Phoenix Footwear Group to Shut Down Within 60 Days

Phoenix Footwear Group, the Carlsbad, Calif.-based parent of the Trotters, Softwalk and Bueno comfort shoe brands, will cease operations over the next 60 days, according to a LinkedIn post by Allison Hannon.

The company is 144 years old. Phoenix also serves as the U.S. distributor for the Los Cabos and Eos shoe brands, and it acquired Bueno Footwear in 2017.

The wind-down closes a corporate history that stretches back more than a century. The company began operations as Daniel Green Company, a maker known for its slippers and comfort footwear. In 1999, it shut down a manufacturing plant in Upstate New York and began outsourcing production. A year later, in 2000, it acquired Penobscot Shoe Company, which owned the Trotters and Softwalk brands. Penobscot had been founded in 1935 under the name Philco Shoe Co. Through that acquisition, the company has long maintained a foothold in the Maine community, where a facility handles warehousing and distribution.

The Daniel Green brand was sold to Elan-Polo Inc. in 2001. Following the sale, the company reincorporated and renamed itself Phoenix Footwear Group in 2002. Production for Trotters and Softwalk has been primarily based in Brazil, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from 2004.

The company's public market trajectory tells its own story. Phoenix Footwear shares once traded on the New York Stock Exchange but moved to over-the-counter trading in 2011 due to its small market capitalization. In 2025, the shares moved again — this time to the Pink OTC Market, the highly speculative tier of the OTC Markets also known as the Pink Sheets. That tier includes distressed stocks whose issuers do not need to provide ongoing financial reporting.

The collapse comes despite increased consumer focus on comfort footwear across categories, from work boots and cushioned road-running sneakers to orthopedic mary janes. Even with that tailwind, there is no indication of what the future holds for the Softwalk, Trotters and Bueno brands.

The brands' websites suggest the shutdown is already underway, with differing degrees of finality. A visit to Trotters.com showed the message: "We are temporarily pausing Trotters.com." The notice added that it "isn't goodbye. It's simply a pause in the online journey." The Softwalk website posted a similar message. The Bueno site, where the shoes are handmade in Turkey, also stated that it was suspending online sales — but pointedly did not call the suspension a pause. "Thank you for being part of our journey," the site said, a wording that signals the shutdown might be the end of the road for Bueno Footwear.

For now, the strongest brand in the portfolio appears to be the 60-day clock. Whether any of the labels find buyers or licensees during the wind-down will determine if Trotters and Softwalk join the long list of heritage footwear names that outlive their corporate parents — or follow Bueno's apparent path to a quiet exit.