• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, September 9, 2020

If it seems as if 2020 has meant the disintegration of all fashion rules, Cole Haan has the solution. A campaign introducing its latest Zerogrand collection urges people to #WriteNewRules, guided by technology, style and comfort.

"The goal of the company has been to disrupt the dress footwear world from the inside out," says David Maddocks, brand president.

He tells Marketing Daily the brand is looking to connect 2020's topsy-turvy reality to its core audience. "We've always appealed to people who are entrepreneurial and looking for new ways to approach things. They're writing new rules for business, innovation and technology. We wanted to celebrate that and give voice to those new rules."

Cole Haan is debuting the line with a campaign that invites six artists from around the world to envision the new rules of work, life and culture. Among them? "Revolution doesn't start with permission slips," "Never stop becoming” and, "Call your mother."

The effort encourages followers to share the artwork celebrating the rules on their social channels. Later this month, consumer can join in an Instagram competition to write their own rules.

The ad campaign is entirely digital, including the New York Times and Forbes' "30 Under 30" coverage. "Those are the people who are writing new rules," Maddocks says.

The company’s four-pillar marketing strategy targets entrepreneurs in business, wellness, and pro-social entrepreneurs, and then cultural audiences, including artists and fashion. "We try to think about ways the brand intersects with culture, and use that framework to inspire customers across the board," he says.

The company is teaming up with Slack, the work technology company, to offer four Slack-inspired shoes later this fall, for example.

Maddocks says Zerogrand is meant for a "performance lifestyle," with shoes versatile enough to go from work to work out to weekend. And because items are split equally between those for men and women, Cole Haan competes with many companies in casual, outdoor and sport. "We are taking share of closet away from brands we never dreamed of before," he says.

He declined to provide sales figures. But overall, COVID has clobbered shoe sales -- who wears shoes to video calls? The NPD Group says that sales of athletic shoes in the first half of the year fell in the low teens, compared to 2019.

But as people emerge from COVID cocoons, Maddocks thinks Cole Haan's cool looks and comfy construction will strike the right note. "We're not going to go from the relaxed atmosphere that we're in now back to stuffy, staid traditional shoes: shoes with a single use. We may want to dress up again, but we're not going to want to sacrifice what we gained in terms of comfort, style and versatility."

Apax Partners, a private investment firm, acquired Cole Haan from Nike back in 2013 and is readying the shoe company for an initial public offering.