Footwear Insight

Valley Sole, Huntsville, AL It's up and down. We'll have a great day, then an okay one — and okay is the new good. My doors are open and we're paying all the bills, so that's good. On Running and Birkenstock are our lifesavers right now, and Naot's important. Category-wise, that's what we already would have been expecting, but there's more customers for those two brands. Dress shoes are dead in the water right now, unless somebody has a wedding. But it's never been a significant category for us, so we're not feeling that as much. This is when we should have started our preseason buying, and we're keeping it real tight. Julie [Pierce, co-owner and McGinness' daughter] calls the extras the "fluff" — we canceled the fluff. It's tricky: If we get the vaccine and masks go away, people will want the fluff. But we'll order the basics and we can fill in a few fun things later. We're keeping it pretty tight and conservative. But everything's on social media: Julie really stepped up. I would have hibernated, to be honest with you, but she jumped in there and said, "We're gonna figure this out." It's a whole different landscape out there right now; people are actually watching their Facebook and Instagram videos and opening up their emails to watch the videos. Julie has a huge following. Back in March when she started this, I wasn't sure, but then the next day we had several customers come in and say, "I watched Julie's video and I want that shoe." So we're just preaching, "Thank you so much for shopping family owned and local," and more than ever, we're reinforcing that message. —Holly McGinness, owner Eneslow Foot Comfort Center, New York, NY Running and walking is the key category — we're doing whatever business there is there. We have an older population who want walking shoes, and we had much more demand for walking comfort sandals. New Balance, Hoka, Birkenstock and On Running were the top brands, and Finn Comfort in sandals. We're also doing orthotics. That part of the business is at least working together. There's no dress shoe business — it's only need-based at this point, and people are very specific in what they need. In our Midtown Manhattan store, it's a ghost town. We're still 75 percent down: The office building we're in is completely unoccupied. In our suburban stores, it's down 60 percent and again, it's only the need-based customers. Other than filling in basics, we canceled every order and stopped as many spring buys as we could. We're working with vendors in every single case. We're going to be 90 percent existing inventory. Athletic vendors are the only ones we reordered and filled in; our open-to-buy is 10 percent of what it's normally for fall. I would think that spring '21 might have a little bit of a bump, but it will fall '21 when we will see a real recovery, when the vaccines and other things get into gear. One of the things we hope will happen is people will want a new pair of shoes to go out for dinner or lunch, to freshen up. —Robert Schwartz, president Brown's Shoe Fit Co., Fort Collins, CO I ' v e b e e n i n t h e b u s i n e s s f o r 40-something years, and I've never seen anything like this. We've relied on core business more, but it's been tightened a little bit. Running and walking styles from Hoka One One, New Balance footwearinsight.com August 2020 ~ Footwear Insight • 15 Skip Chandler, Chandler's Walk Shoppe, Salt Lake City, Utah Holly McGinness, Valley Sole, Huntsville, Alabama In years past, turn, margin and volume were more important. This season is all about coming out as clean as possible.

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