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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.
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The tougher the competition gets – the more doubtful the marketing gets. One of the things that brands tend to use more and more in this day and age is dropping numbers on how long it takes to make the shoes, how long time that have been spent to develop new models, and similar. Numbers that are extremely exaggerated compared to reality.
People often talk about how things were better before, and about the many challenges around today for the quality shoe industry (I’m definitely one of them). But if we zoom out a bit, it’s a fact that today is a golden age to be interested in quality shoes, in all price ranges, from €150 Goodyear welted to €4,000 full bespoke, the options and quality-price ratio available is better than in a long, long time.
There’s branches of people within “the classic shoe world” who are skeptical against factory-made Goodyear welted shoes in general and all types of shortcuts from making “the best shoes possible”, which ideally would be fully handmade bespoke of absolute best quality. Thing is, this industry, all of it, needs to have those who take these shortcuts – here’s why.
An increasing amount of new brands are introduced which all market themselves as offering shoes comparable to much higher-priced shoes, since they “cut out the middlemen”. This, is more or less just false advertising. These brands themselves are the middleman, and the difference in actual margins compared to the traditional quality shoe brands are small – if any. Here’s why.
It’s certainly a special spring that we all have been through. The impact that the coronavirus has had on the whole society is huge, and for an industry like the manufacturing of quality shoes, it’s meant a whole new reality. Here’s an overview of what has happened to this industry this far, and some thoughts on what might come next.
