Rockport's Slogans & Taglines

The Rockport Group traces its origins to 1971, when father and son Saul and Bruce Katz founded the company in Marlborough, Massachusetts, with a mission to merge athletic-shoe comfort with classic leather styling. The breakthrough came in 1973 with the debut of the Country Walker, a lightweight leather shoe that combined running-shoe cushioning with traditional aesthetics. In 1983, Rockport revolutionized the industry by launching DresSports, the first classic dress shoe built on an athletic sole—a feat famously validated when executive Tony Post completed the 1990 New York City Marathon wearing them. The brand's slogans evolved from the empathetic "Feet have feelings, too" to the positioning "Rockport: The Walking Shoe Company," and later to technology-driven messaging around Total Motion and Pulsetech innovations. Ownership passed from Reebok (1986) to Adidas (2005), then through private equity and two Chapter 11 filings in 2018 and 2019, before Authentic Brands Group acquired the company in 2023. Today, the portfolio spans dress shoes, casual sneakers, walking footwear, and sandals for men and women, sold across more than 60 countries.