LONDON — Danish outerwear specialist Rains made its official foray into footwear on Wednesday with the global launch of the waterproof range, the dry boot.
The debut underscores its ambitions to turn shoes into a third growth pillar of the business and extend its minimal, utilitarian universe from coats and bags into a full head-to-toe proposition.
Rains’ cofounder and creative director Philip Lotko said the boot has been years in the making. Internally, it has been treated like building “a new business inside the company,” as it required a dedicated supply chain, warehouse setup and in‑store displays that are all specifically designed for shoes.
Lotko said the expansion responded to a longstanding demand from customers and wholesale partners, who have been asking when Rains would translate its rainwear expertise into shoes.
It also completed the brand’s full-look vision, having experimented in the space with a series of footwear-related collaborations with Umbro, Zellerfeld and Vans.
“We’ve always wanted to create a complete wardrobe — outerwear, the layers underneath, accessories and now footwear. With the dry boot, you can walk around the city, go to the beach or into the fields in a full Rains look,” he added.
Rains footwear
Courtesy
Lotko founded Rains with college classmate Daniel Brix Hesselager in 2012. It began with a boxy rubber backpack that evolved into a lifestyle brand that made its Paris Men’s Fashion Week debut in 2021.
According to Lotko, Rains’ business is currently split roughly half and half between outerwear and bags. In the long run, Lotko’s ambition is to add footwear as the third pillar, each contributing around 30 percent of revenue.
With three pillars in place, he said, the company would have a more resilient foundation and new options in how it presents itself in stores and at wholesale. As reported, Rains aims to reach 1.5 billion Danish krone, or $234.7 million, in revenues by 2027.
Philip Lotko
Commercially, the launch will be carried out through Rains’ existing distribution network, which includes its first Asia flagship at Shanghai’s landmark shopping mall HKRI Taikoo Hui, and selected wholesale accounts like Kith, Nordstrom, Galeries Lafayette, KaDeWe and La Rinascente.
Pricing is aligned with the brand’s current strategy, between $125 to $195, described internally as democratic and accessible.
“The dry boot is our footwear icon, the piece that carries our DNA into this new category. We want it to be affordable, so that the customer who owns the raincoat should also be able to own a pair of rain boots. From there we can build new silhouettes, new colorways and seasonal variations,” Lotko said.
Rains footwear
Courtesy
More on the design front, Johanne Dindler, design director at Rains, described the footwear range as a contemporary offering “made for the city and defined by a clean, architectural form.”
The debut boot focused on foundational shapes, which included a tall boot, an ankle boot and a mid-height boot, all built on the same sole unit to give the range a cohesive identity. The sole itself is inspired by city grids, translating the symmetry of urban planning into a structured yet curved tread designed to provide grip on slick pavements.
“Footwear is a category we knew we could add our perspective to. We have a strong point of view and 14 years of expertise in waterproof design, so it feels like a natural extension of the brand,” Dindler added.
The footwear range also deepened Rains’ positioning of an urban outdoor brand. Where traditional outdoor players often design for mountains and trails, Dindler said Rains is designing with “a blend of utility and an urban design sensibility, to create something that performs, feels comfortable and still reads as a sleek, minimal piece you want to rewear whether it’s raining or not.”
The dry boot, she believes, is for those who don’t want to “carry around spare shoes — someone who can wear one pair from coffee shop to dog park to day festival and still feel put‑together.”
