Footwear Retailer of the month
Cheryl Taylor talks to Bernard O’Brien of Luke O’Brien Shoes, To Be Shoer Q&A:
1. How did you get into footwear? T
Name: Bernard O’Brien Shop(s): Luke O’Brien Shoes To Be Shoer Brands: Clarks, Startrite, UKD, Hotter, Hush Puppies, Geox, Lelli Kelly, French Mode, Susst, Dubarry. Van Dal. And a whole load more !!!!!! Home town: Tuam. Co. Galway. ROI. Family: Married to Susie, daughters Aisling and Siofra and one son, Stephen. Contact Details: Tel: 00350 9324326 Web:
www.obrientobeshoer.com
ell us about your background and your current business?
Destiny really. My dad, who started his own retail business in 1941, had “and Son” over the door before I came home from the hospital. I hated the shop as a young teenager, all I wanted to do was to ride horses. Being born into retail with four sisters and no brothers, it was “expected” that I would take over the business, however , no one bothered to ask me. I ran away from retail in 1977, just 17 years old, and worked in the north of Ireland in the East Down Foxhounds Hunt Kennels. This was paradise for me, being paid to do what I loved doing. My dad got a heart attack the following year and I was offered the opportunity to come home, which I did. When I did return, one of the first things I did was spend three weeks in Street, doing the Clarks “sons and daughters” course, this was probably the launching of my passion for fitting and was a VERY beneficial, parts of it should mandatory for staff selling shoes to-day. I became very aware of the need for properly fitted footwear and when I saw an ad. for the SSF and immediately signed up for the course, that was 1984, little did I know then that I would become President a number of years later. I genuinely cannot understand why more retailers are not members of the SSF, it has been a great help to me and has boosted my business. Our business is a three gender family shoe shop which caters for the local population and surrounding area. What we are doing now is very difficult, i.e. trying to supply footwear for such a range of tastes, this currently being changed. One cannot be all things to all men/women. I still take the opportunity to visit and tour shoe factories , last year I got the “grand tour” of Loakes and Ivor Tilly’s factory, which enhances the fact that you can learn something new every day. Too many people in the retail shoe trade wouldn’t know a toe puff or a heel stiffener from an elephant’s foot. We get customers from all over the province and I get a thrill when a mum says that she has travelled 40 or 50 miles to get their children’s feet fitted properly.
20 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • FEBR2011
MAY UARY 2012
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