VANS AND PROPER - NAUTICAL... BUT NICE!

Speaking of which, I was in the Proper store today. How many shoes in there are designed after, say 1995? I presume you only buy what you think you can sell.
I couldn’t really pin down a specific number because the assortment is always changing but my guess would be less than ten percent of our overall assortment, however that is not for lack of effort or desire to see something new. Quite often what you see in the store is not always what is ordered and I would assume that’s safe to be said of most stores. Ultimately a lot of times it comes down to the minimums that brands need to produce new styles of footwear. More forward-looking retailers are always looking at different styles and will place buys on stuff that pushes the envelope but unfortunately, if only a small number of retailers are only willing to do so, the shoes will never be produced. Sales verses progressive design is nothing new and you’d be surprised how many styles that are sought after today would have never been made in the first place if the sales guys at some companies had their way.

So is there a new shoe you’ve seen come through that you’ve been wearing or that you think has a lot of potential from any brand?
That is a tough one. From an all-out performance perspective, I was recently given a pair of Asics Kayanos and for running I’d have to say they are pretty amazing. Wether or not I’d want to wear them for anything other than that is another matter but that is why I think footwear like the Air Max 90 Current is quite interesting. I think the blending of the classic styling with modern performance technology is intriguing. It would be curious to see how different some of the classic styles would look if they had different production capabilities at their disposal.