PIONEERS AND INNOVATORS
SINCE 1965

MEPHISTO - 60 years of success. The story of an exceptional brand.

Historique | Innovation et technologies | À l'internationale

The 60s

Creation of an an exceptional brand

In 1965, Martin MICHAELI founded MEPHISTO with the ambition of creating the best shoes in the world.

1965

CREATION OF AN EXCEPTIONAL BRAND

The idea for the name was born in Sessenheim, the village where Martin Michaeli was staying at the L’Auberge du Bœuf. This hotel-restaurant with typical half-timbered construction also housed a small museum dedicated to Goethe, the author of Faust. The story goes that the German author fell in love with the daughter of the pastor, at the end of the 18th century, when he was a law student in Strasbourg. Ever since, Sessenheim has been a place of pilgrimage for the admirers of the great man who revisited Faust’s myth and in which the character of Mephisto plays an important role.

1966

FIRST MEPHISTO MODELS

“I’ve been producing shoes in France for the last two years but I have to shut down my company in Dalhunden because labor has emigrated to Germany.” This was how Martin Michaeli defended his project in 1965 at the Sarrebourg city hall. The mayoralty had a former stable dating from 1914 whose surface area would be ideal to welcome the company.

1969

GOOD NEWS FOR THE SARREBOURG ECONOMY

In October 1969, the new manufacturing site was ready. A garrison town, Sarrebourg made its soldiers available for the move. The new industrial site covered 1,500 m2. The facilities were ultra-modern with an automatic conveyor in the stitching workshop and an assembly line in the mounting workshop. Stocks of raw materials, soles, finished products, administrative offices..

1965: The beginning

With his savings from the time he spent in the USA, Martin MICHAELI sets up his company MEPHISTO in France and creates the MEPHISTO shoe. The moccasin becomes the spearhead of MEPHISTO. Its distribution starts in Germany, Austria, Belgium as well as in Switzerland and spreads from there over the whole of Europe.

The 70s

Modern but not fashion

In a decade of short-lived trends, Mephisto establishes its strategy of ‘timeless modernity’.

1972

MEPHISTO INVENTS THE LEISURE SHOE

Mephisto invented Raglers, which combined a city shoe and a sports shoe. With a revolutionary latex sole and a new type of ultra-fast lacing (thanks to the eyelets that permitted laces to effort- lessly slide through the holes), Raglers offered an ingenious com- promise between the sneaker and the leather shoe.

1978

NEW RANGE, NEW SUCCESS

Launch of the Trampolins family, a new range of shoes inspired by Raglers.
This range had the same quick lacing and the same revolutionary sole. However, Trampolins were distinguished by their propul- sion-effect heel that cushioned the shock, stored the energy of the impact to subsequently restore it during the foot’s “push” phase.

1979

SHOES FOR ADVENTURE

Mephisto excels in technical research so that specific shoes can be proposed for certain sports activities. With the Trekking family, a whole new generation of mountaineer- ing and hiking shoes arrived on the market. Trekkings had the shock-absorbing heel of the Trampolins type, benefiting from great flexibility, while guaranteeing the foot’s lateral support in the shoe.

The 80s

MEPHISTO is becoming one of the largest players worldwide

Mephisto's success is based on its wide range of models.

1982

Mephisto brings “Norwegian seams” to the world

… and the “Goodyear welt”. Starting in the 1980s, the brand reserved part of its collections for more urban modes in which the “Goodyear welt” was flaunted as a sign of distinction and quality. This welt (that we owe to Charles Goodyear Jr.), which appeared in the 1840s, is reserved for top-of-the-line and luxury shoes. Unlike a traditional Goodyear, the one Mephisto proposed procures an immediate comfort by instantly adapting itself to the feet.

1984

THE BEST WAY TO WALK

Mephisto launches the Runoff while the planet goes crazy for sports. Aerobics courses, walking as a sport, fashionable sports outerwear...
It was in this context that the major event of shoe professionals, the German GDS show, observed at this period that “the frontier between the classic shoe and the sports shoe is disappearing.” Mephisto could congratulate itself on having a length in advance in the design of sporty-looking walking shoes. It had been making the leisure shoe its trademark for 10 years. The launch of the Runoff strengthened and confirmed this positioning.

1985

AN OSCAR FOR MEPHISTO

The company exports 80 % of its production. Martin MICHAELI receives from the French state the “Oscar de l’Exportation” for the outstanding dynamism of his export business.

The Mephisto-Shop revolution

The formula adopted was totally revolutionary at the time: the Mephisto-Shops were not franchises because the merchants did not have to pay royalties. Their only obligation was to not sell any shoes other than Mephistos. In exchange, they received adapted furniture and above all a very powerful communication carried by the brand and its serious and quality-oriented values.

The 90s

A WORLD WITHOUT BORDERS

“In 25 years, they’ve toured the world.” This is the slogan Mephisto chooses to celebrate its anniversary.

1990

A WORLD TOUR OF ADVERTISING

Mephisto’s growth internationally, like the emergence of the Mephisto-Shops, will require a more incisive communication strategy. This led to the creation of the slogan “The world’s finest footwear,” initially intended for the American market and then used for all countries.

1992

THE WORLD'S FINEST FOOTWEAR

After Europe and Japan, Mephisto sets its sights on the United States in 1985. This was only the beginning. Soon, “The world’s finest footwear” would produce over a quarter of its shoes for the American market.

1997

A FAMILY STORY

Martin Michaeli founded Mephisto in 1965. At the end of the 1990s, his two children, Stéphanie and Marc, join the company.

Portugal welcomes Mephisto

To handle the increase in orders, a new production site has to be created. With its ultra-modern equipment and its 17,000 m2 of space, the Portuguese factory contributed an invaluable and precious reinforcement to the Sarrebourg facility. Over 11,000 pairs of shoes were now made every day by 1,500 employees.

The 2000s

INNOVATIONS IN THE 2000s

The technologies that Mephisto has developed, since the brand’s creation, aim at improving walking conditions.

2005

THE AIR-BAG-TECHNOLOGIE

New technologies, inventiveness, innovation and respect for morphologies are expressed in the timeless collections that constitute the brand’s identity. “Walking is living” was one of Mephisto’s first slogans. This assertion is truer than ever today.

2006

THE SOFT-AIR TECHNOLOGY

The SOFT-AIR TECHNOLOGY is being integrated in all MEPHISTO shoes and vigorously communicated globally.

Awards

THE HIGHEST AWARDS

Martin MICHAELI receives from President Jacques Chirac the highest decoration which France can grant: he is promoted “Chevalier of the Legion of Honour”. MEPHISTO becomes for the second time “Best Footwear brand of France”.

Shoes for everyone

At the end of the 1990s, Mephisto broadens its offering by launching three new brands.

In 1998, Mobils was born. Models with full padding between the lining and the leather, membranes to regulate the foot’s heat, a removable anatomical insole and a wider shoe contributed maxi- mum comfort.

In 2002, Mephisto launched Allrounder intended for a younger clientele that practices outdoor activities. For over 10 years, the sports style of the collections and the functionality of the models have captivated a public geared toward leisure: dynamic men and women “ready for everything” like a pair of Allrounder shoes.

Lastly, in 2008, Sano completed this diversification by proposing shoes that, thanks to a conception of the sole favoring the natural movement of the foot, guarantee total walking comfort.

The 2010s

AN INTERNATIONAL BRAND

After 50 years, Mephisto is represented in 86 countries and generates 80% of its sales from exports.

2010

CHINA AWAKENS TO MEPHISTO

The opening of the 75th Mephisto-Shop in China brings the number of Mephisto-Shops worldwide to more than 800.

2015

MEPHISTO CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY

The Mephisto adventure, closely linked to the saga of the Michaeli family, is above all the success of a French brand, the fruit of its founder’s intuition and the know-how of an entire team. Celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary is an event for those who have taken part in developing it, first in Germany and France, then throughout the world.

2017

MEPHISTO’S ORIGINALS BECOME A LEGEND

The outdoors is one of the most promising sports markets and Mephisto renames its models with their rapid lacing Originals.

Striding toward the future

By opening up new creative horizons, Mephisto confirms its leading position in the world of high-quality footwear.

« These are Mephistos and possibly the best shoes you can buy! »

Sean Connery

Loyal customers

Anonymous or famous, they are called “Mephistophiles.”

They are capable of buying 14 of the same pair (like Arnold Schwarzenegger), calling a Mephisto store to have it deliver “their pairs” to them without even trying them on, certain of their choice... They readily write thank-you letters to the Sarrebourg factory (“The whole family walks in Mephistos,” “Until now, I’ve had eight pairs of Mephistos,” “My wife and I no longer wear any other shoes”...).

Among famous names, there are many Americans Jennifer Aniston, George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Janet Jackson, Cate Blanchett, Brooke Shields, Luciano Pavarotti, Bruce Willis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jude Law ...