K-Swiss Global Brands has announced plans to relocate its Westlake Village headquarters to downtown Los Angeles. The parent company of footwear brands K-Swiss, Palladium Boots, Supra Footwear, PLDM Shoes and OTZ Shoes will move into its new facilities at the Pac Mutual Building on West 6th Street by Jan. 1. “As our organization grows, we feel there will be an intrinsic benefit to immersing in the progressive culture of downtown Los Angeles,” Truman Kim, chief executive and chairman of K-Swiss, said in a prepared statement. “Our new location will afford us a better opportunity to identify market trends where they happen, access a vibrant retail culture, identify synergies with other brands in the space and lay out the best possible foundation for our future.” K-Swiss was first established in Los Angeles in 1966. Its founders, a pair of brothers with a penchant for tennis, immigrated to Southern California from Switzerland to start their own shoe company, according to the company’s website. It was purchased by Steven Nichols in 1986, and made an initial public offering in 1990 at $17.50 a share, according to Bloomberg. After struggling to keep up with competition from Nike Inc. and Reebok International Ltd., K-Swiss was bought out by South Korean conglomerate E.Land World Ltd. in 2013. It has since been expanded into a portfolio of brands. The company has occupied two floors totaling about 40,000 square feet in the Westlake Spectrum Business Park at 31248 Oak Crest Drive since 1998, according to real estate database CoStar Group Inc. Joe Jusko of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Service, a leasing agent for the building, said a new tenant had not yet been chosen for the site but declined further comment. – Helen Floersh
