There are many reactions to shoes that have been alternately dubbed "sexy shoes" and "stripper shoes." For some, the sight of them evokes images (appealing or not) of scantily clad girls twirling on poles. For others, reminders of fun party nights like Halloween or other special dress-up occasions. For another group, they are a curiosity-seemingly impossible to wear and sometimes even precarious, improbable works of engineering ingenuity.
But to those in the sexy shoe business, they are works of art, and also of commerce. Just how are these shoes manufactured and distributed? And how can you effectively integrate them into your own business as a platform to increase profit?
POWER PLAYERS
There are many sexy shoe manufacturers and wholesalers in the U.S., many of which of are situated in and around Los Angeles, the perfect intersection of the high glamour and over-the-top extravagance befitting the sexy shoe industry. Two major manufacturers known throughout the sexy shoe industry are Los Angeles-based Pleaser USA and Ellie Shoes, both sold in retail outlets around the world.
Pleaser USA, launched in 1993 by Ben Hsu, boasts an impressive 130,000-square-foot facility in Placentia, on the outskirts of L.A. Thousands upon thousands of shoe boxes are neatly piled sky-high, 35 feet straight up in a shoe lover's paradise. Contained within are shoes from all five of Pleaser's brands: Pleaser, the company's signature sexy shoe line; Luscious, a more playful collection featuring wilder colors and materials; Devious, a full line of fetish shoes featuring 6-inch single soles as well as some shoes that were truly not made for walking; Demonia, Goth and rockabilly selections often available at mall staple store Hot Topic; and Funtasma, a wide selection of Pleaser's best-selling and holiday-only styles, set at a lower price point especially for seasonal sales.
The sheer volume of shoes available onsite is overwhelming, and this just scratches the surface of Pleaser's output potential, which is crafted overseas at its own manufacturing plant. Having in-company production is a great benefit to Pleaser, which can monitor and control the rate of production and ensure maximum order fulfillment in very short time windows (orders ship within three business days from time of order within the continental United States, five for international orders).
Not to be outdone is Ellie Shoes, located in Orange, Calif. With a broad range of styles, also manufactured overseas, that encompasses over 600 distinct looks, Ellie has become a favorite mainstream commodity. The company has four different brands: Ellie Shoes, the company's main brand, has the widest variety of shoes, with heels ranging from 3 inches to 8 inches; The Penthouse by Ellie Shoes features 3- to 6-inch heels with more luxe fabrics and higher-end design sensibility; the 1031 Collection features costume styles for men and children; and the Leg Avenue Shoes collection is a licensed brand designed to pair with trendy costumes.
Other sexy shoe manufacturers are also popular for their high-heeled entries in the industry, demanding attention with innovative styles and ever-more-competitive prices. Hollywood Heels, a bastion of Old Hollywood style, has been in business since the 1950s, when founder Norman Kaplan debuted the line in a retail store situated right in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Film sirens, such as Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth, were regular customers, and eventually Hollywood Heels collaborated with that other famous Hollywood industry leader, Frederick's of Hollywood, for whom it still supplies sexy shoes. Now under the leadership of Norman's son, Michael Kaplan, the manufacturer wholesales its own domestically produced line as well as select European imports. With style names like Pickford, Monroe, Swanson, and Mansfield, it is clear that this manufacturer still aims to channel the Old Hollywood panache on which it was founded.
L.A.-based Tony's Shoes, Inc., in business since 1986, is a popular manufacturer that carries two main lines: Tony Shoes and Anthony's By Tony. Though the company's primary business is wholesale, they are also known for their retail outlet on Hollywood Boulevard. With wares ranging from prom-pretty, strappy rhinestone heels to dominatrix-evoking lace-up knee boots, Tony's Shoes is popular across a wide swath of consumer demographics.
Also on the scene is Karo's Shoes, another L.A.-area manufacturer with over 1,000 original styles, all in the United States. A long-time shoe manufacturer, Karo's expanded into this market in 1996 and has built a strong customer base both here and abroad, with European distributors in France and Spain.
WHO'S THAT GIRL?
The sexy shoe demographic is no longer just the realm of girls who can bust a move on a fireman's pole. While they do represent a significant segment of sales, particularly for the most outlandishly impossible 8.5-inch styles such as Ellie's Glitter platform, Pleaser's fillable Tip Jar style and Karo's Shoes neon pink black-light boots, they aren't the only ones snapping up marabou kitten slingbacks and patent leather platforms.
Oh, no: Sexy shoes aren't just appealing to exotic dancers. Their mainstream appeal is rapidly growing, thanks in large part to their bangin' price points (instant glamour starting at $19.99 and peaking at under $100 retail for heels, and all manner of boots from $40 to $200) in addition to the use of ultra-high platforms and other fetish-type design elements infiltrating haute couture. In fact, an April 2007 Los Angeles Times article titled "Designers Put Their Fetish Foot Forward" had a pop quiz of sorts featuring similarly styled shoes and asking "Classy or kinky?" and showed alternating shots of patent leather heels with stainless steel spike embellishments from couture house Dolce & Gabbana and sexy styles by Ellie Shoes. With one D&G style coming in at $560 and the compared Ellie style at $60, it's easy to see why glamour-pusses would opt for the optically similar, fashionably affordable style.
PROFIT CENTER
And what about other infusions of fetish in pop culture? Take for example pop icon Gwen Stefani, who regularly prances around in mile-high platforms during her live performances and was featured on the March 2008 cover of V magazine in a pair of Pleaser's impossible, geisha-esque 7-inch Ballet shoes, from the company's Devious brand. Sure, she's a pop superstar-but one whose success is built on her mainstream appeal with women, particularly those in desirable purchasing demographics. And lest we overlook the indoctrination of future consumers, consider that Gwen dolls (by Huckleberry Toys), for girls ages 6 to 11, come in the same costumes Stefani has sported on stage, including the towering peep-toe platforms seen on Tick Tock Gwen, modeled after Stefani's "What You Waiting For" ensemble in her Harajuku Lovers tour.
Sexy shoes are also going mainstream in film and television, and Ellie Shoes does its best to get key product placement as part of its advertising scheme. Oscar-winning screenwriter and former stripper Diablo Cody, the alternative and out-there scribe of the recent film hit Juno, is an Ellie fan who has remarked that Ellie shoes are more comfortable than orthopedic Easy Spirits.
Now, women of all kinds are wearing sexy shoes for wild nights out on the town and for wild nights right at home. "Seeing a style of shoe that used to only be worn in a strip club now being worn in nightclubs, in Vogue magazine, and in couture runway shows during New York and L.A. fashion weeks is evidence that sexy shoes are no longer taboo," Bridget Silvestri, PR manager of Ellie Shoes, agrees, noting that Ellie's own customer base has grown immensely in recent years.
And it isn't just women who are buying sexy shoes; men are in the market too, buying sexy shoes for personal wear and costume apparel. Most manufacturers cater to this market-a cross section of cross-dressers, transvestites, transsexuals, and Halloween hot shots-by offering shoes in sizes up to a women's 16, twice the average American female shoe size.
The owners of online shoe retailer Snaz75 tapped into the growing market for sexy shoes in 1998 after their own fruitless search for a selection of sexy shoes in Buffalo, New York. After opening a brick-and-mortar store in Buffalo, they soon expanded to the Upstate New York area. But they had even wider ambitions and decided to test the waters by selling their sexy selections on eBay.
This move proved to be a significant launching point for their own website in 2002. Showing the power of the buying public, Snaz75 grew from an inventory of about 100 styles to their current catalog of over 2,500 styles from top manufacturers like Pleaser USA, Ellie, and the newly released line of shoes from Vivid Entertainment. The site also includes logical collateral items, such as a selection of lingerie, clubwear, and hosiery.
IF THE SHOE FITS...
Only in the sexy shoe industry could a 3-inch high heel be classified as "low," but that is precisely the distinction given to them by both Pleaser and Ellie. Each lists 3-inches as its minimum height requirement, so to speak. Pleaser classifies its shoes in two primary categories: single-soled and platform. Single soles have flat bottoms and complement high stilettos and sexy sandal designs, while its platforms begin with modest, almost imperceptible lifts to towering 8-inch blocks that could put the wearer eye-to-eye with a circus stilt walker. Their specialty line is also a bright point in their collection, quite literally; the company has over a dozen light-up styles that blink, pulsate, and otherwise twinkle when worn as well as nearly 20 different UV-reactive styles that gleam like neon under special light.
Ellie prides itself on fit and fabulousness in its shoes, as well as ever-evolving designs. Silvestri notes that the company was the first to develop the idea of the cylindrical heel as well as the novel idea of putting a goldfish in the platform of a shoe. A cool standard among the selection is their Clear Wedge Mule, a sort of hybrid between an ultrahigh stiletto and mile-high platform, fashioned in flirty clear plastic with a clear upper that makes legs look miles long.
Hollywood Heels has shoes that would suit the anatomically incorrect Barbie doll, with her feet bent at an almost right angle. Harkening to the pin-ups of yesteryear, the simple, but devastating, 6.25-inch Vicious pump would be just what one would expect to see Dita von Teese wear on stage. The Ruthless boot is also notable: a black, stretch patent leather maneater of a boot, with pointy toes and back laces that demand a matching riding crop.
Other intriguing innovations include Karo's Shoes' ballerina-style boot, an 8-inch wonder that puts the wearer's ankle at a near vertical rise supported by a heel not at the back of the shoe, but at the ball of the foot, with death-defying results. While their 0257 style, a standard peep-toe with an ankle strap seems more visually standard than the Ballerina, the 9-inch heel, situated over an open platform, may give one pause.
THE HERE AND NOW
So where should retailers who have never incorporated sexy shoes into their inventories even begin? Both current economics as well as tried and true technique come into play when answering that query.
The most outlandish, over-the-top styles may be too much of a reminder of extravagance-unseemly at a time when the economy is sluggish. Bridget Silvestri says that the current flat economy is definitely influencing what retailers, and by extension, their customers, are looking for. "The current trend we are noticing," she explains, "is...‘getting back to the basics.' So, now, our focus is basic styles with accents."
This, incongruently, is a potential boon for new retailers; the best way to begin adding sexy shoes to your line-up is with a small range of bestselling shoes, simple classics that seem to fit the bill for what most shoppers are interested in right now. Adding these looks just before the holidays is also key timing, not only maximizing sales during the Halloween and holiday rush, but also exposing customers to your new product offerings at a time when foot traffic is higher than normal.
"Shoes have way of making people happy," observes Silvestri, and sexy shoes have the ability to do this in more concentrated ways than regular fashion shoes. With tantalizing designs that take women out of their everyday identity and help them mark those times in life when they feel the most sexy and fun, sexy shoes are a commodity that won't be slowing down any time soon.
(Photo courtesy Pleaser USA)
