Welcome Home John Daher, owner of Shoebox and Co., returns to his retail roots with a fresh concept in a picturesque Maine resort town. By Greg Dutter
URNS OUT YOU can go home again. At least John Daher has gone back to the job he first called home more than 25 years ago. Daher started working in his mother’s shoe store and went on to expand that operation into a namesake chain of five successful sit-and-fit stores in Massachusetts over the course of two decades. He then crossed over to the wholesale side as product consiglieri for Bob Infantino at Clarks Companies N.A. and later at Cobb Hill, Drydock Footwear and Rockport. It was an incredible run—particularly at Clarks, where Daher oversaw the introduction of the Privo and Unstructured lines, and where pairs overall at the company grew by one million annually for 10 years straight. When the revival of the Rockport venture didn’t pan out as planned, Daher could have hung ’em up. He had nothing left to prove. One problem, though: He’s not the retiring kind. “I’ve always been working,” Daher says. “Retirement has never been a consideration.” In fact, Daher never even took a break. For the past few years, he has been a partner in a sourcing company that does design and development for major brands. But he wanted to do more. A period of soul searching ensued. He looked into many possible ventures, including investing and the food industry. But his musings always circled back to the industry he loved most: shoes. “And whenever I dreamt about the footwear business, it was always back to my retail days,” Daher says. As fate would have it, Daher and his wife, who manages an interior design business in Boston, had recently bought a vacation home in the coastal resort town of Kennebunk, ME. Daher was on one of his walks around town, contemplating his next career move, when it occurred to him that Kennebunk could use a shoe store. Not just any shoe store, mind you. What Daher envisioned was more an art gallery concept featuring a curated mix of comfort and style. The “gallery” would provide an experience—namely, an enjoyable discovery process for customers, where they could learn the stories behind an array of unique brands and styles. Customers might be familiar with some of the brands, but others would be new to them. The store might include 12 styles from one brand, while selections from another would be limited to two or three. In every instance, Daher would focus on the hidden gems rather than the shoes people could purchase in a thousand other outlets. The store Daher envisioned would be on his terms: selection, service, decor, vibe…every detail. Above all, it would be fun. “I don’t want this to be a burden,” he says. “I want to project my knowledge,
John Daher and his bubbles machine welcome customers.
gained from my years of footwear experience, to my customers. I want them to enjoy shopping and learning about these interesting shoes. It’s really more of a gallery/gift shop than a shoe store.” BUBBLES AND TUNES An art gallery-worthy selection is great, but you have to lure customers inside first. Enter, a bubble machine and some good tunes piped outside
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