Page 32 - Shoeman no ch 1

28 Shoeman
I should have contacted him. Dexter did have a bonus. Their sales and buying team came to the UK and Sylvia entertained them to dinner at Billing, which was a way of repaying their kindness in entertaining me.
LEATHER STACK HEELS
This was a men’s fashion theme with high heels and re ected a desire to have natu- ral-looking material in the product. It all started in 1973 and probably, because of its speci cation made it expensive, it faded away after a year or so. The shoe had a heel of leather and a leather sole. These were nished with a sealant that contained no colour. The uppers were of full grain light-colour leather to blend with the sole and heel. The last had an extreme waist curvature to match the heel and a bold toe shape. It was necessary to have specialised components. The biggest problem was the heel supply. To make a leather heel the lifts or pieces are stapled together then put into a forming mould under pressure from side and top which maintains their shape. Most heel suppliers in the UK did not have the correct shape moulds and didn’t want to invest. Through the commercial of ce at the French Embassy I did locate a heel maker in Fougere in the shoe area of Brittany and he had no problem in making a product in the required pairage at a good price. This was the start of Maunoir supplying us initially with heels and then heel blocks for PVC injection-moulded heels to the vol- ume of 15,000 a week. We sent our truck to Fougere every fortnight which was the cheapest form of transport.
Anyway, back to the stack heel fashion..... As we were now able to meet demands with the volume, we may well have been the principal suppliers to the market. Our customers were the British Shoe Corporation through Saxone, Dolcis and Man eld – their higher grade fashion outlets – who could get the higher prices. This was good business when it came to sales gures. The volume of business, particularly in stack heels, enabled me to realise that volume speaks power. As a consequence, Maunoir was the rst company to agree to us being their only customer in the UK.
COWBOY BOOTS
The fashion for cowboy boots started in 1976. To be authentic the product needs leather stack heels, natural colour sole, and a rugged looking light-coloured upper. We had all the tooling knowledge and sourcing experience through previously pro- ducing stack-heel shoes. I had a bit of luck in researching the upper leather. In conver- sation with a leather supplier from Nottingham, I realised they had big stocks of real camel leather with a limited market. The advantages were its low price, rugged and natural appearance, and it was very resistant to damage. The disadvantages were it was in inconsistent-sized pieces – about a quarter of the leather size we normally cut. As we had large patterns there was a waste factor and required patience and skill to cut to the costing.
Our main customer was Brooks Boots in London. A young man named Brooks owned this small company with the right contacts and the ideal salesman’s person- ality. Needless to say, we did have to watch his cash ow, but he wanted the boots. Another advantage is that they were all made in the UK with a very rapid supply line. The cowboy boot theme developed with us as we designed a PVC moulded product