Brazilian Shoe Brand Melissa Opens Fourth U.S. Store in Houston

Brazilian footwear brand Melissa is opening its fourth U.S. store this weekend.

According to the Grendene-owned shoe brand, it will open a new 1,197-sq.-ft. store inside the Baybrook Mall in Houston, Texas on April 20. This latest location joins Melissa’s other U.S. stores in Aventura, Fla; Sunrise, Fla; and San Diego, Calif.

The new Baybrook store will feature the brand’s core styles including the Possession sandal, Campana flat and Becky platform slide along with its new spring 2024 collection. Featured styles from Melissa’s collaborations with designers like Marc Jacobs, Telfar and Y-Project will also be on display, as well as a selection of the brand’s kids’ styles.

“Houston is a growing city with an extraordinarily diverse and inclusive community that resonates with Melissa consumers,” Bradley Hall, retail director at Grendene Global Brands, said in a statement. “The area surrounding the Baybrook Mall is a balance of growing families and up-and-coming Houstonians. We are excited to introduce this new audience to Melissa.”

Founded in 1979, Melissa is best known for its Possession jelly fisherman sandal. The shoe reached a pop culture high in the 1990s, and parent company Grendene has continued to evolve the silhouette, especially to meet its overall sustainability goals.

In an interview with FN in July, Carlos Andre Carvalho, sustainability manager at Grendene, said that the Brazilian footwear brand, which is entirely vegan, is further investing in its sustainable practices across its product offering, especially its best-selling Possession sandal.

This store growth and focus on sustainability was made possible by the 2021 joint venture between Grendene and 3G Radar, an independent investment company, with the mission to create accelerated brand growth globally.

The new entity, called Grendene Global Brands, draws on 3G Radar’s business management expertise and Grendene’s manufacturing capabilities to handle the production and operations of its roster of brands, which include Melissa and Mini Melissa, Ipanema, Rider, Cartago, Zaxy, Grendha, Pega Forte and Grendene Kids.