Record date: 2nd May 1928

80 years since the children’s shoe brand Elefanten was awarded its patent

Essen, 29th April 2008. Countless children have taken their first steps in them. Mums and dads have watched bemused how their little sons and daughters clumsily tried to tie their shoe laces. It must be the by far best known children’s shoe brand in Germany and one that has been recommended from generation to generation. Its most notable mark is a little red animal with a trunk, which also gave the shoe brand its name: Elefanten. This year, the German tradition-rich celebrates its 80th birthday.

In 1896, the supplier for shoemaker materials Gustav Hoffmann had a simple, but at that time rather revolutionary idea. Together with his brother-in-law Fritz Pannier, he founded a factory, which exclusively manufactured children’s shoes. But his was not all: for the first time they produced shoes with different lasts for the left and the right foot, whereby they oriented themselves on the human anatomy. Up to this point, children’s shoes were just small versions of shoes, which were worn by adults. One clearly thought that the foot of a child would somehow adapt to an adult’s shoe - with disastrous consequences for foot health. With their idea, Hoffmann and Pannier pioneered the health of children’s feet. The new children’s shoes were a great success right from the start. In 1908, however, the shoe manufacturers parted on good terms. Whilst Pannier produced shoes from size 27, Hoffmann concentrated on children’s shoes up to size 26. His breakthrough came at the end of the twenties, when he in 1927 obtained the brand Elefanten from a Hamburg shoe wholesale dealer. On 2nd May 1928, he had the brand registered at the German Reich Patent Office in Berlin. From now on, he put all his efforts into consequently expanding the quality brand for children’s shoes. By the end of the twenties, Hoffmann was already producing about 17,000 pairs of shoes a day.

Following a checkered history full of successes but also financial low-points, the last owner closed the Kleve-based company. Initially there was a question mark over the continued existence of the brand. In 2005, Europe’s largest shoe retailer DEICHMANN obtained the trademark rights as well as special tools and lasts - the heart piece of each shoe. Apart from that, Europe’s largest shoe retailer continued the cooperation with the best suppliers and employed some Elefanten shoe specialists from Kleve in its own company. Already in 2006, DEICHMANN launched a new Elefanten collection on the market and offered the shoes also to other retailers to purchase. In the meantime, Elefanten shoes once again have become a fixed part of children’s nurseries across Europe.

Research and development as a pillar of success - ideal fit thanks WMS

One of the elementary characteristics of Elefanten is the Width Measuring System (WMS), which was introduced at the end of the seventies as a result of long research series and intensive cooperation with orthopaedists. The research work goes back to the sixties. The basic idea of the WMS system is that children’s shoes must not only have the right length but also the width to enable children’s feet to develop healthily. Since then, the Elefanten range includes shoes in the widths "narrow", "medium" and "wide".

However, not only the WMS system is continuously developed and improved. Since taking over the brand, DEICHMANN has also not lost sight of the research tradition of Elefanten. As a result, a whole range of improvements to soles, features and materials has taken place. Apart from that, DEICHMANN also continues the cooperation with the Orthopaedic University Clinic in Heidelberg, which was started by Elefanten. The so-called gait laboratory very thoroughly analyses children’s walking motions. A special camera records individual motion sequences in several stages. The assessment of a children’s shoe’s strengths and weaknesses, which this process makes visible, shows the experts how a foot behaves inside a shoe. DEICHMANN uses these findings and drives the development of children’s shoes further forward. Gustav Hoffmann, the pioneer in matters of children’s foot health, would probably be very happy, could he see "his" red elephant today.

 

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