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It has been said that every year the world becomes a smaller and smaller place. With the development of state-of-the-art technology and the growth of global markets, our sense of community has transformed from a national level to an international level. Boston, one of the innovation hubs of the world, has provided many small businesses with the opportunity to experience exponential growth.
We spoke with Small Business of the Year honoree OOFOS, groundbreaking innovators of Recovery Footwear, to learn about their experience with the global market. Here’s what they had to say.
Tell us how access to a global market has provided opportunities for your business.
OOFOS is based in Cohasset, MA, and has taken advantage of this access by doing business around the world. We are seeing nearly nine percent of revenue being generated from off-shore sales – and expect to see that number to continue to grow in the coming years.
In order to develop our breakthrough technology, we collaborated with one of the world’s leading polymer chemists in South Korea. Our production of OOFOS now takes place in South Korea and Vietnam.
Our technology, OOfoam, is a proprietary cushioning technology that absorbs 37% more impact than traditional footwear foams. We have used this technology to pioneer a new category of footwear, called Recovery Footwear, which is aimed at fitness enthusiasts.
Having access to a global market has presented OOFOS with the opportunity to be distributed not only in the United States, but in 26 other countries as well. We are hoping to expand to even more countries in the near future.
OOFOS will grow and manage our global opportunities from our location in the Greater Boston area. We are proud of our Boston-based retail partners in Run specialty, Outdoor specialty and Comfort footwear. Our positive partnerships in Boston are also what we are experiencing globally.
What challenges has the global market presented you with?
Managing the global supply chain is the largest challenge we face at OOFOS. Our product is distributed from a central warehouse in California that is owned and operated by another Massachusetts-based company. While this has helped our domestic business, it has presented some challenges in the servicing of our international markets. For this reason, we’re now looking into opening warehouses in Asia and Europe in the coming year to further develop our global presence.
How has being located in the Greater Boston area benefited your company?
New England, and the Greater Boston area in particular, is known as a footwear hub because of all the great fitness brands that are based here. As a result, there is a large talent base of people with extraordinary industry experience that we have been able to draw from. We have also found tremendous support from the local banking community and local based marketing agencies. Last but not least, our location in Greater Boston makes it easy to travel to both domestic and global points to further our business.
This post is a part of a series of posts written by the 2016 Small Business of the Year honorees. Stay tuned for more insights from our honorees leading up to the October 6th event.
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