Hmmmm….this topic is very interesting to me and while I cannot speak to it from experience or even long term observation, I can think of at least a couple of companies that have experienced what Ken outlines here. I heard the term, “going back to our roots” a lot throughout last year, and it makes sense. I guess from my point of view the key when growing a business is not to leave those roots to begin with. It doesn’t mean you can’t expand, but a company should always remember to focus on what gave them the success in the first place. Seems like common sense right?? I guess not always….. -Julia

The Predictable Life of a Shoe Company

History repeats itself.   Never is this more true than in the shoe business.   Just as we humans divide our lives into pre-school, tween, teen, newly married, career, parent, etc…A shoe company also compartmentalizes its existence:  Brand building, organic growth, lifestyle brand,  license partner, retailer, and finally going back to our roots.   I have been wanting to write this article for at least one year but a recent article in Footwear News about a certain President of a certain niche product going through these “stages” told me it was time.

Brand Building:  This is when the brand starts to get recognized.   It begins in small retailers, and after some success, begins to look to “appropriate points of  distribution” to expand.   The founder may hire a CEO to “take the brand to the next level”.   Salesmen are added and some marketing begins in Footwear News.   The brand is getting noticed.

Organic Growth:   I was never really sure of what this term meant, but I have heard plenty of CEO’s use it.   Growth begins to happen and all of a sudden, the same NYC and Boston retailers who are always quoted in Footwear News begin to mention the brand under :”what’s selling” in the industry rags.   Around this time, a President is hired who was most recently the President in a clothing company.   Time to move on to the next stage.

Lifestyle Brand:   What a wonderful term!   Now that we have enjoyed success and we are being spoken about, our new President says that we must expand footwear categories to become a lifestyle brand.   Perhaps we were once known for dress shoes.   Now, we are adding product categories like boat shoes, wedges, winter boots, sandals, etc.   We are now covering all categories in a persons “lifestyle”.   Last but not least, we will add kids shoes.  Just makes sense!

License Partner:  Things are going very well.   We have now expanded our distribution to the “majors”.   Too bad our original independents that were responsible for our growth have been shoved aside in favor of the bigger fish.   It is time we hire a Vice-President of strategic license partners.   Now that we are a full fledged lifestyle brand, it is time to expand into categories that make sense.   We start with clothes, then handbags, small leather goods, luggage, eye wear, watches, scents, and perhaps even furniture.  Our new VP used to work at Disney in their license department so this is going to be a great fit.

Retailer: We are now a lifestyle brand with many product extensions.   We open our first “shop in shop”.   We are profiled in Footwear News because our new CEO and President want to roll our concept out to all of customers.   Our new President was most recently the President of some thousand door chain that is mall based.   Perfect fit once again.   After we open 5 shop in shops, we open our new retail space in SOHO in Manhattan with 5 more locations planed in Chicago, LA, Dallas, Miami, and Dubai.   The major retailers are not really happy about this but hey, we are giving our customers what they want.

Going Back to our Roots: Well, we grew too quickly.   The retail stores did not perform and since we signed the leases when the brand was really hot, we paid too much.   None of the licenses really made sense so we ceased cooperation.  The majors hit a bump in the economy and the amount of mark down money and margin money began to choke us.   Our orders for the next season are in peril.   Our management team has all been replaced and the founder of the company is stepping back into to run the company.  It is at this point, you hear the words, “we are going back to our roots”, we are going back to what we know….the dress shoe business.   We start calling on the original independents that built the brand.   They have moved on, just as the brand did from them.

And so it goes…again and again…year after year….company after company.

I have a suggestion for every company that knows first hand about what I am writing about; focus on the product!   You will make more money and save a lot of legal fees when you have to fire the management team!

Ken Proctor
Front Man – Dad
Twig Footwear, LLC
c: 501.276.0140
e: Ken@twigfootwear.com
 www.twigfootwear.com