LA Gear (or L.A. Gear) is an American shoe company based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1983, the brand is currently owned by ACI International. History LA Gear was started by Robert Greenberg, Ernest Williams, and Stephen Williams. Greenberg had moved to Los Angeles from his native Boston in 1978, where he picked up the Hang 10 license for shoe skates. Once he realized that it was the “uppers” that held the most promise, Greenberg began focusing on shoes instead of skates, which led to the birth of the LA Gear brand in 1983. Greenberg targeted the women's athletic shoe market, with an appeal to fashion and selection over technical features. The company went public in 1986. As the 1990s began, company sales reached , and LA Gear was third in athletic shoe sales behind Nike and Reebok. Although its original lines were typically featured in high-end department stores, LA Gear shoes became easier to find in discount retailers. Caldor began carrying LA Gear shoes designed specifically for the store and its clientele. Trouble began to appear for LA Gear in 1992. As its stock sunk from $50 to $10 a share, Robert Greenberg stepped down as CEO; within the year he founded shoe company Skechers, which he still manages as of 2022. By 1993 LA Gear's popularity was beginning to wane. Within a year the company began restricting access to the shoes, returning to higher-end department stores to gain a more upscale clientele. However, in doing so the company was so desperate to sell the remaining inventory that LA Gear shoes began showing up at flea markets, swap meets, and supermarkets. In 1994, LA Gear abandoned their men's performance footwear line and began marketing the lifestyle brands for women and children more aggressively. They also tried to acquire the struggling Rykä brand of women's shoes, but the deal failed. In 1995 Walmart and LA Gear signed a three-year contract to design lower-value and specific-to-store shoes for Walmart, but the venture failed as sales for LA Gear shoes at Walmart had declined. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1998, in the process greatly reducing the lines of shoes it was selling. Since the bankruptcy filing LA Gear has made three concerted attempts at coming back. The first was in 1999, with an emphasis on casual shoes for men and women and the return of the popular LA