A smell of leather and rubber floats in the paraboot factory, near Grenoble, where a hundred workers cut, sew, melt, polish these “made in France” shoes that are destroyed abroad. Between the current of the decrease in French shoes, the billing of the brand continues to increase: 24 million euros in 2023, 26.7 million in 2024 and 28.2 million planned in 2025. or a growth of 17.5% in two years.
The company exports 67% of its production, made 80% in its Moirans factory in Saint-Jean-de, under the glasses of Veccors and Chartreuse, in Isère. Initially specialized in work shoes, Parabot, born in 1908, continues to equip police or electrician agents, but has also become a fashion product, seen at the foot of stars such as George Clooney and Johnny Depp.
Your secret? “Solid, durable and repairable products” and a “DNA” that has not changed for 117 years, has Eric Forestier, CEO of the company.
He sold between 230 and 500 euros per par, the leather shoes sewn by hand with rustic design with their gum plants and visible exterior sewing, retain these characteristics of the birth of the brand. However, he has been able to expand his audience multiplying collaborations with niche brands such as motor or topograph garments.
Know how
Founded by Rémy Richard in Izeaux, a few kilometers from the current factory, Parabot today uses about 200 people, in Isère and in its 28 stores divided into France and Belgium. Around 600 pairs of shoes leave every day of the Saint-Jean-de-Meirans factory, where 97 workers are busy. There is 20% of the production provided in Spain, Italy and Portugal “for reasons of knowledge,” justifies Eric Forestier, in particular to take advantage of Moccasin’s premium, the Spanish experience.
“In today’s world it is a bit like the career for technology, we are the opposite: it is the career for the preservation of knowledge,” summarizes marketing director Pierre Colin, “Michael” shoes on the feet, the Parabot Model Model. Distributed in a hangar of 11,000 m2, machines and employees continue 150 operations to make a couple.
At the beginning, large, veal skins, mainly because they are not very damaged, are stored in a large room. Then they are cut into different small parts corresponding to the stems of the stems, the upper part of the shoe, necessary. Leather constitutes a third of the sale price of a shoe, according to Pierre Colin.
Leader
Once assembled, the leather pieces are sewn in lining, not glued, a “much longer and more tedious” process, but that allows evacuating perspiration, explains the marketing director. The stem connects to the only one in “Norwegian Sewned”, this great iconic oustic sewing of the brand. A manufacturing mode that allows you to repair the shoe replacing the sole, an appearance “hyper), insists on Pierre Colin. The factory also has a repair workshop, for 200 euros to repair a couple.
Paraboot is a “socially responsible company since 1908”, Eric Forestier has fun, for whom “producing in France, it is obviously an choice”, which justifies the high price of the models. This home of “uselessly help”, especially in Asia, which has 35%of its turnover, ahead of France (33%) and Europe (30%), and then North America. The brand, widely imitated, has even become a “leader” of leather shoes in Japan, according to its CEO.
In addition to the feet of the stars, Paraboot equips the French police, EDF or the Gendarmerie, offering compliance with security standards. Faced with the violent crisis that has been arriving at the French shoes sector for years, with the failures of San Marina and André, and the recovery of Minelli and Clergerie at the price of the work eliminated, the management of Parabot focuses on the “prudence” and a “long -term vision”. “The goal is to continue these 117 years of history,” insists Eric Forestier.
Source: BFM TV
