Case study

Spreading its wings: Red Wing Shoes’ journey to a unified EU digital flagship with Centra

Red Wing Shoes leverages Centra to streamline its European online operations across 26 countries.

For 120 years, Red Wing Shoes has been crafting boots built to last. The family-owned brand remains committed to its mission: creating footwear that endures the toughest conditions and can be passed down through generations. Every pair reflects premium materials, timeless design, and meticulous craftsmanship. Today, Red Wing offers men’s and women’s shoes and boots, along with a range of accessories and care products.

Shaping a connected digital experience

With stores in major cities including London, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Berlin—and a network of wholesale partners across Europe—Red Wing Shoes has built a retail presence that spans the continent.

But Red Wing’s digital growth in Europe came piece by piece through franchises, each market with its own ecommerce site. This approach encouraged local connection, but also created a fragmented experience, made customer insights harder to gather, and slowed expansion into new markets. For a lean European team managing operations across dozens of markets, this decentralized model made it increasingly difficult to scale efficiently.

The opportunity was clear: Red Wings needed to bring Europe together under a single digital flagship without losing the unique local touch that makes the brand special. The team wanted a solution that could centralize operations, consolidate data, maintain global standards, and still allow for local engagement.

A new foundation for growth

Red Wing’s path to a unified digital flagship for Europe started in Stockholm. When their store team was exploring a new POS system to implement omnichannel options such as Ship from Store and Return in Store, Sitoo recommended Centra as an order management solution.

From the Stockholm store project, the task was simple: operate ecommerce out of the store. Centra’s integration made this straightforward and scalable.
Dominik Hoegger European Retail Manager at Red Wing Shoes

What started as a single-store solution in Stockholm soon laid the groundwork for a Europe-wide transformation. The success of the store, together with Red Wing’s trusted collaboration with Swedish front-end agency Rivercode, made Centra the obvious choice for unifying the brand’s digital presence across the continent. Centra’s modular architecture empowered the brand’s lean European team to manage complexity with minimal overhead—streamlining workflows without expanding headcount.

Lacing it all together

Red Wing Shoes unified its European DTC operations under a single digital flagship store—linking multiple systems seamlessly and completing the rollout in under five months.

We were very happy with Rivercode and it was kind of obvious we would be working with Centra again. There was just a level of confidence. It was just easier to imagine doing this for all of Europe.
Dominik HoeggerEuropean Retail Manager at Red Wing Shoes

Global standards, local feel

While most standard content for global launches originates in the US, Red Wing’s European team crafts campaigns and imagery tailored specifically to their regional audiences. This approach empowers local creativity while maintaining a cohesive brand identity. The result is content that resonates with, delights, and truly connects to customers across Europe.

With a single digital flagship store serving the entire European market, the team has confidence that all content is on-brand and relevant to the continent as a whole.

The European team also creates original, locally relevant content for initiatives like ‘Care Day’, where customers can visit stores for personalized boot cleaning and care.

By staying true to our brand’s beliefs, we attract end consumers who resonate with our content—whether in the south of Italy or the north of Sweden. Local relevance and global consistency can coexist seamlessly.
Dominik HoeggerEuropean Retail Manager at Red Wing Shoes

Gaining ground

With Centra powering Red Wing’s European digital flagship store, the team can learn more about their customers, streamline operations, and unlock growth in new markets.

Centra allows us to interact with end consumers directly. We can collect data on what they want and like, which helps us be much more precise when briefing products and planning collections.
Dominik HoeggerEuropean Retail Manager at Red Wing Shoes

Since launching on Centra, Red Wing has already driven unexpected growth in new markets, including Poland and Ireland, even without a traditional retail presence.

The brand now serves 26 European countries with the efficiency of a single, unified operation—turning what was once a challenge into a competitive advantage. By combining experimentation in new markets with consistent brand standards, Red Wing is positioned for continued growth and future enhancements, including omnichannel flows, personalization, and advanced merchandising.

Built for the next 120 years

Red Wing Shoes isn’t just planning for the next year—it’s planning for the next 120. With Centra at the core of its European expansion, this heritage brand is set to carry its legacy forward while shaping the future of footwear for generations to come.