Pursuits
Made in Syria: Putin Hotspots Spur Shoe Sales for Russian Chain
- Zenden lures patriots with sandals from Assad ancestral home
- Company building $18 million factory in disputed Crimea region
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In a Russian twist to the kind of consumer nationalism that Donald Trump is championing, a hard-charging retailer in Moscow has figured out how to turn Vladimir Putin’s boldest geopolitical gambits into shoe sales.
The “Made in Syria” and “Made in Crimea” shelves in most of Andrey Pavlov’s 350 Zenden stores have created a buzz on social media, luring customers and lifting revenue at the tail end of a recession that’s bankrupted two rivals.