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with larger
calves. When I’m through, the boots look like
they’ve never been repaired.”
Padding boots came
about as a result of Ellen wanting to add
comfort to a pair of her shoes.
“I
bought a pair of shoes with a thin, poron
padding,” she said. “I asked Barry to take them
apart and see what made them more comfortable.
Now, we do tons of that kind of work. We have a
display showing this process and it generates a
lot of customer interest.”
Another niche Shoe Savers is filling is the
introduction of foam ladies shoe trees. They are
available for pointed and round toe shoes (both
slings and pumps), and for boots. Barry found that
the old cedar shoe trees available to him didn’t
work on the new high fashion shoes that most of
his clientele wears. He researched the problem
until he found an Austrian supplier that
manufactures trees of this sort. Now, Shoe
Savers is the exclusive North American
distributor of the product.”
The Power of
the Silver Cup
Barry grew up in
his father’s shoe repair shop and has long known
that quality work is the key to a successful
shoe repair business. The Silver Cup Awards,
however, are more than just an affirmation of
his skills. They serve as promotional tools as
well. His most recent awards generated articles
in the local newspapers and two large articles
in the Houston Chronicle. He credits them
with bringing in a good bit of new business.
The awards also
reinforce for his customers the quality of his
work.
“The longer you
stay in business, the more trust you gain with
people,” he says. “Now, with the awards on the
wall, when people ask about quality work, you
can point to them for reassurance.”
Consumer
Awareness
Public education
is something the industry is sorely lacking,
according to Barry.
“There has to be
some kind of advertising that all of us can do
to educate the public about the benefits of shoe
repair,” he says.
Shoe Savers
educates customers from the moment the walk in
the door. Displays tell customers about the
services that are available. Ellen and Barry
take the time to show customers the difference
quality repair makes. They have also been on
television stressing quality repair, and have
built a web site to support those television
appearances.
“The old image
needs to be broken,” Barry says, adding that the
appearance of the shop is also critical. "We
clean our shop every day and restock the front
end at the same time. Every two weeks, we
do a major cleaning including all of the
machines.”
But when it comes
right down to it, the reason Barry is swamped
while others are begging for business are
quality work and ability to expand his services
to meet, and sometimes create, customer demand.
“We do things that
most shops wouldn’t dream of doing,” he says.
“It’s all driven by consumer demand. A lot of it
is personal demand as well. I want to see if I
can do things nobody else can. I like
challenges. That’s what builds my business.” |
