Harrydog
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2006
- Messages
- 658
- Reaction score
- 52
There are a number of shoe enthusiasts here at SF - just peruse the various maker appreciation threads to get a sense of the passion for shoes that some of our members have.
I am struck, however, by how narrow the high end market must be here in the US. For example, Skyvalet in DC is running a sale on their Edward Green and have substantial size runs in numerous styles. True, the Dover is sold out, but clearly Skyvalet stocked and was not able to move Edward Green all that well in DC (and that includes e-retail as well). In my neck of the woods, Fairfield county CT, a local small haberdashery that does most of its business in MTO (Samuelsohn figuring prominently) stocked EG and they haven't moved well at all. Down the way in Westport, Mitchell's (recently acquired Wilkes-Bashford) had some EG at one point, put in a few C&J handgrade, but the bulk of what they carry is To Boot NY, Santoni, Ferragamo, Gucci. Their only high end is Bontoni. Now this is a store that stocks clothing lines from Brioni, Isaia, Zegna etc. It is also a major NYC suburb on the I-95 commuter line. As a final bit of investigation, I looked at the trunk show schedule of stores across the country hosting Samuelsohn (what I take to be a mid-range MTO option) and then went to websites of the various stores. On the whole, the high end shoe on offer was Alden or AE.
Now to be sure, NYC is a good market. Leffot hardly ever has my size in stock. I assume Leathersoul is doing well in LA. In Hawaii, I wonder how much of their market comes from Japanese visitors. In other cities, I don't even know where one would go to get the kind of high end shoes that figure in our threads. Boston? Chicago? (Paul Stuart I suppose).
Based on SF, I'd open a store, call it the Galway, and stock it with every possible Galway and Shannon combination. Think that would work?
No real point here other than an observation as to how exceptional and unique the interests and passions of many of the folks here at SF are.
I am struck, however, by how narrow the high end market must be here in the US. For example, Skyvalet in DC is running a sale on their Edward Green and have substantial size runs in numerous styles. True, the Dover is sold out, but clearly Skyvalet stocked and was not able to move Edward Green all that well in DC (and that includes e-retail as well). In my neck of the woods, Fairfield county CT, a local small haberdashery that does most of its business in MTO (Samuelsohn figuring prominently) stocked EG and they haven't moved well at all. Down the way in Westport, Mitchell's (recently acquired Wilkes-Bashford) had some EG at one point, put in a few C&J handgrade, but the bulk of what they carry is To Boot NY, Santoni, Ferragamo, Gucci. Their only high end is Bontoni. Now this is a store that stocks clothing lines from Brioni, Isaia, Zegna etc. It is also a major NYC suburb on the I-95 commuter line. As a final bit of investigation, I looked at the trunk show schedule of stores across the country hosting Samuelsohn (what I take to be a mid-range MTO option) and then went to websites of the various stores. On the whole, the high end shoe on offer was Alden or AE.
Now to be sure, NYC is a good market. Leffot hardly ever has my size in stock. I assume Leathersoul is doing well in LA. In Hawaii, I wonder how much of their market comes from Japanese visitors. In other cities, I don't even know where one would go to get the kind of high end shoes that figure in our threads. Boston? Chicago? (Paul Stuart I suppose).
Based on SF, I'd open a store, call it the Galway, and stock it with every possible Galway and Shannon combination. Think that would work?
No real point here other than an observation as to how exceptional and unique the interests and passions of many of the folks here at SF are.
