Footwear Insight

18 • Footwear Insight ~ January/February 2023 footwearinsight.com Bruce Wesley, Wesley's Shoes, with- Mary Frances Veeck, wife of former Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck. "Variety is a particular challenge for brick-and- mortar stores, and it's a fine line we walk to ensure that we have sizes and widths in options to accommodate every foot. struggles with narrow feet, and they feel like the footwear manufacturers have abandoned their shoe needs. We are seeing fewer options for our narrow-feet customers. To overcome this challenge, we attend buying market conferences at least twice a year to search for new options and remain a loud voice for our customers in need. We inten- tionally seek out conversations with shoe manufacturers to express our customer's needs, concerns, and goals for the future." — Rodger Sieb, Esmond's Shoes "Product availability still continues to be one of our primary challenges, especially wider widths. We continue to look towards other brands to fill holes and offer products that work for our customers. We are working with our existing vendors developing better working relationships." — Brian Ferguson, e Foot Performance Center "Variety is a particular challenge for brick-and-mortar stores, and it's a fine line we walk to ensure that we have sizes and widths in options to accommodate every foot. Notice how we used the word 'options.' There are oen multiple avenues we could go down in helping someone find their perfect fit, but having 'options' is not the same thing as having end- less styles and colors. Sometimes it's hard to explain that on the fitting stool — we just don't have that shade of indigo in the stockroom, and to order it in, it might take 10 business days. So, if a customer's heart is set on indigo and two-day shipping, we lose them to an online purchase." — Lauren Klapper, Shoe Fly Things Are Looking Up "[For us], women's apparel sales are up significantly. Craig from Craig's Shoes here in Chicago suggested we try giving women's apparel a significant part of our sales floor. We love the margins, and it brings in an entirely different audience. Ironically some days I forget that we are a shoe store. Also, our athletic footwear business has been incredible. I'm also excited to find new lines that fit into the formula that has been working: Euro Comfort & Fashionable. Price is our least concern. I subscribe to the fact that it's easier to sell a $395 shoe than it is to sell a $39.90 shoe! Here's why: e $395 shoe probably has lots of features like Gore-Tex, calfskin leather or kidskin leather, better support, light weight, and most of all...it fits like a glove. It's the same effort and time you would use to sell a $39.90 shoe which probably has very few features, and you are competing against Amazon, DSW and even Walmart. So why not carry the best stuff? I always encourage our team to bring out the most expensive items and work down. We are in the early stages of plan- ning a relocation of our store within the same shopping center. e new location is only about 30 yards away from our current storefront, however it will provide us with double the selling space and double the inventory space. Most importantly, it will give us better street exposure and we will be prime to get impulse shoppers from traffic flow from Trader Joe's and Walgreens. Our target date is spring 2024." — Bruce Wesley, Wesley's Shoes "In 2022, Shoe Fly opened a new Appalachian Running Company (AppRunCo) store in Camp Hill. AppRunCo is Shoe Fly's sister athletic company and we're working hard to expand and build our brand. We've enjoyed working with new and smaller vendors to fill gaps in our inventory that the supply chain/ COVID issues brought about. We've added new brands and styles that we're excited to showcase in the spring and fall. is year, we're optimistic about growing both brands — Shoe Fly and AppRunCo — and expanding our selection across all 16 doors." — Lauren Klapper, Shoe Fly Ready For Anything Shoe Fly, Homestead, PA. I am very optimistic about the footwear industry in 2023. Inflation and potential recession conditions are undoubtedly a concern, but shoes and boots are never not needed."

• Cover