Japanese trading company Marubeni Corporation has acquired Jacobson Group, a UK-based footwear brand owner with a portfolio of multiple brands, as part of its initiative to build a lifestyle brand business platform anchored by R.G. Barry Corporation, a lifestyle brand management company.

Jacobson owns and operates several footwear brands, including its flagship brand Gola, a heritage British sneaker brand founded in 1905, and distributes its products in more than 30 countries primarily across the UK, North America, and Europe.

Gola is characterised by designs that blend classic British heritage silhouettes with contemporary fashion sensibilities and is supported by a strong brand legacy with roots in sports such as football, where it has earned long-standing recognition among athletes.

Leveraging the brand equity built over more than 120 years and its accumulated expertise in footwear brand planning and development, Jacobson is accelerating its global expansion.

By combining RGB’s robust sales infrastructure and corporate functions with Jacobson’s brand portfolio, Marubeni seeks to simultaneously accelerate Jacobson’s growth and expand the lifestyle brand business platform with RGB as its core.

For more information, visit marubeni.com.