Editor’s Note

Better Days

There are days, and then there are days that feel like the End Times. Now, for example. Deadly hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires are just a

Who’s Next

Who’s the next up-and-comer destined to set the shoe world ablaze? The next Crocs, Uggs, Toms, Hunter, Merrell (Jungle Moc), Vibram FiveFingers, Hoka One One,

Smackdown

At what point is a brand’s product priced low enough these days? When it’s a steal—literally? Must the price be chopped so low that the

And So It Goes

The tectonic shifts rumbling through the retail landscape in the past year were earthshaking enough, but these past few weeks have created shockwaves on a

Looking for Good

Well, the latest quarterly sales reports came in and—surprise—department stores took another drubbing. The figures were “WannaCry”-like with comparable store sales down at J.C. Penney,

The Kingdom and the Power

If you took an informal poll of industry members right now, the overall sentiment would probably skew heavily negative. I’ve covered this industry for two

Another Brick in the Wall

To say things have been a bit strange lately would be an understatement of yuuuuge proportions. Society has reached a whole new level of odd,

The Dawn of a New Retail Age

Much continues to be written about the demise of brick-and-mortar retailing, department stores in particular. If you took many of the headlines at face value,

Old-School Remedies

Recently, a well-established independent retailer called me nearly at his wit’s end. He said the first few weeks of the holiday season had been especially

Unprecedented. Befuddling. Terrifying. Stunning. Disruptive. Ugly. Revolutionary. Deplorable. Unpredictable. Bat crap crazy… No, I’m not rehashing reactions to the presidential election. (Politics have no place

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