Footwear_Aug09_p10:FOOTWEAR NEW TEMPLAT 10 08 20/07/2009 13:18 Page 10
MISFIT
world than people want to buy, which puts GM, who
make average cars at above average prices, in an
extremely awkward position.
Misfit
But General Motors is an icon, and the trouble with
being an icon is you get worshipped and cared about.
So you are not really a free agent, particularly when
you have taken gold from the government, that
organisation with an exemplary business record. who
can be relied to keep you on life support.
Compare General Motors with Clarks. Both similar
cases. For GM read Clarks, for Detroit read Street.
Clarks found they could not sell their products in the
face of foreign competition, so what did they do? Did
they go cap in hand to the government? If they did
GM
they got a very short answer – if you can’t make
shoes profitably down there in Street, then tough.
They saw the way the wind was blowing and
trimmed their sails accordingly. They reckoned that if
you couldn’t beat the Brazilians and the Indians and
the Chinese and the Indonesians and the Vietnamese
(apologies to anyone I’ve missed out) then the time
A
s I write this the news has come through that
had come to join them. They reduced their own
General Motors has gone into administration
THERE ARE LOTS OF
production and started to get shoes made to their
they used to say that what was good for
own strict specifications wherever in the world it was
General Motors was good for America, which
PEOPLE IN THE UK
cheaper, with the result that there are still Clarks
says a lot for the state of America today, because if
outlets across the country, even though the shoes are
General Motors is bankrupt, than the USA must be
WHO WOULD NOT
regrettably no longer made in Street. But what about
likewise, except that it is still there trading away, so it
Street? Is the town lying desolate? We stopped off
can’t be.
RECOGNISE ANY OF
there on our way back from holiday last year and it
Administration, note, not liquidation. Liquidation is
seemed a pretty prosperous place. Coach loads of
a treatment reserved for shoe people. When they run THE GREAT NAMES IN
people were coming from far and wide to spend their
out of road their debts are called in, and after the
money at the Clark’s Village outlet centre. You could
lawyers and accountants have had their modest THE ANCIENT JOKE
only just get into the car park.
whack and the assets have been sold off including
In short, Clarks adapted to changing circumstances,
their names, their creditors get tuppence in the
THAT SAID IF
as has the whole British shoe trade. Lots of chains
pound.
which people thought had been there for ever
Their names are then expunged from history. There
FREEMAN WAS MORE
disappeared and others took their place. The good
are lots of people in the UK who would not recognise
independents survived and prospered, the marginal
any of the great names in the ancient joke that said if
HARDY THAN WILLIS ones went to the wall and new ones opened up to
Freeman was more Hardy than Willis he’d get hold of
Lilley and Skinner and then show her his True Form.
HE’D GET HOLD OF
take up the slack. The whole pattern changed. Firms
like Top Shop and Next who had once thought shoes
No, if your company is so big that it cannot be
allowed to fail, or makes a product which is synony-
LILLEY AND SKINNER
were too complicated to bother about discovered
their customers wanted to buy them at the same
mous with your country, like Swissair or is in the
AND THEN SHOW HER
time as the rest of their outfits. Suddenly fashion
constituency of the right politician, then it goes not
companies like New Look and M & S became major
into liquidation but administration, while said lawyers
HIS TRUE FORM.
players on the shoe scene. Even Tesco and Asda and
and accountants, who are the fount of all wisdom,
Amazon got in on the act. So far Argos has kept out
work out what to do with it. Sometimes they save the
of the game, but don’t put money on things staying
enterprise, sometimes they don’t. Whatever happens
that way.
they get their cut.
And funnily enough, if you look around at peoples’
They call it restructuring. Bits are chopped off,
feet, as I am sure you do, you will see the widest
other bits are grafted on, until the day the firm is
variety of shoes on them that ever has been. No
pronounced whole again. Altogether a good thing,
longer can the head of the British Shoe Corporation
you say. The jobs of the workers have been saved,
boast that he was the man who decided what British
well, some of them, their suppliers and local firms
women would be wearing on their feet next season,
that depend on them are saved, Detroit does not sink
because the seasons are no longer so rigid, and there
into total barbarism and all is well.
are so many people operating within the British shoe
Until the next time, because what happened to GM
trade, so many different kinds of outlets, in fact the
did not come out of a clear blue sky. There was no
whole world coming here to try to sell us shoes, that
earthquake, no bolt from the blue. They have been
his boast which even then was proved hollow, would
chopping and grafting for years to no effect and we
today be laughable.
all know in our heart of hearts that this great
Never have there been so many ways to buy
company will eventually go the wall. Quite simply
shoes, and so many different styles waiting to be
they can make cars cheaper in the East and the
bought, or sold depending which way you are facing,
weight of the benefits negotiated in the good times if
than ever before.
they can’t be taken away will eventually sink the ship.
Whether this is a good or a bad thing I leave
In any case there are more cars being made in the
you to judge.
10
•
FOOTWEAR TODAY
•
AUGUST 2009
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