Footwear.
From first sketch
to sold through.
The footwear design, sourcing and brand organization behind three brands of its own — and behind labels you will never see us on. Men's and women's, from the world's most exclusive factories to the world's biggest floors.
Most companies in footwear do one thing. We do all of it — at the top of the category, for our own brands and for yours.
Footwear is our everyday work.
Pinnacle Brand Group brings design, development and sourcing together for the brands we own and the partners we build for. Running our own labels keeps that work connected to the whole life of a shoe, from the first sketch to the finished pair.
That same experience supports private-label programs, with a team that carries a brief through materials, sampling, production and delivery.
Our company and how we workOur brands. Or yours.
Some of what we make carries our own names. A great deal of it carries other people's — and that is the part the industry talks about quietly.
The brands we own
Gordon Rush, Blake McKay and Rush Gordon Rush — three men's footwear brands, each with its own position, price and customer, sold through leading department stores, direct and on marketplace, and produced across Italy, Portugal and Asia.
See the portfolio 02The brands we build for others
Private label and brand partnerships for fashion houses, retailers and founders. The same designers, factories and purchasing weight that run our own labels — from a single hero style to a full line, men's and women's.
What we do for partnersDesign. Development. Sourcing.
Two disciplines that almost never live inside one organization. Here they do, which is why nothing gets lost between the drawing and the factory floor.
Design & development
Line planning, lasts, constructions, tech packs, sampling and fit — a design team that has shipped hundreds of styles across dress, casual, sneakers and boots, men's and women's.
Design & development 02Sourcing & manufacturing
A network of the best and most exclusive factories in Italy, Portugal and Asia, built over decades and matched to your construction, tier and volume. Costing, compliance, QC and delivery managed end to end.
Sourcing & manufacturing
The construction
decides everything.
Most footwear partners know one or two and quietly steer every brief toward them. The construction decides the price, the weight, the break-in and whether a shoe can ever be repaired, so it should be chosen for the shoe — not for the factory. Six of them, men’s and women’s, in the factories that run each one every day.
- 01
Blake
The sole stitched straight through to the insole. Slimmer, lighter and more flexible than a welt; resoleable by anyone with a Blake machine.
- 02
Stitchdown
The upper turned out and stitched down to the sole. Rugged, wide-footed, honest. The construction of a work boot that got invited somewhere.
- 03
Cemented
Upper and sole bonded under heat and pressure. Lighter, cheaper, and when the adhesive and the prep are right, entirely sound.
- 04
Vulcanized
Raw rubber cured onto the upper in a mold. The sneaker construction, and still the best one for a canvas shoe.
- 05
Strobel
The upper closed to a textile sock, then cupsoled or injected. The modern sneaker floor, and what makes a heeled sneaker hybrid possible at all.
- 06
Injection
Polyurethane or rubber shot directly onto the lasted upper. The highest-volume method there is, and the hardest to make look like anything.
Our own labels are men’s, so that is what the industry knows us for. The other half of the floor we have run quietly for partners for years — heel heights from a flat to a hundred millimeters, shanks and heel seats engineered to hold balance across a full graded size run, in the same exclusive factories. Tell us the shoe and the number. We will tell you which of these it wants, and which of them we would talk you out of.
Three brands. One house.
Est. 1998. Contemporary classic footwear for men — well-fitting lasts, quiet detail, made in the same factories as the best names in the category.
The brand →
Digitally native. Best-in-class styling and quality without the sticker shock of traditionally distributed footwear.
The brand →
Since 2004. The younger brother — accessibly priced dress and dress-casual footwear with its own personality.
The brand →Six steps. No mystery.
A footwear program runs on a calendar. Here is ours, from first conversation to first delivery.
Brief
Who it's for, where it sells, what it has to cost. We tell you straight what's realistic.
Concept
Silhouettes, lasts, constructions, materials. Sketches and a first line plan.
Development
Tech packs, spec sheets, component sourcing, cost engineering.
Sampling
Pull-overs, then confirmation samples. Fit, wear-test, revise.
Production
Factory allocation, QC, timelines, compliance and testing.
Delivery
Freight, customs, packaging, and everything that has to happen before the first pair sells.
If you need shoes made, we should talk.
Fashion and apparel houses adding footwear
You have a customer, a look and a calendar. You don't have lasts, factories or a footwear designer. We become that department.
Retailers and private label
Exclusive programs designed to your open-to-buy, your price architecture and your floor — from one hero style to a category.
New and digitally native brands
Founders with a point of view who need the product built right the first time — lasts, materials, construction and a supply chain that scales.
Established footwear brands
Extra design bandwidth, a second sourcing base, a new category or a cost-down without losing the quality your customer expects.
Women's brands and designers
Women's is the half of our work nobody sees. Dress, boots, loafers, sandals and sneakers, made in the same exclusive European and Asian factories as our partners' best product.
Bring us the shoe.
Start with a short brief. A designer reads it. Within two business days you get an honest read on fit, feasibility and what it will take.