Comfort Club Winter 2011

Winter 2011

club Meet the stars of our TV advert Christmas all wrapped up

Calendar Girls wear Hotter to our Welcome

excmflourtsCivlueb Co

member magazine

FESTIVE, PARTY SHOES

LADIES, Welcome YOU LOOK FABULOUS! Our latest collection is packed full of style and glamour which made us think, what style do our customers love?

You sent us your photos of you at your contemporary or classic best and we picked our favourite to win some comfy shoes. Mrs Keam from Cornwall’s entry caught our eye with her glamorous outfit accessorised with beautiful Quickstep. “Your shoes are amazing – just like a second skin” she told us. A special prize from Hotter will also be making its way to runner up Janice Dyson from Chesterfield who loves her beautiful boots, Jade.

Who’s looking forward to Christmas? Shopping, wrapping, visiting – it’s that time of the year when you need to be on your feet from dawn till dusk so make sure you’ve stocked up with your favourite footwear – and have some cosy slippers ready for that end of the day downtime!

We’ve been incredibly busy in the past few weeks – have you seen our new TV advert? In this edition we introduce you to the Hotter customers who became our stars – they’re a lovely group of inspirational and very active ladies and we’re so proud they are Hotter fans.

Talking of extraordinary women, you’ll know that our relationship with the original Calendar Girls goes back a long way – in fact they once posed wearing nothing but Hotter shoes. We’re delighted that we have now set up a partnership with the Calendar Girls tour with a special offer just for you, our Comfort Club

members – read more on page 4.

Enjoy whatever you’re doing this festive season in joyful comfort, we’ll be back with more Hotter news in 2012. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from myself and everyone here at Hotter.

All the best,

Melanie

Melanie KIllilea, Editor, Comfort Club Magazine

Find us on facebook

Pets to fall in love with When we asked you to send in your pet photos we fell in love with your furry friends.

Mrs Keam, Cornw all

Gorgeous pooch Poppy won our hearts at Hotter HQ and was awarded the title of Hotter’s number one pet to fall in love with!

Poppy’s entry was sent in by Miss Tann from Essex. The runner up prize goes to Herbert the hamster who loves to snuggle up in Mambo, sent in by Sue Hoffman from the Wirral. Keep these adorable photos coming in, or why not post them on our Facebook page.

Janice Dyson, Chesterfield

2

All shoes featured are available at www.hotter.com

the colour of Po pp y: I love k lick these boots, lic

Herbert: If I’m going learn to Mambo, I nee to da smaller size!

Enjoy your party from the first dance

...to the last!

Hotter designers are determined your feet will be smiling from the first dance to the last with an amazing collection of stylish party shoes in sophisticated shades to match your seasonal best.

We recently commissioned a study of 2,000 UK women to examine what motivates their footwear choices when they are planning to go out.

Our design team were astounded to discover that a massive 81% admitted to experiencing pain by wearing killer heels on a night out, with 60% carrying plasters and one in three carrying an extra pair of comfy shoes – just in case!

Hotter is committed to designing and making desirable shoes which make women feel good wherever, and whenever, they wear them. It should always be a pleasure to put on a brand new pair of shoes - not a pain. With the party season just around the corner we’ve a wonderful selection of contemporary and classic smart Hotter heels which will attract admiring glances, finish your outfit with pizzazz and will keep you on your toes long after all those other Cinderellas have hung up their killer heels!

Darcey

Velvet

Schubert

Verdi

3

Delivering happy feet to the Calendar Girls Exclusive

for Comfort Clu members b

When the original Calendar Girls posed wearing nothing but Hotter it was the beginning of a lovely friendship – which has now led to Hotter shoes treading the boards as part of the record breaking stage play. As Calendar Girls official footwear supplier there’s a dazzling array of comfy footwear keeping the stars on their toes in this box office success which originally opened at the Chichester Festival Theatre in September 2008.

Inspirational Ladies The inspiring true story tells the tale of a group of friends from a Yorkshire WI who plucked up courage to bear all to raise funds for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and who subsequently sparked an international media reaction and myriad of copycat calendars.

Tim Firth, who wrote the original film screenplay and decided to revisit the story in 2004, explains: "I always promised myself that I'd start to think about a stage play of Calendar Girls once the film had been shown on television a couple of times. The theatre is my first love and I saw that turning Calendar Girls into a stage play would enable me to help certain parts of the story to flower."

Lots of Laughter Whereas the film had to concentrate on the central story of Annie and Chris, writing the play gave Tim a chance to explore the other characters in greater depth. "The film did not have the time to show why the rest of the women took part in the calendar," said Tim. "With the play I had the opportunity of turning the story into a group comedy, a kind of nude female version of Dad's Army. The challenge for me was to advance what I saw as the values of the Calendar Girls while the audience was busy laughing."

virtues. People at the stage door tell us that they have laughed and they have cried in equal measure. In the play there is that wonderful juxtaposition between the tragedy of John's death and the laughter which is produced by the womens' attempts to do something to mark it.”

The original Calendar Girls have raised over £3 million for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research – with over £500,000 as a direct result of the stage production.

Calendar Girls is currently on its farewell tour before being released for amateur productions in September 2012 – there are 250 planned for the first 12 months!

It has been staged professionally across the world from Russia to Mexico, with eight different casts taking the show across the UK not to mention a successful West End run.

Heart and Spirit Stripping off as lead character Chris Harper, Lynda Bellingham explained: “Calendar Girls celebrates both heart and community spirit - two classic British

The original Calendar Girls wear Hotter shoes.

Shoes in the

show

Leanne - £55

4 All shoes featured are available at www.hotter.com

Valetta- £69

Shake - £65

Serene - £49

EXCLUSIVE

Comfort Club member offer The Calendar Girls is offering Comfort Club members an EXCLUSIVE £7.50 saving off ticket prices for the farewell tour.

Visit www.hotter.com/calendargirls for full details and terms and conditions of this Calendar Girls offer.

“

We’re thrilled that Hotte r is now the official shoe supp lier for our production of Calenda r Girls as Hotter Shoes has had a long association with the original Calendar Girls. Even more importantly, both of ou r mums have been fans for quite so me time! We know that the cast lov es having Hotter Shoes as part of their costumes. They’re really enjoying how co mfortable the shoes are which is inc redibly important when they’re on their feet for the best part of two hours at every performance.

”

David Pugh and Dafyd d Rogers, producers of Calenda r Girls.

COMPETITION Win tickets and meet the stars Visit www.hotter.com/calendargirls for a chance to win tickets and meet the stars of the show. Or win a pair of shoes from the show by answering this simple question:

Who wrote the Calendar Girls film and play?

See back page for entry details.

I

..e.voloslaIdna

Shoes,

but I also love

Learning to play the guitar at the age of 9 and performing live music since she was 18, owner of 31 pairs of Hotter shoes Annabel Clifton just had to share her passion for music with us.

In 1996, Annabel, from Norwich, met her band mate John at a recording studio and they’ve been making music together ever since.

They’ve produced 10 CDs packed full of contemporary country music and some festive Christmas tunes!

You’ll find them performing live together throughout East Anglia.

Annabel’s songwriting inspiration comes from the people she has met and the experiences she has had, particularly in the USA. “I’ve visited America and played in Nashville on many occasions, I’ve even reached number 3 in their European Country Chart” said Annabel.

MUSIC

Here’s Annabel with Norwich store manager Vicki.

“I’m also a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International.”

When she’s not making music Annabel also works as a Braille tutor for the Adult Education Department of Norfolk County Council and she even found time in her hectic schedule to officially open our Norwich store back in September 2010!

Annabel is a true Hotter fan with a passion for casual style Shake and last Winter she wore her snug Pixie boots every day!

Find out more about Annabel at www.planetannabel.com.

Do you have a passion you’d like to share?

Tell us more and we’ll spread the word!

5

Meet the

stars

When we wanted to get under the skin of what makes women so happy when they wear Hotter shoes there was really only one place for us to find out more - our customers.

We decided to recruit some real live enthusiasts to tell us what they thought about Hotter shoes as part of our latest advertising campaign, sending out talent scouts to our Hotter stores and looking for online and Facebook fans with a Hotter passion. We brought our first group of customers together in Manchester early in September, filming them talking about themselves, their lives and, of course, their shoes!

Proud to be Hotter Airing this season, the new Hotter advert features the words and thoughts

Faith

Shake

As seen on TV!

of our TV advert

of the people who wear our shoes living life to the full and stepping out in comfort every single day. We're proud of every word that these amazing ladies shared with us – and they impressed us so much that some of them now feature in the advert themselves. You can catch a glimpse of Susan, Christy, Lucy and Steph in our advert, who along with Joan, Jenni and Marianne, enjoyed a day behind the scenes at the Hotter TV advert shoot.

Following an early start for hair and make-up, these seven ladies spent a day being filmed talking about Hotter shoes, wearing them and even dancing in them alongside three actresses who are Hotter enthusiasts themselves. Hours of footage were edited to just thirty seconds where we had the incredibly

Sugar

6 All shoes featured are available at www.hotter.com

Darcey

difficult task of summarising everything they had told us about Hotter into just a few simple phrases.

Meet them all at www.hotter.com Not every lady was able to feature in the advert - we wish they could have, but our advert would have turned into a full blown film. But we’ve compiled a video of their ‘best bits’ which you can see at www.hotter.com, and on our Facebook page, along with more interviews from the casting and the filming.

Why not have a look and let us know what you think too.

Leanne

Jade

Hotter fans take centre stage

Action

Christy Moore • Lives in Bradford • Bought Hotter shoes for five years • Favourite style is Autumn Christy, who used to live in America and worked as a joiner, loves to spend time with her family. Her husband, daughter in law in America and family all now wear Hotter shoes.

We hope you enjoy the show We never imagined when we set out to find customers to take part in our advert that we'd find such a lovely group of ladies who simply love Hotter shoes.

See the advert and watch the videos at

www.hotter.com

Susan Robinson • Lives in Leeds • Owns 20 pairs of Hotter shoes • Plans to buy Angel in Tan Active Susan runs every weekend and is the ladies champion of the 2011 Yorkshire Dales Race Series. Proving that a healthy body helps create a healthy mind, Susan is an active member of MENSA. Steph Clark • Lives in Chester • Is new to Hotter but owns three pairs • Simply loves Darcey in black patent Steph loves to travel and has been buying Hotter shoes for her mum and mum in law. Steph is a twin, but was born on a different day to her sister, they arrived on Boxing Day and Christmas Day respectively!

What they did next Four Hotter fans whose words we used in our TV advert have since visited our factory for a tour. Here are Trish, Ruth, Joan and Marianne with our very own handbag designer Karen who helped host their day.

Lucy O’Keefe • Lives in Stalybridge • Was recommended to Hotter by her family • Loves Penny for work As a nurse Lucy can be on her feet for 14 hours a day – so she’s delighted that Penny have proved so comfortable. To relax Lucy enjoys reading and walking her greyhound Prince.

COMPETITION

Win a pair of shoes from our TV advert by sending your answer to the following question to the address on the back page: What is Susan Robinson planning to buy?

7

Everything you need for Cosy home

comforts

If you could package a big, warm, snuggly hug and put it in a box wouldn’t that just be the best Christmas present you’d ever receive? Send a loved one a Hotter embrace in a box and every time they step in from the cold and into a pair of our lovely slippers they’ll smile a little thank you for your kind gift.

Suede and sheepskin slippers are tops for keeping toes toasty; warming colours and classic neutrals will match their favourite nightwear or smart jersey ‘at home’ pull-ons. Keep them cosy from the toes up with our amazing slippers whose soles are supportive yet light and filled with millions of air bubbles to cushion their every step. Simply complete their cosy outfit with a mug of steaming cocoa, a roaring fire and a hot water bottle!

Wra p

Sh etl an d

Sere ne

Male order options “I will be buying my dad Vulcan shoes, I bought him Venture for Fathers Day and I have never seen him so excited about a pair of shoes, he loves them.”

Sharon Alessandrelli, Call Centre Advisor.

Venture - £85

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On-the-go grandads, laid back dads and even hard to please husbands would all love to find a shoe shaped present under the tree. We asked our hard working staff what the men in their life were looking forward to on December 25th.

“My dad will be getting some Relax slippers, because he always forgets to change from his slippers into his shoes when he leaves the house!

At least with Relax he’ll be going out in a hard wearing outdoor sole!”

“My grandfather is a keen golfer and has to attend lots of formal functions each year. It is vital he has a pair of smart shoes that are comfortable and supportive enough that he can walk around in them all day, so I’m buying him Cutlass.”

Victoria Sparkes, Manager Norwich Store.

Andrew Hambleton, Call Centre Team Leader.

Relax - £55

Cutlass - £75

“My son Thomas is a typical 13 year old. He never wears slippers around the house so I am hoping that buying a pair of Slumber will do the trick!”

John Nicholas, Retail Director.

Slumber - £49

Christmas...

Bags of appeal If your wardrobe is overrun with Hotter shoes – and they mainly belong to the lady of the house – then we’ve got bags of ideas to suggest for a surprise Christmas gift to keep you in her good books!

Our designer works hard to match bags to shoes so take a peak at your lady’s feet to check the style that’s best suited to make her day special.

• Contemporary casual lovers will find Maui and Cairo irresistible.

• Smart, chic party girls will love Peru and Marseille.

• Or for girls on the go we’ve a whole host of beautiful leather travel gifts.

Cairo - £59

Marseille - £35

Adventure - £25 Peru - £45

Recipe for

comfort

Whilst our toes are snuggling into our favourite pair of toasty Hotter boots, we’d love to enjoy some winter warming food and we’ve found the perfect recipe. We can’t wait to try Fireside Chicken sent in to us by Linda Shelley from Suffolk who won our recipe competition.

INGREDIENTS Fireside Chicken (serves 4) 3/4 chicken breasts – cut into chunks 2 tbs olive oil 1 red onion (sliced) 2 cloves garlic (crushed) 1 large red pepper cut into pieces Rind and juice of 1 small orange (keep rind in large, easy to find, pieces) 4 fl oz chicken stock or wine/sherry 1 tsp of Bisto and a 1 tbs of flour mixed in a little of the stock 14 oz can of chopped tomatoes 1 oz sun-dried tomatoes drained and thinly sliced 1 tbs chopped fresh basil Seasoning

Warm oven to 180C. Brown the chicken pieces lightly in a large pan with a little oil. Transfer to a large ovenproof casserole dish.

Heat rest of oil in pan, add onion, garlic and pepper, fry gently for 3-4 minutes. Add orange rind and juice, Bisto mixture, some of the stock, basil and sun-dried tomatoes. Heat, stirring, until thickened then add chicken from the casserole and stir to mix.

(Do not add all liquid at once, mixture should be fairly thick as it goes in the oven as it will thin out a little in cooking.) Bring to boiling point, then transfer back to casserole and cook in the pre-heated oven for about an hour, or until chicken is cooked.

Remove orange peel, and serve with rice or new potatoes and a green vegetable, salad and crusty bread.

If you’d like to share your winter warming recipes with us, please send them to the usual address or share them on our Facebook page.

All shoes featured are available at www.hotter.com

9

Bursting with

By Graham Gendall Norton Grapes are berries. For wine, they are smaller than dessert grapes - and the colour tones of the ripe fruit on the vine are far more limited than the range offered by Hotter’s ‘Berry Tones’ shades.

Picked at harvest time, they are much sweeter than those we buy to eat.

Basically vineyard grapes come in black or variations of green and yellow; an exception is the popular Pinot Grigio which is greyish-blue, though it can sometimes extend to copper tones. If you like sweet dessert wines, like a fine Sauternes, their honey flavour is due to late gathering; so the white grapes have shrivelled, turned red-purple and been covered by ‘noble rot’ - an edible fungus called botrytis.

Berries Keeping the flavour theme I can see Hotter designers have introduced smart boot Isla in Sangria, a wine-based Spanish fruit cocktail and elegant shoe, Allegra, is offered in a shade named after the greatest wine area in all the world: Bordeaux!

Now, our wines, each loaded with berry flavours. My first choice is a Merlot from the Pays d’Oc, Southern France.

Taste the blackberries married to dark plum: producer Paul Mas, from Majestic a two-bottle price of £6.49 each.

A berry which has such a variety of notes, from gentle sweetness to sharp, is the raspberry. I was pleased to find it in South African, Kanonkop Kadette 2010, (£8.79 two price) from the Merlot in a blend of four grapes, with blackberries showing up from Cabernet Sauvignon.

Everyone’s palate differs, but most of us will discover fruit either at the first sniff of the glass or as we roll the wine around our mouth. For a white wine the tastes are tree fruit - green apple, or citrus, lime, lemon, sometimes melon or tropical fruit. The berry which figures most often is the gooseberry, either green or ripe!

It is with the reds that we find the berry tones, with darker rosés also often carrying berry hints. Leafing through the Hotter collection I can see many autumnal options actually come in black and it’s interesting to note that in some languages what we call red wine is called ‘black wine’- in Croatian for example.

COMPETITION

Raspberries again, sharing with cherry flavours, in my final choice, St Clair Estate Selection Pinot Noir 2010 from New Zealand (£9.99 two price). So admired for its splendid Sauvignon Blanc, that country is now making excellent wine from this red grape.

Allegra - £65

Vogue - £69

Isla - £79

Peru - £45

Win two bottles of each of the wines featured if yours is the first correct answer randomly selected from our post bag - see back page for details.

Name a Hotter shoe available in Bordeaux?

10 All shoes featured are available at www.hotter.com

ExclusivCelub

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As Saga magazine is for smart grown-ups, we thought we’d be the ‘perfect fit’ with you Hotter Comfort Club members. So if you’ve never seen the magazine, here’s your chance. It’s an unusual mix of ‘I didn’t know that’ features, award-winning health and financial advice, gorgeous interiors and gardens, fun games, and delicious recipes. ay a ys, Add to that some great reader-only events and offers (plus discounts on Saga holida of course) , so what are you waiting for?

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This offer is only open to new UK subscribers who pay by Direct Debit. After the initial ÂŁ1 the subscription will continue at the low rate of ÂŁ3.99 every three issues (saving 36% off the normal subscription price)

Readers’ letters Hotter in the Arctic!

I recently cruised to Spitsbergen in Norway where I visited Ny Alesund, the most northerly permanent settlement in the world! Several pairs of Hotter shoes went with me to carry me over the arctic tundra and around all the fjords and towns. In the picture, I am taking a well-earned rest on board SS Braemar in my fabulous Dizzy shoes – with the gentle arctic waters in the background.

PerfecTly maTched Carole Harris from Nottingham was thrilled with the Morocco handbag in Chilli Red that she won in a recent Hotter competition.

She accesorises it beautifully with her Chilli Red Magical shoes!

Sandra Philpott, Hindhead.

Find out the latest

news on facebook

KeePing fiT Hotter designers Karen and Kim, completed the Great North Run this September, battling through sunshine and torrential rain to make it to the finish. They raised over £1,000, well done girls!

These boots are made for walking

Former paratrooper Jeffrey Long walk ed 90 miles in July raising over 5 £6, 00 for the Royal British Legion. Here he is pictured with his trusty Hotter boots.

Friends have suggested a 1,000 mile walk in Germany for his next challenge and ITV have even invited him to do a parachute jump!

Jeffrey Long

Customer Service: 0800 525 893 Personal Shoppers: 0800 083 3083

E: weloveshoes@hotter.com W: www.hotter.com Hotter Comfort Concept Shoes @hottershoes

Send in your stories, photos and competition entries to Melanie Killilea, Editor, Comfort Club, Hotter Shoes, 2 Peel Road, Skelmersdale, WN8 9PT or email weloveshoes@hotter.com. Any stories or photos sent to us may be used in future editions of Comfort Club or on our Facebook page.

Unless otherwise stated, competitions in this edition will close on Monday

12th December – winners’ details will be printed in our online Comfort Club at www.hotter.com or contact the Editor for a full list.