“Born in a shoe box” Thorsten Ludwig offers more than 25 years of active experience
in the sport & footwear retail, sales management and manufacturer industry.

After working more than five years as a store manager in his parents retail shoe stores
and several other shoe stores in North Germany he moved to Bavaria in 1989,
working as an area manager for ESPRIT® Footwear. In summer 1990 Thorsten Ludwig
was recruited by the biggest Danish shoe manufacturer ECCO®.

During his seven years with ECCO®, he managed Bavaria very successfully.
Starting with two clients, he provided more than 120 retailer in the shoe- and sporting goods retail at the end.

In 1996, two years after the apartheid ended, Thorsten Ludwig went to South Africa to take care of the new business development for several luxury brands.
He finally got the licence of the Baywatch TV serial for several product lines for South Africa.
After a split with his local partner in SA he went back to Germany in 1997
For eight years he has been working with W.L. Gore & Associates, based in the European Headquarter in Munich. During the first three years as a sales and marketing manager for GORE-TEX® Footwear in the D/A/CH Region, he developed and implemented new marketing strategies, helped customers to strengthen their GORE-TEX® product lines and increased sales up to 30%.

Since 2001, his commitment was to develop and coordinate the online marketing and communication plan for Europe.
His key responsibilities were to develop the European online marketing strategies for the power brands GORE-TEX® and WINDSTOPPER® products for functional clothing & footwear and ensure, that these strategies support the overall corporate goals to increase brand awareness and sales.
Furthermore, Thorsten Ludwig developed and launched the B2B and B2C platforms for D/A/CH, UK, Italy, Sweden, France and Spain.
Leading these pan European projects meant, working in close cooperation with Gore’s American Headquarter in Delaware, US.

After eight years experience with a global supplier of functional textiles he was looking for new challenges in a more end-consumer related business.

In October 2005 Thorsten Ludwig founded his own Sales Agency Arktos Consulting.

In 2006 together with a team of ambitious sales agents for Germany and Austria, Arktos Consulting offers a stage for brands who want to grow in the German speaking area or intend to enter this valuable market.
In 2007 Thorsten Ludwig founded "2 Seen Sales Agency" to serve luxury brands such as JOOP! Shoes or ZIPPO Bags.
In 2009 Arktos Consulting moved over from Raucherberg Estate to Diessen and started shipping of Feelmax products to the German and Austrian retail.
In 2009 after bankcuptcy of the Goldpfeil Group and the loss of the Brand JOOP! Shoes  "2 Seen Sales Agency" closed down.
In 2010 Arktos Consulting has been appointed as an distributor for Feelmax products.
From this time on Arktos Consulting is devided in 3 departments:
Arktos Consulting - Distribution & Import of Feelmax® Shoes and Toe Socks
Arktos Sales - General Agency & Full Concept Service
Arktos Internet Services - Multishop e-Commerce

In 2010 Feelmax Oy the owner of Feelmax® Shoes run into bankruptcy
In 2011 Thorsten Ludwig founded the Minimal Footwear brand Sole Runner®