Overland Footwear originated from a company that was formed over 40 years ago. It started as King Country Shoes in the 1950's, when New Zealander Guglielmo Anselmi saw the opportunity to introduce his native Italian craftsmanship, quality and passion to a burgeoning young country, founding King Country Shoes. Evolving into Shoetown, the chain eventually grew to 10 stores in Auckland in the 1980's. Today Guglielmo would be described as an entrepreneur, but back in 1948 he called himself simply a merchant.
Shane Anselmi, the Managing Director joined the business in the late 80's, and after an inspiring trip to the United States came up with the Overland concept. This new concept involved having smaller fashion stores aimed at the middle to upper end of the market. The first Overland store opened in 1990 in 277 Newmarket and was an immediate success.
Innovation is one of the key values of the company and this prompted trialling the Mi Piaci and Merchant concepts. Mi Piaci was launched in December 2002, with the desire to capture a new market segment in footwear. Mi Piaci is aimed at the top end of the New Zealand market. Since this time, Mi Piaci has gone from strength to strength and there are now thirteen Mi Piaci stores operating throughout New Zealand and two Mi Piaci stores in Australia.
In 2012 the company took yet another exciting step, launching the Overland concept into Australia opening in Melbourne under the name Merchant est. 1948. The name and store fit out draws on the heritage of the family run business and the family's history as footwear merchants. The Australian market has responded very well to our exciting range and warm customer service.
Today we currently operate fifty-seven stores across three brands throughout Australia and New Zealand. We are known for quality footwear and warm engaging service! Our team is made up of over 400 diverse and talented individuals, strong and together we live the vision and values - sharing in the passion and experience that is Overland. We are built from the devotion and love of fashion, footwear and design. Our range is comprised of the best footwear sourced from around the world, with attention to design, quality and styling.