KEEP FEET FIT
National Shoe Fitting Week How the trade celebrated ‘Keep Feet ‘Fit’, commencing 25th March 2013 By Cheryl Taylor
campaign in her usual energetic style, brimming with enthusiasm and infectious ‘joie de vivre’. She is to be congratulated, bearing in mind the whole initiative cost less than £2,000, the amount of interest and feel good factor generated far exceeded expectation and the SSF has had several previous members returning to the organisation, as well as a greatly increased number of calls asking for assistance. Laura told Footwear Today: “Lots of shops benefitted and achieved tremendous coverage locally. Several appeared on local radio and got their local media involved - which is all good. For the first of, hopefully, many National Shoe Fitting Weeks and only £2,000 spent (which is a lot to the SSF, but nothing in real terms), it was a really good start and we need to use any feedback from members for next year. “This will now be an annual event taking place the week prior to Easter - which is of course a moveable feast. The event will take place from 14th April in 2014 and the best way to help ourselves as an industry is to join in and make every effort to shout about it. We are hoping the Society of Chiropodists & Podiatrists will join us in 2014 and that more suppliers will do their bit to help promote the event on behalf of their stockists, using their own advertising and PR contacts to garner support." Now is the time to contact Laura if you have any suggestions for next
N
year and make her aware if you are able to help in some way. If you are a supplier and would like Associate Membership - or a shop without a qualified member, now is the time to join up ready for next year.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the many exciting activities that helped mark National Shoe Fitting Week 2013:
North Shoes, Stamford, Peterborough and Bourne To celebrate National Shoe Fitting week, North Shoes, winner of the FIA Independent Family Footwear Retailer of the Year 2013 and Ladies Independent Footwear Retailer of the Year 2013, offered its customers the chance to win £100 to spend on children’s shoes. James North ran a Colouring Competition, which was open to children aged between 2 and 12 years old. Participants were asked to simply colour in the picture, while their parents filled out their contact details and returned them to one of their shops. SSF Posters were displayed on every shop door during ‘Keep Feet ‘Fit’ Week’. Congratulations to the winner Charlotte Hawtin, aged 7, from Peterborough. “Fantastic attention to detail and we loved the rainbow background…” All 80 of the entrants can be viewed on North Shoes’
Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/#!/
www.northshoes.co.uk/photos_stream
Klodhoppers, Hove and Haywards Heath, Sussex Klodhoppers celebrated ‘Keep Feet ‘Fit’ week with fun activities, free podiatry advice and discount vouchers. Kim Jackson organised a 'Hunt the Slipper contest’ – hiding the (plastic) shoe amongst the slat wall displays. The young participants were rewarded with sweets and chocolates from the Easter basket. She also ran a 'Design a Shoe Competition’ attracting many entries - the prize winner will be announced shortly.
6 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • MAY 2013
ational Shoe Fitting Week, launched under the banner ‘Keep feet ‘Fit’ on March 25th 2013, received a warm welcome from the footwear trade. Laura West, Secretary of the Society of Shoe Fitters led the lively
Their 'in-house' podiatrist Neeta Still, was a great hit, said Kim "She answered lots of foot health related enquiries during the two days she was with us (one day in the Hove shop and another in Haywards Heath). Customers have asked for more of these sessions and at other times of the day, so we are going to arrange some more sessions for the future, including after-school hours, in order to include older children. “We also gave out 10% discount vouchers to everyone who purchased during that week - these vouchers were valid for April to encourage them to come back for their next purchase, hopefully! Plus, several 'Golden Boot' (25% discount) tickets - 4 per day in each shop - which will give those customers a good discount on a future purchase. (This was done randomly for example, the customer who bought something closest to 12 noon, the customer who spent over £100, etc.).” Not bad for a first attempt! But, Kim maintains there’s a lot to build on, as she believes National Shoe Fitting Week has huge potential.
Charles Agers, Coventry Sue Atherton at Charles Agers in Coventry tried to think of ideas to run in store to support ‘Keep Feet Fit ‘week. Sue explains: “As an independent we wanted to get the message across of what we had to offer the people of Coventry. “I managed to get onto BBC Coventry and Warwickshire radio on the Anne Othen show, a live interview/discussion show. We discussed different areas of footwear and the importance of good shoe fitting for all ages, not just children, introducing National Shoe Fitting week. Charles Agers is well known in Coventry being established in 1840, but it was great to get some prime time radio coverage. “Our business is big on ‘Kids’. National Shoe Fitting week ran up to the Easter holidays in our area, Easter normally giving us a mini ‘Back to School’. This was a perfect opportunity to offer a competition, all the local infant/primary schools in Coventry were emailed with information and it was hoped that this would be good for networking. We had 2 lucky winners who can come in for fitting of their new shoes.” “It is difficult to measure the success of any advertising/promotional campaign especially in the challenging trading time that most retail stores are experiencing, but it is essential that we continue to drum the message home on the importance of sensible shoe fitting and where members of the Society of Shoe fitters fit into this.”
McKillens of Ballymena, Northern Ireland Renowned Northern Ireland footwear specialists, McKillens of Ballymena put on an impressive show for National Shoe Fitting Week. Mr. McKillen explained: "We enthusiastically followed the SSF idea of creating a National Fitting Week and advertised extensively in our local papers. We dressed all our window displays with the appropriate merchandise and had special posters developed to display all round the
store.In the store we had many departments but we concentrated our fitting story for the National Week on mens shoes, ladies leisure shoes and our comfort shoe section. "We specialise on multi fitting childrens shoes. We have 3 staff who are members of the SSF and all our childrens staff have been trained by both Start Rite and Clarks and are recognised childrens shoe fitters, many of them with years of experience, who concentrate solely on the measuring, fitting and selling of childrens footwear. There are approximately 12 girls and men on the childrens floor. The result of the week was very pleasing.
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