- Naot
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Naot Founded 1942 Headquarters Neot Mordechai, Israel Products shoes, sandals Website teva-naot.co.il
naot.com
Naot shoebox illustrating its anatomical sole
Teva Naot (Hebrew: טבע נאות) is an Israeli shoe and sandal manufacturer based at Kibbutz Neot Mordechai.
Contents
History
Naot, which opened in 1942, started out as a small kibbutz factory producing work boots. Currently, it employs 160 workers and designs a new line of footwear every year to keep up with global fashion trends. Naot's products include a variety of shoes and sandals for men, women and children with special insoles that conform to the shape of the wearer's foot.
In 1988, shoe manufacturing in Israel suffered from the glut of expensive imports from the Far East. Naot Mordechai considered shutting down its shoe factory. The economic situation of the kibbutz was so serious that it became part of a study of failing companies at the economics department of Tel Aviv University. Ami Bar-Nahor was assigned to be a consultant for Naot Mordechai as part of a class exercise. He came up with the idea of modernizing both the product and production to attract the new health-conscious shoe consumer. "I aimed at a sort of Israelization of Birkenstock,” said Naor, referring to the veteran German company that makes clogs and sandals. Bar-Nahor spent four years at Naot Mordechai. Traditional biblical sandals had inflexible soles. Naot offered a flexible “footpad” of cork, natural rubber or leather that supported the heel. Adjustable leather straps crisscrossed and took into consideration feet that might swell in the heat. [1]
Bar-Nahor hired young designers from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and Shenkar College in Tel Aviv to add color and interest to the old style sandals produced mainly in beige, brown and black. In 2006, Shamrock Holdings, based in Burbank, California, paid $31 million for the purchase of 66 percent of the enterprise.[2]
International markets
Naot exports its products to countries worldwide with eighty percent of its products are sold outside of Israel. Major markets include the United States, Canada, Germany and Australia. In the United States, the distributor is Yaleet Inc., located in Farmingdale, NY. Yaleet Inc. donates thousands of shoes each year to women's battered shelters, homeless shelters and victims of natural disasters. Naot shoes can be found across the United States in both local and national retailers.[3]
Naot footware is distributed in Europe by his German Company, Naama Naot Germany.
SOURCE Sandal design
After returning from a post-army trek in South America and the Far East, Yoram Gill and his wife, Daniella, the founders and owners of SOURCE Vagabond Systems, designed a light, comfortable, flexible sandal that could be used instead of hiking boots. For two years, Gill worked in his Tel Aviv apartment cutting out sandal shapes, gluing and tying straps made from different materials and configurations. In 1991, he developed a sandal with a padded rubber base and three adjustable waterproof straps that made an “x” below the ankle. He sent fliers to 700 tour guides who would be leading hiking tours over the Passover holiday and offered them the new sandals at a discount. Four hundred of them responded, sending in orders for Source (Shoresh) adventure sandals. Since then, over 180,000 pairs of SOURCE sandals are sold every year, mostly in Israel. [4]
References
External links
Categories:- Manufacturing companies of Israel
- Shoe companies
- Shoe brands
- Israeli brands
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