partenopean
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2016
- Messages
- 159
- Reaction score
- 133
Let's be honest, there's no market for these brands here as much as we SFer like to believe. That's why stores like Leather Foot went out of business.
I respectly disagree.
Leatherfoot was odd from the get-go. I was there several times in 2013 and 2014, and spent several hours with the owner (the Nigerian gentleman) as well as their salesman Arnie / Arne (?) and the saleslady (Nicki?).
The salespeople were idiots. They had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. They assumed their customer was also an idiot with no knowledge of any shoes brands, manufacturing methods, or traditions, other than the mass-market, Euronext-list company crap that was sold in the neighborhood at Renfrew or Harry Rosen.
Arnie was up on the whatever the blogs were recommending (like polishing shoes with whiskey) and handling wildlife photography-grade SLR cameras to photograph shoes....so they knew how to make the Internet community feel at home in their store.
However, if you had moved to Toronto from the UK after wearing Church's through school (and sometimes in university), as well as your first job in the City, you were genuinely horrified.
The owner struck me as independently wealthy, and without any interest in the business, though he, unlike Arnie, was clearly familiar with the various classic brands.
Someone told me they opened a leatherfoot in Dubai????! Like, what???? Was the owner based there?
They moved from that Yorkville balcony, to that house on the west side of Avenue Road....I went there looking for some Aldens, they had disappeared by then....
There are something always odd about that place. I can't put my finger on it. But like Hazelton V....something wasn't right.
Nicolas, however, on the other hand.....it is scary how well he knows his stuff (and how quickly he can size up a customer....)