Skechers Constructs Hard-Edged Shoe Display

Marketers at Skechers footwear may be carving a new path in specialty footwear, but they're relying on a solid foundation of P-O-P to do so.Skechers USA Inc., based in Manhattan Beach, Calif., was formed by the renegade founders of another shoe company -- L.A. Gear. The executives have since put all their eggs in one basket with the narrow, but burgeoning, sport-utility footwear category. Among other talents, the founders brought with them to the new company the firm belief that P-O-P sells shoes. The product, the market and the distribution channel may have changed, but the in-store efforts have been given, if anything, more importance.The company's latest merchandising catalog lists myriad stickers, posters, signs, countercards and nearly a dozen three-dimensional shoe displays. The most elaborate of the latter category is Skechers' large girder unit shoe tower. Measuring more than 7 feet wide, almost 7 feet tall and 3 feet deep, the unit holds at least a dozen shoes on five levels. The base ramp measures 10 feet by 8 feet.Arriving this fall in shoe stores, the product tower was designed in house by Michael Escher and manufactured by Drayson Design at a cost of $1,200 per unit. Skechers makes the unit available at cost to retailers and offers coop funds to help pay for it. The display is actually two identical shoe towers connected by a round, center shelf and a large Skechers logo at the top. A single tower sells for $500. Skechers shipped six displays in August to test the waters. A customized corrugated shipping box was figured in the price."The wood is fir and the (uprights) are real metal," says Vice President of Merchandising Mark Nason. No plastic was used in this "very well-constructed" display, for a reason, he said.The visual impact of existing fixturing and P-O-P displays in the category is "sterile," he charges. "Most displays are inexpensive and disposable." That wasn't the route Skechers hopes to follow, he explains. Nason wanted to develop "something that flatters the product, keeps Skechers imagery in the forefront while at the same time is permanent and durable."Metals fit with Skechers imagery particularly well," he notes. "We also used different angles (to add visual interest.) So many accounts are based in malls; you have 10 to 15 seconds to capture that customer's attention and imagination. Displays with different angles and configurations have a better chance of being noticed." The girder towers project upward from the floor at a 15 degree angle.Designed for use "in the front of the store or in a window," the unit is intended to be unobtrusive. "There's no wall on the back, so you can still see through it into the store," says Nason.Before joining Skechers this past January, Nason worked in retail stores, selling the big names of sporting goods. He cut his teeth setting up concept shops for Timberland and Track N Trail. "Sport-utility is the hottest category in the footwear business right now," he says. "No one is offering the product and the support to retailers that we are."Ultimately he envisions a 200- to 500-square-foot Skechers concept shop complete with flooring and six or seven other pieces that "all tie in with the overall idea." The "quality of image and materials" will be emphasized, he says.Although only recently crossing into mainstream casual wear, sport-utility shoes have been around for decades, according to Don Wasley, vice president of marketing at Skechers. While one group of men wear the sturdy shoes on construction sites, their daughters are pairing them with dresses and rolled down socks. It is to the latter group that Skechers is primarily marketed. Instead of sporting goods and work-shoe stores, Skechers' outlets are chain shoe stores, specialty footwear and department stores.

Skechers Constructs Hard-Edged Shoe Display

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