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GOLD MEDAL SERVICE AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE // 2019 34 • Footwear Insight ~ September/October 2019 footwearinsight.com For 2019, twenty-three shops earned their first Gold Medal Service Awards — our largest group since the inaugural class. We're looking forward to many more. FRESHMAN CLASS Ahh Comfort Shoes Arlington Heights, IL Alec's Shoe Store Nashua, NH Becker's Best Shoes Mount Dora, FL Brooks Shoes for Kids Santa Monica, CA Eneslow Shoes & Orthotics New York, NY Esmond's Shoes Richmond, IN Felgers's Footwear Houma, LA Foot Solutions Columbia Columbia, SC For Your Toes and Feet Houston, TX Harry's Shoes New York, NY InStep Austin, TX Little's Shoes Pittsburgh, PA Molly's Sarasota, FL On the Run San Francisco, CA Peterson Shoes Anoka, MN Shoe Fly Harrisburg, PA Smith & Davis Clothing Fayetteville, GA Sole Provisions Wading River, NY Step Ahead Aiea, HI Ted's Shoe & Sport Keene, NH The Foot Performance Center Rochester, NY The Foot Store Mt. Pleasant, SC The Ultimate Foot Store Honolulu, HI F or Seattle's Market Street Shoes, giving back is fundamental to the mission. "I don't ever want to be parasitic, living in a community without finding a way to put [something] back in," Ryan Stauffer, who owns the two Market Street Shoes locations with his wife, Lanne Stauffer, said about the couple's ethos. And that give-back attitude is part of what earned them the Hoka One One Community Service Award for 2019 at the Gold Medal Service Awards. (The win also made them doubly victorious: Market Street Shoes was once again a Gold Medal Service Award recipient.) In 2013, Market Street led a coalition of local shop owners to create counterprogramming to the relentless drumbeat of Black Friday sales, creating "Ballard Gives Back," where shops pledge to donate money to local causes for holi- day weekend sales in place of steep discounting. "We're selling quality product and exceptional service and don't need to discount — so let's do something different," Stauffer said they thought. The initiative has raised thousands of dollars since its inception. Last year, the store chose United Indians of All Tribes Labateyah Youth Home, which provides safe housing for home- less Native youth as its recipient. This year the Stauffers will be continuing the tradition, donat- ing $5 for each footwear or apparel article sold. And Lanne Stauffer said that they have reclaimed events that have become an excuse for a sale — Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Veteran's Day, for example — as new ways to connect to the origi- nal spirit of the holidays, donating 20 percent of sales to locally rooted organizations like the Seattle chapter of the NAACP and Seattle Stand Down, which works to assist homeless veterans. The Stauffers said the approach has been embraced by their customers, who see it as an extension of the same principles of service the brand brings to the fitting stool. "It's our community, right? It's important to serve your community in whatever way it speaks to you," Ryan Stauffer said. — By Jennifer Ernst Beaudry MARKET STREET SHOES: SERVICE IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD Ryan and Lanne Stauffer, Market Street Shoes, Hoka One One Community Service Award winners.