consumers began taking a new interest in outdoor activities in the snow. 

The Park sneaker features many Moon Boot signatures: ambidextrous shoes, a grip sole, water resistance and non-functioning laces. However, rather than a four-sizes-fits-all approach, it leverages traditional sizing. “We kept a bit of the functionality but we adapted it for the city,” Benini said of the design. The shoes come in “Icon” and “Soft” styles, with most priced at $175-$185.

The fact that the shoe allows Moon Boot fans to rep the brand in warmer temps is one thing, but the shoe also fulfills an important business objective of making the brand shoppable year-round. To date, the brand has released one collection per year, for the fall-winter season. Its peak selling month is November, and sales have historically wound down in April, Benini said. 

While the Park began rolling out on Moon Boot’s e-commerce site in July, marketing for the style launched on the brand’s social channels this week and the style became shoppable. On September 18, the brand will roll out a global campaign for Park dubbed “Your Solemate.” 

Despite the launch’s timing, aligned with New York Fashion Week, Benini said Park is not intended to be “a fashion shoe.” Instead, “we want Park to be the shoe people choose because they’re the coolest and most comfortable shoes,” she said. 

The company’s leaders believe the Park’s sales can reach and potentially exceed that of the Icon boot style. 

Later this year, Moon Boot will bring back collaborations, starting with a collection with “an iconic brand” in December. The first Park collab will soon follow. Once the brand clinches its goal of establishing the Icon boot as a winter gear staple, it will consider expanding to categories beyond footwear, Benini said. 

In 2023, Tecnica Group reportedly brought in €540.3 million in revenue, marking a 4% annual decline after a record sales year. The company also owns Rollerblade and hiking boot company LOWA.

Notes from the week

NYFW runway preview: In talking with designers and brand founders leading up to New York Fashion Week, which kicks off on Friday, a few trends are already apparent. Most notably: Brands are leaning into the leather goods opportunity, despite the market’s fluctuating sales. Several plan to introduce handbags on their spring runway.

It’s pop-up season: An abundance of brand pop-ups, permanent stores and shop-in-shops are opening their doors in NYC this week, intentionally timed to New York Fashion Week. To do so cost-efficiently, one founder converted a small event space into a store, she told Glossy. Others have opted out of renting a studio for market appointments and are killing two birds, so to speak, with the single (shoppable) space.

Creative director musical chairs: ICYMI, following Peter Hawking’s exit from the role less than a year after being appointed, Haider Ackermann was announced as Tom Ford’s creative director on Wednesday. The fashion world resoundingly approved. 

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