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With online shopping taking globalisation to a new level and everyone everywhere being able to buy everything everywhere, it’s increasingly important to offer something unique. This is particularly noticeable in the quality shoe sphere, where specific models exclusive to individual retailers are becoming more and more common.
Yesterday the legendary Swedish bespoke shoe and bootmaker Janne Melkersson sadly passed away. After over 45 years in the trade there wasn’t much about shoemaking he didn’t know, and he spent the last decades passing this knowledge on to others. A beloved man that will be truly missed.
There are many aspects favouring choosing traditionally constructed quality shoes – apart from the fact that they look nice and are of high quality. They are good for the animals, good for the environment, and produced in good working conditions. Shoegazing explains further.
The American boot and shoemaker D.W. Frommer sadly passed away this week, at the age of 76 after more then half a century in the trade. He has played an important role in the shoemaking community for decades, not least in his work with passing shoemaking knowledge on globally through his books and work online.
In today’s day and age, people do their best to remove any type of hurdles and make ones existence as smooth and comfortable as possible. This goes for footwear as well, where the “soft and flexible” take over everything from classic RTW to bespoke shoes. Thoughts on this development in today’s article.
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A lot has changed since I first started Shoegazing almost ten years ago, things that both makes it easier and more difficult to run a niche blog like this. Here’s a reflection covering things like how to keep integrity, on handling threats of being sued, on finding topics to write about, and much more.
Covid has hit the business of quality shoes hard, where most have struggled and a few companies has fallen. Now reports from many different areas of the segment states that things are looking a whole lot better now, for many things are back to where things were before Covid, and hopefully the shoe business can soon leave all this behind.
In recent years we’ve seen an increasing amount of sales in the section of quality welted footwear. Something that once was a rare sight is now the norm, and albeit retailers and brands obviously have their part, a lot comes down to customer behaviour and how people rather “make a steal” and buy a bunch of pairs on sale than get what they really want and need at full price. This new environment is putting many retailers and brands at serious strain, where some go under. If you really want to support a retailer or a brand – buy full price.
In today’s day and age we see a trend where brands “take home” a larger part of the sales and sell directly to consumers through their own stores and webshop, and cut back on retailers. It may seem clever and logic, since a larger part of the margin can be kept for the manufacturer, but one should not underestimate what having good retailers can bring to the table. Thoughts on this in today’s article.
As we head towards one year living under the shadow of a pandemic, it becomes increasingly clear that the quality shoe business is one of the production industries that suffers hard. Now, if ever, is the time for all of us who enjoy great shoes to do all we can to support the brands and retailers that we love, and make those purchases that may prove crucial to save jobs or even whole companies. Read about why the coming months and what we do now will be so important.
