MISFIT
Misfit Darwin
changed the way we see the universe was a man of sense who cared more for his feet than his studies. In fact he was reckoned by his teachers to be a pretty poor student, which tells us that if you get a job applicant with a first class degree, think hard before you give him a job He was evidently a man who got his priorities right.
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He realised you can pick up a book any old time and put it down again if you are thus inclined but you won’t go far without your shoes on. Darwin must have done a considerable mileage on his feet looking at species, so it was important he got the shoes right from the word go. The man must have walked thousands of miles in
the course of his research, which he could not have done in cheap uncomfortable footwear. So it is thanks to some anonymous Cambridge shoemaker that we see the world the way it is today. Darwin’s forte was attention to the minutiae of life.
In other words, retail is detail which we have always known. It is a pity he (Darwin that is) did not apply his brain to the world of economics. We might not be in the mess we are today. Some little time back I remarked that the credit crunch had not affected Misfit Shoes unduly, and I have to report that sales are still holding up, if not well, at least adequately. The reason, I am convinced, is that we have for a long time specialised in wide fitting shoes, so our clientele tends to be middle class, middle income, middle aged and middle market. Chatting with the customers, something we all ought to do – it is called market research – I discovered one reason why we seem to be bucking the trend. They are despondent and depressed as they see their pensions being battered and their savings destroyed by the inflation which is obviously going to be the result of the government’s reckless borrowing. The result of this shell shock is a fatalism and a determination to spend and enjoy what is left of their
10 • FOOTWEAR TODAY •MAY 2009
t is reported that Charles Darwin spent more on his boots than his books when he was a student at Cambridge. Which is important. It shows that the man who
DARWIN MUST
HAVE DONE A CON- SIDERABLE MILEAGE ON HIS FEET
LOOKING AT SPECIES, SO IT WAS
IMPORTANT HE GOT THE SHOES RIGHT FROM THE WORD GO
capital while they still have it, which coupled with the lift that buying new clothing brings, wafts them through our door. It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, but it is an ill wind none the less. Just how long we will go on enjoying the sunshine while the gale blows in the rest of the world, who knows, so maybe we are living in a fools’ paradise, but there isn’t much I can do about it – I’m not going to refuse to take their money, am I? Just how to cope with the credit crunch, recession or whatever you want to call it is something that must be exercising all our minds. It calls for innovative thinking, which, as most of us are not geniuses, means looking around to see what other people and trades do and adapting (heaven forbid I should use the word copying) their ideas. One that comes immediately to mind is bogof – buy one get one free. This certainly moves the stock in supermarkets and seems to be compulsory to get a “free” spare pair when you go to the optician. This prompted a lady of my acquaintance to demand a discount for not taking the second pair. Not every member of the public is as gullible as the marketing men think. We have for a long time given a spiff for multiple
pair sales, and I wonder if the customer should not get a reward for buying more than one pair as well as our staff. Maybe a free pair of slippers with every pair might pay off, but I have a nasty feeling that could just be throwing money away. On the other hand some customers might be tempted by the idea of stocking up on standards, like men’s business shoes, so it could be worth a try. One thing we could consider is how we arrange our in-shop displays. Most of us try to arrive at a pleasing array of styles and colours and that’s it. Your supermarket is more subtle; they put the items they want to sell you where your eye lights on them automatically such as at eye level. They put the itms you will buy anyway where you have to look for them. Food for thought there. Another thought. Accessories, polishes, dusters,
shoe trees. We train our staff to suggest these after the decision to buy a pair of shoes, so why not put a few of them discreetly in the window and around the in-shop display? Can’t do any harm. Another thing worth exploring is giving a voucher
for a discount off the next purchase which could make sure they come back to you and not go to your competitors, and selling gift vouchers must make sense. And of course the internet. If Amazon are selling
shoes it must be eating into our sales. Every pair they sell is one we don’t. It is no use refusing to stock brands Amazon sell, that would be cutting off the nose to spite the face, but one does wonder if the brand managers concerned know what they are doing. The same goes for the cheapo chains. It is no good
saying they are selling junk made by slaves at silly prices, whether or not that be true. Every pair they sell is one we don’t. In any case most of us don’t have the buying power they do, so it goes without saying that trading down is not going to pay off. By the way, Darwin never had a job in his life. He inherited money. There’s a moral in there somewhere - I wish I could find it.
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