wolverine world wide traded as nyse www industry footwear sportswear sports equipment founded 1935 ; 81 years ago 1935 founder paul a. sperry headquarters lexington massachusetts united states area served worldwide key people rick blackshaw brand president blake kruger ceo of wolverine world wide products boating shoes apparel parent wolverine world wide website http www.sperry.com sperry or sperry top sider is the original american brand of boat shoe designed in 1935 by paul a. sperry older brother of writer and illustrator armstrong sperry whose books often featured a sailing theme . sperrys or top siders were the first boat shoes introduced into the boating and footwear markets . today the sperry brand is owned by wolverine world wide and is headquartered in lexington massachusetts . contents 1 history 2 present day 3 retail stores 4 sailing 4.1 us sailing team sperry 4.2 america s cup 5 the odyssey project 6 achievements 7 references 8 external links history edit while sailing on the long island sound inventor and sailor paul a. sperry slipped on the deck of his boat and fell overboard . he was able to pull himself back on board but the experience drove him to develop a non slip shoe . 1 while experimenting with possibilities for non slip shoes he noticed his dogs ability to run down the icy hill without slipping . 1 the grooves on the paws of his cocker spaniel prince inspired him to try cutting grooved patterns into siping a natural rubber sole . 2 the pattern of grooves or cracks on his dog s paws gave him the idea for a canvas upper shoe with a herringbone pattern of grooves on the sole . the cutting of grooves in the sole of the top sider was an implementation of a process of splitting or siping a shoe sole invented and patented in the 1920s by john sipe . this process was instrumental in maximizing the traction of the authentic original sperry top sider boat shoe which was first introduced in 1935 . sperry s first shoe featured a white outsole which prevented the shoe from leaving marks on a boat s deck . the commonwealth shoe and leather co. later partnered with paul a. sperry to design a new leather shoe design made with specially tanned leather which later became the sperry authentic original boat shoe . 1 sperry s shoes remained a niche product for boaters until 1939 when the u.s. navy negotiated the right to manufacture the shoe for its sailors at the united states naval academy . 1 as a result of this increase in production paul a. sperry sold the sperry brand to the u.s. rubber co. in 1940 . 1 in 1979 the stride rite corporation purchased both sperry and keds shoes from the u.s. rubber company . 3 in 2007 payless shoesource acquired sperry top sider as part of a multi brand acquisition but the company was again acquired in 2012 along with the other brands from the collective brands performance and lifestyle group portfolio by wolverine world wide and blum capital partners for 1.23 billion usd . 4 the patent application for the paul a. sperry s sperry authentic original boat shoe . present day edit from 2001 to 2014 craig l. reingold served as the brand president of sperry 5 but upon reingold s exit from the company wolverine world wide announced in a press release on september 15 2015 that rick blackshaw the former brand president of keds would be leading sperry as the brand president . 6 in early 2015 sperry president rick blackshaw announced that the brand had dropped the top sider moniker from the company name as part of the footwear company s new brand campaign . 7 retail stores edit in 2009 sperry opened its first five retail stores with locations in tampa florida orlando florida boca raton florida kansas city missouri and dallas texas ; in november 2010 the brand opened stores in burlington massachusetts houston durham north carolina and westchester new york . by the end of 2015 sperry had opened 68 specialty and outlet stores in malls across the united states . 8 sailing edit us sailing team sperry edit sperry is the official footwear sponsor of the us sailing team sperry 9 the us junior olympic sailing team and the us paralympics sailing team . the athletes of team sperry travel around the globe and compete in prestigious competitive events in their sport . they also assist the sperry product team in the design and testing of performance footwear . america s cup edit in 1987 sperry top sider served as the official sponsor of the america s cup world series . sperry shoes were worn by champion sailor dennis conner during the race . 2 sperry served as the footwear sponsor for the america s cup sailing tournament for several years but later began to sponsor other sailing events . on december 9 2015 sperry announced they will be the official footwear partner of the 35th america s cup and the official footwear supplier for oracle team usa . 10 president rick blackshaw stated in a press release that in seeking a competitive advantage america s cup athletes look to footwear that will help them maintain agility and mobility on the high performance catamarans used in competition . sperry will work together with oracle team usa to support and improve performance by developing a special shoe for use during training and racing . 10 the odyssey project edit an authentic original boat shoe invented by paul a. sperry in 1935 . in february 2015 sperry announced that in celebration of their 80th anniversary the company was going to send 80 influencers innovators and athletes on adventures around the world . participating influencers would then create content and share blog posts about their journey on sperry s website and social media channels . 11 as part of the brand s odysseys await brand campaign sperry encouraged consumers to explore and escape their comfort zone . 12 odyssey project travelers were sent on trips to new zealand california florida iceland alaska costa rica and cuba among other destinations . 13 achievements edit in 2009 footwear news named sperry top sider the brand of the year . 14 references edit a b c d e monagan charles a. 2006 . connecticut icons 50 symbols of the nutmeg state . guilford connecticut globe pequot press . isbn 978 0 7627 3548 8 . a b discover sperry s history & current events sperry . www.sperry.com . retrieved 2015 12 21 . stride rite corp facts information pictures encyclopedia.com articles about stride rite corp . www.encyclopedia.com . retrieved 2015 12 22 . wolverine worldwide to complete acquisition of collective brands performance lifestyle group . www.prnewswire.com . retrieved 2015 12 22 . wolverine world wide switches up leadership of keds sperry top sider brands . mlive.com . retrieved 2015 12 22 . wolverine worldwide names rick blackshaw president of sperry top sider and chris lindner president of keds . www.prnewswire.com . retrieved 2015 12 21 . sperry prez rick blackshaw talks new brand identity . footwear news . 2015 02 19 . retrieved 2015 10 13 . find a store sperry . www.sperry.com . retrieved 2015 12 21 . potkewitz hilary 10 may 2016 . san diego sailor trains for his first olympics . wall street journal . retrieved 22 may 2016 . a b sperry and the america s cup announce new partnership . multivu . retrieved 2015 12 21 . sperry goes back to basics with a campaign for adventurous millennials . adweek . retrieved 2015 11 19 . wolverine worldwide s new 18m sperry campaign targets adventurous millennials . mlive.com . retrieved 2015 12 21 . the odyssey project . odyssey.sperry.com . retrieved 2015 12 22 . ernst beaudry jennifer november 30 2009 . brand of the year sperry top sider . retrieved february 12 2012 . external links edit official website international size chart for sperry top sider boatshoes retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sperry top sider & oldid 741502729 categories 1935 establishments in the united statescompanies established in 1935outdoor clothing brandsshoe companies of the united stateshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 september 2016 at 22 23 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view