What Eram is known for
Founded 1927 by Albert-René Biotteau near Cholet, France; the Éram name (1932) merges the founders' reversed first names, René and Marie-Josèphe. Pioneered direct plastic-sole injection in 1955.
Eram was founded in 1927 by Albert-René Biotteau, then 29, the grandson of a bootmaker and son of small industrialists, in France's Choletais shoe-making region near Cholet. The brand name itself dates to 1932, formed by reversing the first names of the founding couple, Albert-René and Marie-Josèphe (Biotteau-Guéry): 'Er' from René, 'Am' from Marie-Josèphe. The company's early product was the galoche, a leather-topped child's clog, and Biotteau built out factories at Saint-Pierre-Montlimart and Chalonnes-sur-Loire that together turned out roughly 2,500 pairs of shoes a day, making the Choletais region France's leading center for children's and volume-production footwear. In 1955, company engineer Paul Guéry patented the 'Plastifor' process, which injected plastic soles directly onto the shoe upper in a single mold, a manufacturing innovation for the French footwear industry. Groupe Eram remains a family-controlled French company built from that original Cholet workshop, now operating nationwide on the high street as a mid-market shoe retailer rather than a manufacturer of a single flagship line.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — French footwear from the Cholet family business, a high-street staple since 1927.
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