Gabor Shoes
Gabor Shoes is a German company known for affordable quality shoes.
The company was founded in 1949 by Joachim and Bernhard Gabor as B. & J. Gabor Damenschuhfabrik in Barmstadt near Hamburg. Their father had owned a shoe and leather goods shop that he had opened 1919 in Gross-Strehlitz in Upper Silesia (today Poland). He and his wife were killed in the months of WWII, after having evacuated their children to relatives, and the shop was lost. The company first produced simple every day shoes with whatever materials were available in times of shortage, sometimes selling them, sometimes bartering them for food. With the upturn of the German economy, the types of shoes they produced became less desirable and the company stood on the brink of closing. However, Bernhard had travelled to the United States and seen the "California method" to produce fashionable and comfortable shoes without needing too much mechanised work. Meanwhile, Joachim had been studying the latest shoe fashions and developed the right vision of what would sell. They started producing fashionable, affordable shoes using the new method and gradually built the company and it's distribution network up. In 1952 they built their first own factory, and in the next years, more factories in Germany and further in Europe followed. In 1966, the company moved to Rosenheim in Bavaria. The Gabor credo was "we make shoes for millions, not millionaires".
The company is still in the family's hands today and one of Europe's largest shoe manufacturers. Whilst headquarters are in Rosenheim, the shoes are produced in Slovakia and Portugal and exported worldwide. Besides shoes, they also produce handbags, socks, hosiery and shoe care products.
Gabor Party - from a pair of late 1960s evening shoes
Added to the Label Resource 5/24/21
Thanks, Karin!