Life is a journey where the people you meet are collected along the way, forming a long reel of characters that increases as the years go by. Some play starring roles for decades; others are those select few whom you meet once but never forget. There are far more who come in and out of your life like cameos and eventually fade into a cast of thousands of faceless extras.
Our country’s primary colors are red, white and blue. Our two major political parties’ primary colors are red (Republicans) and blue (Democrats) and, for too long, there’s been zero mixing of the two. The primary colors of our industry, year in and year out, are black and brown. However, some primary colors for Fall ’12 look to be jewel tones, such as burgundy, saffron and emerald. The primary color of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is—well, if milquetoast is a color, then I’d vote for that. The primary color of Newt Gingrich is muddy.
IF THE POPULARITY of certain TV shows is a strong indication of what Americans are really interested in, then recent cable ratings say a whole lot about what the country is really into right now. It boils down to one word: stuff. Be it old stuff, forgotten stuff, antique stuff, junky stuff, possibly valuable stuff, icky stuff, some really big stuff and, ultimately, what to do with all that stuff. Our country is awash in a sea of stuff. Why else would reality shows like American Pickers, Pawn Stars and Storage Wars consistently rank in the top 10, week after week?
The work boot. The cowboy boot. The go-go boot. The sheepskin boot. The logger boot. The biker boot. The riding boot, the desert boot and the all-theway-to-the-moon boot. The rock star of footwear silhouettes is undoubtedly the boot, especially when you throw in the Beatle boot and the classic 1460 by Dr. Martens—the standard uniform of punk and heavy metal bands for decades.
Protesting might be the new black, but that doesn’t mean it’s wearing well.
He who hesitates is lost.
Many a footwear company has fallen victim to the aforementioned phrase, which can also fall under the guise of resting on one’s laurels or getting soft. And then there are those companies that reach a certain girth and become too big to move. The nimble nature that brought them to the forefront is replaced by a big-business mentality that is counterproductive—and demoralizing—to
the entrepreneurs that got the company off the ground.
Ever since life after the Great Financial Collapse was dubbed the “new normal” by pundits and adopted by millions of confused and rattled-to-the-core consumers, the sad reality is that there’s little normalcy in this new landscape. It’s so disturbing, perplexing and rapidly changing that if your head is not spinning by now, it might be because you’ve stuck it into the sand.
I’m the one who asks the questions. For more than 20 years as a working journalist, I’ve been the interviewer and, with respect to my tenure at Footwear Plus, it’s been in search for answers to help readers better understand the latest goings-on in our industry as well as to get to know the people behind the brands and storefronts. The selling of shoes is a people business, and learning about the individuals can only be of help. Beyond that, it’s fascinating to learn where people come from—literally and figuratively.
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