All Obituary articles
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ArticleLudwig Görtz dies at 89
Ludwig Görtz, the former boss and owner of the footwear retailer Görtz, died on Easter Sunday at the age of 89, according to media reports. The Hamburg native joined his family’s business in 1960, at the age of 26, and took over the management of the company from his ...
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Emilio Zamberlan has passed away
Emilio Zamberlan has passed away at the age of 80. His father, Giuseppe, was the founder of the Italian footwear company Calzaturificio Zamberlan, which specializes in handmade outdoor and hunting footwear, in 1929. The company is now led by the third generation with Marco and Maria. Emilio Zamberlan projected Calzaturificio ...
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Footwear veteran Helmut Werdich dies at 89
Helmut Werdich, a footwear entrepreneur who turned a small family business into a shoe retail chain operating throughout southern Germany, has died at 89. Born on Feb. 1, 1934 in Wangen, in the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany, as the eldest of four children, Werdich was a third-generation footwear professional. ...
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Sosandar’s chairman passes away
The British fashion brand Sosandar said that its non-executive chairman, Bill Murray, has passed away. “It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Bill over the weekend. He will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of working with him. Bill has left a ...
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Paco Rabanne dies at 88
The Spanish designer Paco Rabanne passed away on Feb. 3, 2023, at the age of 88, announced Puig, the Spanish group that owns the brand’s fashion and fragrance businesses. Rabanne died in the village of Portsall, in the French region of Brittany, where he lived. Born in Spain on Feb. ...
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Candice Cooper founder Christoph Siegel dead at 68
Christoph Siegel, the founder of the Candice Cooper footwear brand, has died in Essen at the age of 68. The Bavarian-born shoe specialist started his career in the footwear industry more than 45 years ago as a sales representative with well-known brands such as Charles Jourdan. In 2007, ...
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Anna und Paul founder and managing director Sonja Rendez dies at 57
Sonja Rendez, the founder and long-time managing director of the Cologne-based children’s shoe company Anna und Paul GmbH, died on Dec. 14, 2022 at the age of 57. The fashion designer had been battling cancer. Rendez founded the company for baby crawling and walking shoes in 2001 and served ...
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Vivienne Westwood dies aged 81
Vivienne Westwood died on Dec. 29 at the age of 81, her namesake fashion house announced on Twitter. The British fashion designer died “peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London,” it said. Born Vivieen Swire on April 8, 1941, she kept the name of her first husband, ...
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Ilse Jacobsen passes away
Ilse Rohde Jacobsen died on Oct. 23 at the age of 62. The Danish designer had been fighting cancer since last summer, according to a statement by her company IJH A/S. ”She fell asleep peacefully surrounded by her family,” the statement said. According to the daily B.T., Jacobsen was stricken ...
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Issey Miyake dies at 84
The Japanese designer Issey Miyake has died at the age of 84. Miyake was born in Hiroshima in 1938 and moved to Paris in the 1960s, where he worked with fashion designers Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy. After moving to New York for a short time, he headed back ...
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ArticleVito Artioli passes away
Vito Artioli passed away at the age of 85 in Tradate, north of Milan, where is located the family company Calzaturificio Star, a producer of luxury men’s footwear under the Artioli brand. Artioli was chairman of the Italian footwear association Assocalzaturifici, then called Anci, from 2007 to 2011 and headed ...
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Superfeet founder passes away
Dennis Brown, the founder of Northwest Podiatric Laboratory and Superfeet Worldwide, a leading American supplier of comfort insoles, died on Dec. 31 at his home in Blaine, Washington. He was 96 years old. He started Northwest Podiatric Laboratory in 1964, where he developed patented orthotic products and casting techniques. ...
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Pioneering footwear designer Armando Pollini dies at 85
Armando Pollini , a veteran footwear designer and entrepreneur, the founder of Armando Pollini Design and an avid experimenter who created many iconic shoe models, died of a heart attack on June 18 at the age of 85. Born in the Italian town of Vigevano, near Milan, in ...
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Vans sneaker company co-founder Paul Van Doren dies
Paul Van Doren, a co-founder of Vans, has passed away on May 6 at the age of 90, shortly after the publication of his biography, titled “Authentic.” He started as a service boy at a rubber factory at the age of 16. He acquired his independence in 1966 when he ...
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Alber Elbaz dies
Richemont announced the death of Alber Elbaz at the age of 59. In October 2019, the Swiss luxury goods company entered a joint venture with the designer which led to the creation of the brand AZ Factory . According to media reports, Elbaz died of Covid-19. Elbaz ...
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Pierre Cardin dies at 98
The French designer Pierre Cardin died at the age of 98 at the American hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. He was born in Italy, but to escape fascism his family moved to France when he was two. Cardin “never forgot his origins while having an unconditional love for ...
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ArticleFormer Zappos head Tony Hsieh dies
Tony Hsieh , who ran the footwear and clothing online retailer Zappos.com for about two decades, died at the age of 46 due to complications from injuries sustained in a house fire. The fire broke out on Nov. 18 in New London, Connecticut, and Hsieh died on Nov. ...
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ArticleHarald Neisser, industry veteran and former Rohde managing director, dies at 68
Shoe expert and industry insider Harald Neisser died on Sept. 20, after a serious illness. Serving most recently as a consultant for the German firm Erich Rohde , where he was previously managing director, Neisser was 68 years old. He was active in the shoe industry for decades ...
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ArticleBob Gore, inventor of Gore-Tex, has died
Robert W. “Bob” Gore , chairman emeritus of the board of directors of W. L. Gore Associates , died on Sept. 17 at the age of 83. Gore sat on the board of his family’s materials science company for 57 years, 30 of them as chairman, and served ...
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CIC vice-president Sergio Panossian passes away
Sergio Panossian , the vice-president of the Argentinean footwear association Cámara de la Industria del Calzado (CIC), has passed away. Panossian was a popular and influential representative of the country’s footwear industry. His family indicated that he was victim of the Covid-19 pandemic.
