Neat Shoes

During this morning's perusal of the news,  a multimedia article from New York Times,  "Fashion on the Street - Some Imagination".  It's a multimedia slide show, so may take some time to load all the photos, you may see blank screen while the narrator/author Bill Cunningham describes what he sees.

While everyone's expecting a down year in the footwear industry, it's interesting to note that some companies are experiencing record sales or up years. Again, the key is to produce something that people want.  Fashion shoes are by and large an emotional purchase, and how those shoes are designed and marketed plays a big part in a brands success.

Those of us in the footwear industry do tend to complain, you rarely hear a person say "It's been great, never better"  always "Business is tough, hard to make anything"

And I've never met a factory owner who didn't complain the factory was loosing money.  Even when the factory was at capacity.

My feeling is, now's not the time to get too conservative. You're product becomes a commodity,  Every one's knocking off 9 West's pointed toe pumps, Expect to see all the mass market retailers with the same silhouette next fall.  How about using some imagination and trying something different?

Sure the consumer is in "pullback and retrench"  right now, but human nature being what it is, I suspect by this fall the consumer will get tired of being tight fisted, and splurge a bit. 

The past is done, the present is here, now it's time to look to the future. Wether we look at it positively or with an attitude of gloom and doom, can influence what happens next. Sort of the self-fulfilling prophesy philosophy.

My rant for today, thank you very  much for listening.