The company at the Selterstor in the heart of Gießen, founded in 1933 and today led in the third generation of family, is there with a team of 23 and great passion for customers. The decision to close the house was well made. Managing Director Heinz-Jörg Ebert explains it in a personal message that Schuhkurier is available.
He sees opportunities for downtown Giessen – despite the current vacancies, so Ebert puts it. And as a dealer, he also worked on the design and continued to develop his house. “And yet: We had to find out year after year: For a family-run stand-alone shoe store on a sales area of 800 sqm including a large basement and an overall area of 1,800 sqm, it was more uneconomical every year, month after month. A step-up with heart blood. And so, with all passion, you have to make decisions as a responsible entrepreneur, even if they hurt.”
Ebert, 64 years old, have repeatedly had to ask difficult questions: “What happens when something happens to me tomorrow? Who will wrap all of this? Who will take care of how and where our employees will be accommodated? What steps have to be prepared?”
The children of the dealer family decided to go their own professional paths. “It would be irresponsible to just let it go until I am no longer agile enough to set the right course in a rapidly changing trading world,” said the dealer. His parents (both 88) would also feel this – and they carry Eberts’ decision.
The house looks back on an eventful story. The founder couple Emmi and Edmund Darré led the company during the Nazi era and war, with total destruction and the successful reconstruction. From the early 1960s, Gerd and Marianne (born Darré) took over the shoe store and further developed it. They mastered the change from Salamander-Allein sale to an exciting mix of brands, converted the concept to a model area code and introduced EDP. At the beginning of the 1990s, Heinz-Jörg Ebert and his sister Steffi and later Ebert’s wife came to the helm. And had to fight with new challenges, from the specialist markets on the green meadow to shopping times and e-commerce. The shoe retail family was involved with other dealers from all over Germany with regard to innovation, from own brands to digitization. Darré always stayed true to his location and did not go the way of expansion.
In 2006 the Darré shoe store was awarded the Schuhmurier Award as the best dealer. In 2016 there was an extensive renovation with modernization of the business.
In May 2018, the shoe store was haunted by a large storm. Children’s and men’s department and warehouse were under water. This was followed by a monthly renovation. Then Corona came. “Again it went to the substance,” so it describes Ebert. This was followed by the controversial traffic attempt to optimize cycling in Gießen, which was ended after a short time and then dismantled – with devastating consequences for the frequency. And finally, a large construction site in the immediate vicinity of the shoe store separated the company from the rest of the shopping street for almost two years. At the same time, district heating was relocated-and in October 2024 there was a hacker attack on the company with serious consequences. “The result: for years (with a few exceptional months), minus numbers every month that we can no longer compensate for,” says Heinz-Jörg Ebert.
Increasing costs and additional effort for bureaucracy were accompanied by falling sales. Efforts for a successor from the industry or the textile sector have been unsuccessful. “What we saw as an advantage and what has shaped us for years even turned out to be a disadvantage: I myself. The Darré house stands for high-quality shoes and for some seasons also for textile. But it also stands for personality, years of customer loyalty-30,000 customers alone are equipped with the Darré-Personenkt-Card-and a connection with mine, in Gießen firmly anchored,”, “said Ebert. The high commitment also in the cultural area, which made the shoe store became a crowd puller thanks to numerous evening events, would not have dared to do any possible successors – and the company would not have been profitable with normal opening hours. “I have always hoped that this could be made up of a branchist due to its central control or its enormous shopping advantages due to its quantities. But what we have put together over the years seems to have an amazing weight,” says Ebert. Incidentally, the branch lists in question have now been concluded. In addition, no one has dared to take over the traditional house.
“With all my always positive channey thinking: After all the consultations within our industry, I just see no perspective in shoe retailers for such a large house. … Of course, stay open if someone else is still knocking,” says Ebert. “We have an enormous proportion of regular customers for our industry – but the older ones unfortunately die out or can no longer go, and the boys do not go. The surrounding area remains in the surrounding area. Our manufacturers – if they still exist – sometimes no longer supply us because they prefer to go to small areas (boutiques), or make their own shops.”
Now he will do everything he can to provide the employees to other companies from January 1, 2026. Until then, they want to “give everything” together. The company bought fully for h/f and is “fully performing fashionably”. Numerous events are planned. And on December 31, the door was wanted to close “and proudly look back on an era”.
New tenants will be searched for the three floors comprehensive space in the family property. “I would like to create a place here that goes wonderfully to the Selterweg and of course the new neighbor – the university library – magnet becomes a magnet, and is valuable and lively for the future of downtown Gießen.” He is open to project ideas, said the dealer.
