Meet our Company
Bernd Hummel Holding GmbH is a family-owned and owner-run company. We look to the future while bringing together tradition, business experience and a flair for trends. Our business operations are based in Pirmasens in Southwest Palatinate, know as Germany’s „shoe city.“
Bernd Hummel GmbH has been the largest international licensee for KangaROOS since 1981. The brand was born in the USA in 1979 as „THE ORIGINAL SHOES WITH POCKETS“ and was one of the first on the sneaker market. Today, KangaROOS is among the top 10 of the most important sneaker brands in Germany with a brand awareness level of 70% (source: statista Consumer Insights, 2023).
In 2003, the company expanded its product line with the purchase of the brand flip*flop, and founded flip*flop GmbH. The „flip*flop Original“ makes the world’s simplest shoe a fashion item and a modern classic. flip*flop has a recognition factor of over 90% among women.
The company Bernd Hummel Immobilienprojekte GmbH has revitalized a number of historic properties in the Southwest Palatinate region. Two historic shoe factories, Neuffer am Park and P-Town-Lofts , now have a new purpose. The Weisse Kaserne has also been renovated for future use.
In our Hummel&Hummel Schuhmanufaktur GmbH, we produced high-quality shoes ‚Made in Germany‘ until the end of 2024, more precisely in Münchweiler near Pirmasens. We sell a selection of products manufactured by us via our KangaROOS online store.
We are Family
We understand each other without words, communicate on the same level, and make decisions with an eye to the future – that’s the advantage of a family business! Our potential for growth stems from our respect for continuity and confidence to go in new directions.
A short history of our family and the business:
Bernd D. Hummel has been a success in the international shoe business since 1968. At age 20, he completed his training in sales and then the technical aspects of shoe manufacturing at his father-in-law’s factory. In 1972, he took over the factory and began producing his own line of shoes, called „Die Brummer von Hummel kommen.“ Beginning in 1976, the shoes were manufactured in other European countries. After he acquired the KangaROOS brand and entered the athletic shoe market, most manufacturing moved to Asia. Hummel was driven by a passion for shoes, a love for what he made, and that special feeling of creating something and being able to hold a finished product in his hand and the end of the day.
His two daughters Anne-Katrin and Julia were „brought up in a shoebox,“ as they say in the „shoe city“ of Pirmasens. Their grandparents and great-grandparents worked in the shoe industry as stitchers and piecers. Their grandfather had his own small factory and later a shoe store. Anne-Katrin Hummel has been on the board of Bernd Hummel Holding since 2006, and Julia Hummel since 2008. Both found their way to the family business through their passion for flip*flop: Anne-Katrin worked as an architect in Berlin and developed an interior design concept for the brand, and Julia opened a flip*flop store while living in Amsterdam.
While Bernd Hummel and his daughters put their passion into the shoes, his wife Gabriele Hummel makes sure that everything runs smoothly in the family’s other business, the renovation and management of historic buildings.
In addition to their passion for shoes, the family loves art, architecture, traveling, and has a close connection to the Palatinate region.
« I've gained a wide range of experience over more than 40 years of shoe production. It's wonderful to create new, forward-looking concepts by combining my expertise with the new things that I learn every day. »
Company History
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A city with a tradition in shoes
Our business is based in our hometown of Pirmasens in the southwestern Palatinate region, known as the German „shoe city.“ Pirmasens still has greatest concentration of footwear expertise in Germany.
History of the city: Landgrave Ludwig IX of Hesse-Darmstadt took up residence in 1741 and set up a garrison and a well-funded Grenadier Guards regiment. His death marked the end of the residence and the garrison, depriving the population of its livelihood. Out of necessity, women sold shoes made from leftover leather and uniforms in the surrounding area.
After a rocky start, the industrial revolution led to an economic upswing. Pirmasens became internationally known for its shoes. The city’s ascent was briefly interrupted by the Second World War, which destroyed seventy-five percent of the city. Pirmasens only began to face serious economic troubles and increasing unemployment after production moved to Southern Europe in the 1960s, and later to Asia.
New product lines also developed as part of the shoe industry, including shoe glue, plastic products, and manufacturing machinery and production equipment. Today, Pirmasens is still a hotbed of shoe production expertise, taught at the German College of Footwear Design and Technology, the University of Applied Sciences, and the International Shoe Competence Center (ISC).
Neuffer am Park Headquarters
Our company headquarters are located in Neuffer am Park, a historic industrial monument in Pirmasens dating back to 1894. The family has owned the former shoe factory since 1990. The sustainable restoration includes commercial rental space, a medical center, areas for cultural offerings, gastronomy- and events, and serves as an exemplary pilot project for renovation in the region.
We are privileged to be able to run our modern company in a former shoe factory. The revitalized building harks back to the shoemaking tradition of both our family and the region.
The space combines modernity and tradition: Landmark-protected 18th-century facades flank modern offices flooded with light. Our 2,050-square-meter offices and exhibition space were awarded the Rhineland-Palatinate Association of German Architects Prize, the IFI Design Excellence Award in the Corporate Interiors category (Busan, Korea, 2007) and the Association of German Interior Architects/Designers prize (2008).