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Leomil Group announced today they have entered into an agreement with Global Merchandising Services, the agency that represents the worldwide merchandising rights for the international phenomena that is, One Direction, for a line of footwear for the US and Canada. Cortina – Leomil Group will be partnering with Rich Footwear Group, leveraging their expertise in developing, marketing and selling the footwear brand in the US and Canada. “It does not get much more fun, or poised for success, than launching into the tween footwear market with music superstars, One Direction”, says CEO of Leomil Group, Albert Milhado. One Direction’s debut album, Up All Night, sold 176,000 copies in a week, making One Direction the first Irish/British group in US chart history to achieve this with their debut album. Their second album, Take Me Home’s number-one debut on the US Billboard 200 chart made the band the first pop band in US chart history to land two number- one albums within a 12 month period. Their third album, Midnight Memories, was released yesterday, November 25th. “We are very excited to be working with the Leomil Group and Rich Footwear Group and look forward to a long, successful partnership,” Tracy Stone, President of Global Merchandising USA. One Direction is comprised of Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik who were put together as a group by Simon Cowell after auditioning as solo artists for The X Factor UK in 2010. Building on several previous successful launches together, The Cortina – Leomil Group, and Rich Footwear Group will provide for an incredible launch for the One Direction footwear franchise. They have also partnered with duffy + duffy branding who will support the branding effort in the North American market. “You could not find a more tweeted about, ‘shared’, beloved pop group today than One Direction. The band’s fans, known as “Directioners” are passionate about all things, ‘One Direction’ and we could not be more excited to be developing and launching a line of shoes to give ‘Directioners’ one more thing to ‘LIKE’,” says Paul Shapiro, President of Rich Footwear Group. Rich Footwear will be launching the footwear line, geared toward the tween audience, this winter at the FFANY Footwear Shoe in NY. The line will debut in the retailers across North America in fall of 2014. Cortina has previously launched the brand in Europe and South America earlier this year. |
