One of the highlights of the evening was the recognition of lifetime achievements for a number of people including Peter Sheppard and David Wittner. Incredible achievers and truly worthy of the recognition. But what I found curious, especially as a newcomer, was that it was all men that were lauded. Not a single woman. In an industry that’s focused very heavily on a female market, isn’t it interesting that it’s men in control? I initially noticed this when attending my first shoe trade fair overseas. Almost all of the reps that I spoke to at it were male, and well over the age of 50. There I was, on a mission to source sexy, trendy big size shoes for women up to at least a size 13 and I was discussing styling with some men almost of my father’s generation. Very curious indeed.

I think we can agree that women’s shoes dominate the industry and marketplace – an industry with men very much in charge. Much like clothing fashion really. Is it really men that know what we want to wear?

MYTH 1 – We fall in the age bracket of 70+ years. I’m still baffled at the majority of styles that are around in size 11 or size 12 and over. The ‘style’ aspect definitely takes a big nosedive at this end. Really? Granny shoes? I’m still waiting to see an elderly lady with size 13 feet. But apparently that’s who many of the bigger shoe sizes are designed for.

MYTH 2 – We only want sensible shoes. Or walking shoes. Or comfort shoes. Exclusively. That’s it. We have bigger than ‘average’ feet. We couldn’t POSSIBLY want stylish or sexy shoes. Heaven forbid.

MYTH 3 – We don’t wear high heels. A myth that’s worthy of its own separate blog entry which you can view right here. Big feet often equals height and again, why would we POSSIBLY want to be taller?

MYTH 4 – We don’t follow fashion trends. Apparently we should just be grateful for anything that covers our feet. Here’s a strip of leather, a rubber sole – what do you mean you want it to be STYLISH?! Why would we want to be fashionable? Aren’t our feet TOO LARGE to fit into shoes?

There. That felt great. I’ve ranted, raved and cleansed my soul for another week.

“Why do you wear high heels? You’re tall enough as it is!”

When I was a lot younger, it was a question that often made me feel uncomfortable and self-conscious. I’d suddenly feel as if I stood out even more than I did flat-footed (at 178cm). The irony is that I’d be wearing particular fashion styles and high heels to blend in with the rest of the girls. Fitting in – something that is as important as it can ever be when you’re a young adult, and then slowly diminishes in importance as you get older (and ultimately becomes quite liberating when you realise that you really don’t give a stuff anymore what people think!)

Yes, I do realise that I’m well over 6 feet tall in heels. And you know what? I LOVE it! I really do. Now that I’m of a ‘mature age’. Yep, it’s worth having to kind of bob down when talking to my shorter friends. (I’ve even perfected a stance where my feet are about a shoulder width apart, and I bring my knees in together. Kind of like a giraffe drinking at the river bank. I even enjoy helping little old ladies getting items off the top shelves in supermarkets. It’s not about being taller (that’s just a bonus!). It’s the way that a gorgeous pair of high heels make you feel. Feminine, sexy. A fabulous dress cannot be at 100% fabulousness without a beautiful pair of heels. They make you stand, walk and carry yourself differently.

And that my friends, is why I like to wear my size 11 high heels.

I’ll get off my soap box now. Because I’m apparently tall enough as it is. J

So if for some bizarre reason you are still prone to experiencing those slight twinges of guilt, let us help you out with the top 8 reasons you NEED new shoes.

• It’ll start/spice up the conversation between you and your partner when they notice.
• You’ve bought new clothes recently. Definitely can’t be matching those up with old shoes.
• You’ve only just recently discovered ladies large size shoes thanks to Glamazon Shoes so you really need to make up for lost time and shoe-buying opportunities.
• You’re feeling very virtuous after cleaning out the wardrobe and donating a heap of shoes to charity. Time to replace them.
• You’re feeling a bit down and need a pep-up.
• You’re feeling fantastic due to a new job/love/promotion and need to celebrate.
• You just feel the need – the need for shoes.
• Do you really need any reasons?

Finally, for my Glamazon sisters out there with a double digit shoe size, here are the most compelling reasons…

• size 10 womens shoes
• size 11 womens shoes
• size 12 womens shoes
• size 13 womens shoes
• size 14 and 15 womens shoes

Need we say more?

BRW AMP new retailer of the year finalist

Those of you who ‘like’ Glamazon Shoes on Facebook would be aware that we recently had the privilege of being named as one of four finalists in the BRW AMP Retailer Awards. This was a lovely way to mark our first year of being in business and a nice bit of recognition for the efforts of the first year. It certainly provides a morale boost going into the second year.

Sometimes I think ‘wow, I can’t believe it’s been one year already’. Didn’t we just open doors the other week? Other times I think, ‘I can’t believe it’s only been one year’ as one day blurs into the next which I guess is the nature of any significant undertaking you make, particularly when starting a business. The business of supplying ladies shoes in large sizes to women in Melbourne and beyond has certainly been a massive learning and a big adventure so far. Multiply this by a factor of about…. ooooh, around a gazillion when you take into account that yours truly has come into it with a) no footwear experience and b) not much retail experience. Sure, heaps of business and corporate experience but certainly not in this particular market. But as they (whoever ‘they’ are), where there’s a will, there’s a way. And there sure as hell is plenty of will and passion here. J

I’m really looking forward to our second – and hopefully many more – year in business. I’m certainly not underplaying any future challenges, particularly with the retail sector not being at its best at the moment. And because I like a good analogy, I’d like to compare Glamazon Shoes to the bumblebee who, according to scientific principles, should NOT be able to fly. And yet somehow it confounds all of these principles by doing precisely that.

As I was giving them their jobs, it struck me that there was more than just child labour issues at play here. In small ways, my girls were starting to learn about business and what’s involved in the day to day. Up until then it was all about the shoe styles and even the website. Basically, what customers see. Now they’re starting to see that there’s so much involved in getting to those points. As anyone that’s run a business know, there’s a million and one things to do, and that’s just before lunch every day.

It was interesting to view the business through their eyes and the things they were doing whilst in the shop. Bit by bit, they’re starting to get exposed to the many different aspects involved. Once upon a time a woman in business was considered to be very unusual and definitely not the norm. Now, we’ll hopefully see a new generation of girls growing up and experiencing wide and varied careers, including running their own businesses. One day.

Comfort heels is NOT an oxymoron!

There is a time in a woman’s life when her thoughts turn to…. well, there’s no easy way to say this so I’ll be brutally direct. Comfort. Or more to the point, comfortable shoes. I know, I know – you were hoping to not have to acknowledge this topic for decades, if at all. But I’m here to tell you that ‘comfort’ need not be a dirty word when it comes to shoes. Whilst I adore getting about in heels, I’ve found that if I pick a comfortable pair, then I don’t end up crippled at the end of the day or night which makes for a pleasant change. More importantly, I can pop them on again the next day. During those long, barren years of struggling to find any shoes that fit (let alone fashionable ones), even in my darkest moments the last thing I would have settled for would have been sensible, comfort shoes. It may sound vain but it would have felt like admitting defeat, which I definitely wasn’t ready to do in my size 11s.

Having road tested quite a few heels I have to say that it’s pretty difficult to beat someone like Ziera for comfyness. Truly, it’s like getting about with cushions in your shoes. And it’s amazing to get out of heels after a long day or night and not be hobbling or break out the band-aids for your blisters.

I’m loving the Zieras so much that I’ll soon have more pairs at home than in the shop! (Not really but it’s something to aim for anyway) I love – and many of my glamazons have echoed this sentiment – that Ziera have managed to keep all of their comfort technology and fuse it with some amazing designs. Shoes that look and feel incredible? We knew it was possible. And now it’s a reality.

You can check some of the designs throughout our website by searching on Ziera or going to our Comfort Chic section.

‘Real-time’ product availability – or in English, when you click on a product, it will display only the available sizes at that point in time.

More detailed product information – we try and include as much information as possible about the shoes including sizing information. Are they wider or narrower than average, for example. And yes, we have a lot of fun trying on new stock to check the sizing (it’s work, ok?!)

Full shopping cart – the only way to shop. Click on the product, select your size and ‘add to shopping cart’. Too easy.

Secure online payment facilities – speaks for itself.

Size shopping – for sizes 10 through to 15, you can view exactly what’s available with one click of the mouse simply by selecting your size category from the menu. This way you don’t need to even see anything that is not available in your size.

Customer needs shopping – this is a particularly important one and is about approaching the buying experience from a customer’s perspective. As a woman, when I shop for shoes I tend to have a basic idea of what I want or need. It could be a basic pump for work or a flat for everyday wear or something a bit glam for going out. It still baffles me as to why so many shoe retailers categorise their shoes in broad groups like ‘sandals’ (are they high or low or flat?) or even more generic, ‘fashion’ (???). For me, it doesn’t help me to navigate through what’s on offer and particularly if I’m in a hurry, I’ll quickly check out a few and then leave. Our website tries to look at the whole experience from your point of view.

Australia-wide customers – we love the fact that thanks to our online shop, Glamazon Shoes is now available to all glamazons around Australia, regardless of their postcode. This will have to do until we can open more shops and launch a Glamazon takeover!

“This is a lovely shop but I hope you don’t mind me saying that I think the name sounds cheap. You may want to think about changing it?”

Hmm. Not sure how to respond to that one. In the minute or so that followed, my thoughts were: ‘Really? That hadn’t really occurred to me. Does it really sound cheap? Do other people think that too?’ Before common sense prevailed and I reined in my brain before it had gone through a complete name change, logo re-design and corporate colour change. (It tends to run away from me sometimes, does the old grey matter) I calmly told myself that’s ok if she thinks like that, she’s entitled to her opinion and really, I’ve had more positive than negative comments from people. And anyway, too late!

Here’s another goodie, uttered a couple of months after opening doors, and just after our first PR win with an article in the Sunday Herald-Sun.

“So how’s business going?”
(Me): “Pretty good actually.”
“Oh really? I’m surprised.”

I must confess that I wasn’t really sure how to respond to that one so I just left it.

Call me naïve, but I still prefer to think that comments like these are delivered not from malice but instead from a lack of tact. Big difference. As a fledgling business owner and sole operator however, there can be days when comments like these are harder to shrug off than others. That’s when some great advice from a dear friend of mine, also a business owner, has proved invaluable. She once told me to get into the habit of keeping a diary where I would write at least one good thing that happened during the day, and flick through this when I need a pep-up or some steering back on track.

Now that’s the kind of advice that’s always welcome.

Me (left), Elizabeth

The end of a year is usually the time when many of us get a bit philosophical. Especially over a coffee and the remnants of a gingerbread house provoking questions such as: “Why did I have to eat ALL of the gingerbread walls? Why couldn’t I stop with the door? And perhaps just one wall?

But anyway.

In my last blog I talked about what an amazing year it’s been, capped with a fantastic article in Melbourne’s Sunday Age on Boxing Day. For those of you that missed it, you can read it here but basically, I sent a letter to the editor of the newspaper hoping to find a particular person, Elizabeth. Rewinding a bit more, Elizabeth from Bendigo had written her own letter to the Age editor back in July 2009 bemoaning the lack of lovely shoes in her size – 12. I read this letter and experienced what was probably my first ever epiphany, or light bulb moment. Suddenly, the idea for fashionable shoes in larger sizes that I had been carrying around for years (ok, decades really) began to crystallize and gain substance. That was the point that I began to seriously research the idea and put together a business plan. Nine months later (yes, I can see the irony in that too!), Glamazon Shoes opened its doors in Melbourne. Honestly, if I had stopped to seriously think about it, I may have ended up backing out due to the largeness of it all but it felt so right. When you know, you know, yes?

So back to the present day. I have Elizabeth’s original letter pinned up in the back of the shop. A few weeks ago I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great to find Elizabeth and thank her with a free pair of shoes? Yes, it’s potentially a good media story but from a personal viewpoint, I wanted her to know just what effect her original letter had, and the chain of events it started. If I was to go all metaphysical (please indulge me for a moment), I’d say that the main things I learnt were 1) ‘signs’ are everywhere, don’t be afraid to greet them and get them to pull up a chair in your life, and 2) you never know what effect you will have on someone when you do or put something out there.

Now, back to the Elizabeth story. Instead of getting my letter to the editor published, I was very, very fortunate to get an actual story (with photo!) published in the Sunday Age on Boxing Day. A couple of days went by and whilst it generated a lot of interest in Glamazon (yay free plug!), there was still no sign of Elizabeth. Until four days after the article, I received a call from the Bendigo Advertiser wanting to publish a piece on my Cinderella search for Elizabeth.

Bingo. Elizabeth finally got wind of the story through friends that had seen the Bendigo Advertiser. I am extremely happy to say that I finally met Elizabeth when she came into the shop today, fittingly the last day of 2010, and got my chance to thank her profusely for her unwitting inspiration. She is an absolutely gorgeous and delightful woman and it was such a pleasure to meet her on so many levels.

So the moral of the story children is this. You just never. Ever. Know. Wishing you all a glorious and stupendous new year for 2011.

As always, yours in shoes, Mira xx