Q&A
Q: Congratulations on your 10th anniversary this year! How are you celebrating and marking the occasion? Louise Shill: It’s been an amazing 10 years! It has certainly been an eventful journey, with lots of highs and lows and a BIG learning curve on a full spectrum of roles we never knew existed. As a family-run business, it really has been a labour of love! Our kids have grown up with the brand appearing in our photo shoots and as they’ve moved through different stages of their lives, so has our business. Today, we feel very proud of we have achieved.
We celebrate our 10th birthday with our Autumn/Winter 2024 collection – celebrating the best of British with colour and styles inspired by childhood birthday parties! We are also offering 10 per cent off all orders this season as well!
Q: What’s the history of Young Soles? Where and how was the brand started? LS: I am an experienced footwear designer by trade and I decided to create a footwear brand that I wanted my kids to wear. Young Soles was born from the frustration I felt of not having the products I wanted available after I had my first child; I really felt at the time that children’s footwear was being under serviced with limited variety.
The children’s market was very different than it is today with the majority of styles very busy with leathers and synthetics heavily coated in plastic, glitter and sparkles. I wanted to offer good quality footwear that was made using natural leathers with simple silhouettes and styling built for growing feet.
The plan was to disrupt the market a little and inspire other brands to do something different. Ten years later and we believe we did just that by offering something that has largely been forgotten – good quality classic children’s footwear. We believe kids deserve comfort and great looking styles, not just cute sparkly styles drenched in glitter and plastic.
Since our launch we’ve seen so many more children’s footwear brands enter the UK market
with classic styling and new messaging-led start- ups entering the market but their styling is also based on the classics we championed. We have also seen the major chains and clothing brands up their game by varying their collections and producing more considered children’s footwear.
Q: How has the children’s footwear market changed over the past 10 years? LS: In some ways it has completely changed, but in other ways it hasn’t changed enough! There are certainly more children’s footwear brands in the market now and more children’s clothing brands doing footwear. It does lead to a bit of a crowded field, but are enough of them doing anything different? That is the question! The UK is still very conservative with their footwear choices – that has not changed. We certainly see more of an appetite for something different in the US and mainland Europe. One of the biggest changes we have seen over the last 10 years has been the selling landscape. Where once it was dominated by wholesale, we have seen the rise of smaller brands selling direct to consumer and the rise of the online marketplace in the UK. We first experienced this in the USA, but it has now become very common in the UK where
retailers list products on their website and the brand store the product and fulfil customer orders.
The role and influence of digital advertising and social media has also increased – but now I think it’s actually decreasing. We see the customers themselves taking a much bigger role in the future of promoting and selling brands. We believe there will always be a place for independent UK footwear retail stores; you can never replace the benefits of going into store, especially with children’s footwear. Some customers will always want the experience of interacting with a product physically, examining it and trying it on before making purchasing decisions.
However, we do think that UK-based footwear retailers will need to adapt quickly to this ever- changing landscape. Online direct-to-consumer sales will continue to be a big part of their sales offering, but focusing on the experience and selection of products will become increasingly important for both the digital and physical experience. We believe retail digital and physical spaces will need to become more curated with a theme or specialism to keep consumers engaged. The days of “everyone sells the same brands” are numbered as customers can
Above: Young Soles’ new barefoot styles on custom-made zero-drop soles DOWNLOAD THE FOOTWEAR TODAY APP NOW SPONSORED BY OCTOBER/NOVEMBER • FOOTWEAR TODAY • 21
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