In the last issue of THE COMPASS, we confused some names of the owners of Feelmax, the functional footwear brand: Feelmax is a family-owned business run by Juhani Pulkka and his wife Kaisa as well as by their son Jarno and their daughter Sari. Feelmax, the Finnish specialty socks supplier, has successfully moved into the footwear business. In the first year of marketing shoes in 2007, the Finns produced some 70,000 pairs of shoes. Feelmax’s USP is a Kevlar sole which allows the user to walk as if he were barefoot, while the foot is fully protected. The largest markets for Feelmax are Finland and the German-speaking countries. 75-80 percent of the footwear is sold through specialty sports and outdoor shops, the rest through shoe retailers. While the warehouse is located in Finland, the company has sales agents in Germany, Adamo Buonanno, in Switzerland, Arja Bolliger, in Austria, and Benelux. Another important market for Feelmax is Thailand where the brand’s manufacturer also acts as a distributor: BRC manufactures about 12.5 million pairs of shoes a year and is part of the Thai PAN Group with some 45 million pairs of shoes per year. The annual production of PAN includes footwear for Nike, Timberland, Ecco, Lacoste, and K-Swiss.
