Holo Footwear CEO moves firm's home to Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—Holo Footwear CEO Rommel Vega—a Miami native—has lived and/or worked just about everywhere, from the East Coast to the Midwest and over to the West Coast.

Now Vega is heading back to the Midwest and a city that feels an awful lot like home.

Vega recently opted to relocate his growing footwear company from Portland, Ore., to Grand Rapids, citing his love of the area and belief that it offers the perfect space to grow his company.

Founded in 2020, Holo Footwear manufactures sustainable outdoor footwear using recycled materials—including a significant amount of recycled rubber and rubber-based components—in each shoe. The goal, he said, is ensuring Holo products remain affordable for the average consumer.

The company sells through retail partners including REI, Nordstrom, Macy's, BackCountry.com and Dick's Sporting Goods, but it looks to establish an e-commerce presence from its home in Grand Rapids. Vega plans to offer direct-to-consumer sales online beginning Oct. 1.

Holo's aim is to make sustainable footwear options affordable for all consumers, and Vega is confident there is no better location to build his company than the Great Lakes State.

Vega's connections to Michigan run deep. He is a graduate of the College of Creative Services in Detroit, and holds a degree in industrial design. After graduation, Vega's work kept him in Michigan, where he landed a job with Merrell, an outdoor footwear brand owned by Rockford, Mich.-based Wolverine Worldwide, just outside of Grand Rapids. He later went on to work for Studio Ray and spent two years commuting from western Michigan to New York City.

But it was more than a sense of home that drew Vega back to Michigan this time around.

"We're literally the only shoe manufacturer in (Grand Rapids) which is great," Vega said. "I fell in love with Grand Rapids when I first moved there. It reminds me of Portland 10 years ago."

The state, Vega said, boasts some of the top engineering and design schools, and the availability of experienced human capital was very appealing. Vega plans to hire more than 60 new employees in the next year in roles ranging from sales and design to product innovation, warehouse, fulfillment and back office positions.

"We will put bodies in places wherever we need the support, and we will pay our people what they are worth," Vega said. "Our focus on sustainability will be enticing to many (candidates), which will help our recruiting."

That employee growth is supported by an increase in revenues from $500,000 in 2020 to a projected $5 million in 2022. Vega hopes to see Holo's revenue top $50 million within five years.

The company has set up a plan to scale its headquarters in Grand Rapids to meet its anticipated growth needs.

Of his current 10 employees, half decided to remain in Portland where Holo Footwear will maintain an office. Others elected to move three time zones to the east.

"We believe in family values, so I gave all my employees (in Portland) a choice. We would make it work if they wanted to stay in Portland," he said.

As Vega traveled the U.S. in recent years, he formed the opinion that sustainable outdoor footwear was not readily available or even affordable to large swaths of the country. Given the connections that he and his fellow colleagues made in the industry, Vega was confident that Holo Footwear could fill that gap by engineering products. So he set out to sell affordable products but at premium retailers.

"People don't want to buy cheap products from cheap companies," he said. Many of his footwear designs sell for around $65 retail.

Holo Footwear's relocation was supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and the Michigan Strategic Fund. It received a $250,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant to move to Michigan. Vega chose Grand Rapids for its headquarters over competing sites in North Carolina and Oregon, even though it meant he "left some money on the table" compared to the financial incentives he would have received from moving to Asheville, N.C.

According to MEDC, Holo Footwear plans to offer a home for design students to begin and grow their careers, and subsequently retain that talent in the state. The company's presence in western Michigan will grow its apparel design base and will solidify the company's presence and future growth in the state.

In addition, Vega said, Holo plans to partner with businesses in the outdoor recreation space to take advantage of Michigan's abundant hiking trails, lakes and outdoor recreation potential.

Holo Footwear manufactures its shoes overseas but one of Vega's long-term goals is to bring that manufacturing stateside, ideally in Michigan. He admits it "won't happen overnight," but is committed to that goal. Like most manufacturers, Holo has experienced some supply chain issues since the pandemic, but its smaller size has allowed it to remain nimble and flexible, with little adverse impact on business.

"Whereas the big designers might need 50 or more containers for a shipment right now, we need two or three," Vega said.

Nearshoring the manufacturing of the rubber-based shoes is just one of many goals Holo has in the next few years to support the revenue growth Vega projects.

Almost all the company's sales go to North American consumers, but he added he wants to start selling internationally in the next year.