This Mexican sports shoe company is 30 years old, but it learned to evolve in 2020

• The Leonese sports shoe brand Court turned 30 years old in September.
• Over the years it has grown from a small family business to a renowned brand throughout the country.
• Due to the pandemic, they can no longer continue to grow in their own stores, but they are also betting a lot on e-commerce.

In September Court , the Mexican company that produces athletic footwear celebrated its 30th anniversary and over time they have been able to provide consumers with a brand of quality and innovation at fair prices. This brand, through the years, has gone from being a small family business to a renowned brand throughout the country, thanks to its incredible male and female designs and first-rate technology, as well as having provided jobs to several Mexican families.

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“Broadly speaking, Court started 30 years ago, my father José Luis Mares started it. He is still the CEO, who already had experience related to this product. During this trajectory we have worked with major brands such as New Balance, Asics, where a lot has been learned in the tennis part and all this has served to bring the best products closer to our own brand ”, comments Omar Mares, Court manager.

This company is always investing in technology, since it is very important for them to provide quality and price.

“Direct injection cutting machinery, automatic stitching, design and development were purchased, all this because in the end the footwear passes through many hands. All the machines help you a lot, a lot has been invested in them, because before you took a tennis from another brand and did it Court, but now a lot of work is put into the design, the soles and giving it a touch of its own. The last innovation was this sole. What we want is to provide the same technology as what an Adidas, a Puma would give you, but at a cost that we call it - a fair price - where it is available to everyone ", explains the executive .

In the work of creating these tennis shoes, it requires the work of many people, since it involves an effort in the manufacture, production and marketing.

“We are now 500 collaborators, many hands go through the tennis before finishing it and then there are all the indirect ones who participate in this work. In this way, we all help each other, they support us with the realization of tennis and continue to improve quality, delivering this Mexican product, and yes, in the end we are a family of - so to speak - 500 people ”, Mares mentions.

The main characteristics of Court tennis shoes are energy return, resistance to high and low temperatures, breathable insole, 1000 kilometers of resistance and comfort. They have the so-called ATOM performance, which complements their latest generation of footwear comfort, created for day to day.

“We were born in the wholesale in León, Guanajuato , where wholesale buyers came, that is, they bought more than 6 pairs from you and sold them in Tepito, in markets or in different places. Later, as the brand evolved, we entered the market and right now we are even in department stores such as Sears, Coppel, Price Shoes and in our own stores. We are seven points of sale, in the latter there is a great advantage because you remove the intermediary customer and you can provide better service to your end customer, ”adds Mares.

Court now employs 500 employees / Image: Courtesy Court

Evolution towards ecommerce

Due to the pandemic, they can no longer continue to grow in their own stores, but they are also betting a lot on electronic commerce, and this is how they currently work to be competitive with the "big leagues".

Court brought out two new developments in these times, the first consists of introducing into the footwear a liquid that already existed in Germany, which prevents viruses and bacteria from adhering to the surface of the shoe, does not kill germs, but prevents them from are embedded.

"We developed a machine to be able to apply this liquid to footwear and give people more security. It is very focused on the health sector, because it is also repellent to fluids, in case any substance falls on a nurse or doctor, they who are exposed to viruses and bacteria, in the end they know that they will not have it in their shoes ”Says the executive. “The other was that on an exploration trip to China we came across a company that develops a material called ETPU, which gives the sole much more rebound, in addition to giving you 10,000 km and greater comfort. Before you will run out of the shoe that the sole, resists high and low temperatures, "adds Mares.

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This type of sole was brought, the product was developed and made available to all customers, without being an expensive technology, so that it is available to anyone, since there are other brands that handle this technology, however, with them the price on their products is much higher.

Currently, Court has faced several challenges, one of them being that they were closed for two months, so it was quite a blow. Now, they continue to innovate in order to gain more market.

“The pandemic is going to end, in the end things will return to normal and for this reason we want to take advantage of this opportunity to gain market. In the same way, the most difficult thing has been to maintain ourselves, we are many people, I think it is one of the most painful things not being able to continue there with all of us, because there was a reduction in personnel, that is the most complicated part, that of having to let go of the people who have been with us. The economy has hit us very hard and we have to keep innovating to be able to sell, ”says Mares.

^{Currently, Court has faced several challenges, one of them being that they were closed for two months, so it was quite a blow. Now, they continue to innovate in order to gain more market / IMagen: Courtesy Court}

Its purpose as a brand is to “democratize technology”, which means that it can reach as many people as possible, that many people can have access to it, take advantage of and enjoy its benefits.

"Continuing to grow as a Mexican brand so that we are a company that our people feel proud of and satisfied with wearing Mexican shoes that compete with any international brand. Another challenge we have is to sell abroad and that requires better and better products that I think we are going there ”, says Mares.

Despite the economic complications stemming from the pandemic, Court continues with several goals and to succeed in moving forward in the market.

“Right now that there was this crisis, we decided to bet on the brand, in fact, there are Nameless, which I think we are doing a very good match, it is supporting Mexican brands so that in the end they survive and they will be the ones that will have the opportunity to continue investing, ”concludes Mares.

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