Husband-and-wife duo Marina and Ricardo Larroudé, founders of their namesake women’s footwear company Larroudé, accepted the award for Brand of the Year at the 38th annual Footwear News Achievement Awards, held at Cipriani South Street in New York City on Dec. 4.
Larroudé was one of two recipients of the Brand of the Year award, with the other going to On. Larroudé has experienced a meteoric rise since its debut in 2020, when the company received the Launch of the Year award at the FNAAs. This year, model Emily DiDonato, an avowed Larroudé fan, was on hand to present the couple with their latest honor.
Taking the stage with her husband, Marina began her speech, “What an incredible honor to accept the Brand of the Year award alongside On Running. This is really major, and I cannot believe we have been in business for only four years and this is our second award.”
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The fashion veteran went on to acknowledge the other talent in room and the impact they’ve had on her: “Congratulations to tonight’s honorees, Jesse [Itzler] and Tepper please tell Sara [Blakely] that I’m a huge fan of hers and her innovation and boldness is really inspiring. Martha Stewart, you are my forever icon. Edgardo [Osorio], I remember seeing your first collection…and I knew then that you were destined for greatness. And watching your success has been truly inspiring to me.”
Blakely received the Launch of the Year award for Sneex; Stewart was given the Icon Award; and Osorio of Aquazzura was the recipient of the Designer of the Year award.
Recalling the inception of Larroudé at the couple’s dining room table, Marina concluded her speech by expressing gratitude to her husband: “This would not be possible without the vision and drive and love and support of Ricardo, our CEO, who is my business partner, our CEO and my partner in life. I’m forever grateful to share this journey with you.”
Ricardo then made his own remarks, taking the opportunity to emphasize the importance of vertical integration, uplifting creative designers and taking care of employees. “From the moment we started, we vertically integrated the business,” he said. He mentioned they have two factories, with 200 people employed in Brazil, and stock options are offered to successful employees.
He continued, “We also welcome other designers to create for us. So today we have at our table [TKname], Jonathan Cohen who’s doing shoes for Markarian. And the idea is that we try to replicate what happened in the music industry. That albums and Virgin Records would create a place for these creatives to come together, do what they focus on and not have to worry about lawyers, marketing, distribution, cost, all of that. And they have a whole platform to take care of it.”
He neared the end of his speech with a call to action: “I want to celebrate that there’s a way to do things differently. Most startups in the fashion industry, they outsource the production. There is a way to do shoes yourself. Birkenstock does 100% of what they do in Germany, Prada has 20 factories that they manage. And if you do that, you can actually take care of the people that are actually doing the shoes for you. So if you want to be sustainable, if you want to think about ESG, take care of the people that are really making the shoes.”
For 38 years, the annual FN Achievement Awards — often called the “Shoe Oscars” — have celebrated the style stars, best brand stories, ardent philanthropists, emerging talents and industry veterans. The 2024 event is supported by sponsors Listrak, Marc Fisher, Nordstrom and Vibram.
