Shoe Salon

Recipe for Success

Beautiisoles founder dishes on how the brand came to be. By Greg Dutter

IT WAS UGLY. It was scary. It was a potential killer. It also was the impetus behind Beautiisoles, a new upscale women’s brand (SRP: $250 to $495) by snack foods purveyor/competitive ballroom dancer/burgeoning shoe executive, Robyn Schreiber. That “it” was a soft corn between the toes of her left foot. Schreiber had been living with the nagging ailment for years that, in 2018, doctors warned could lead to sepsis—a potentially fatal infection.

Lying in a hospital bed post-surgery, Schreiber vowed to channel her years of pain and suffering into something beautiful or, more precisely, Beautiisoles. “I’d been running around the world, selling snack foods, dancing competitively and doing everything I do, but always wearing too tight heeled shoes, only to wind up in the hospital with a very serious issue,” she says. “I had to do something for all women, and decided to create a line of shoes that would be gorgeous and comfortable.”

Just one catch: Schreiber didn’t know a soul in the shoe business. But that didn’t stop her. She’s a self-described “tremendous multitasker” who always gets her foot in the door. “I have a huge bandwidth and I’m generally awake at 4:30 a.m. each morning, working through the day and dancing competitively in the evenings,” Schreiber says. She also possesses decades of product manufacturing experience— something she told herself repeatedly early on. “I kept telling myself, how different can manufacturing snacks and shoes really be,” Schreiber says. “Find a good sourcing partner, mix the necessary ingredients, sample the goods, get it made, find distribution and ship.” While that may be a tad oversimplified, it’s essentially the path she set out on in 2019.

Early on, though, that path was bumpy. For starters, the initial samples weren’t all up to snuff. Also, getting one’s foot in the door of retailers, amid a raging pandemic, proved quite challenging. Then fate struck—Apr. 21, 2021, to be exact—during one of Schreiber’s presentations at a Miami Beach boutique. The retailer suggested Schreiber meet her boyfriend, who just so happened to be John Hanna, a veteran of the shoe business with a resume that includes CEO of Charles David and, prior to that, founder of The Fashion House, which held licenses for Nicole Miller, Isaac Mizrahi and Richard Tyler, among others. “It was as if my great grandmother was on my shoulder like an angel,” Schreiber recalls of the initial meeting with Hanna, who was officially retired. “Worlds collided, in a good way, and we soon started working together and rebranding not just from an overall aesthetics viewpoint, but also operationally, sales, design—in all ways.”

The new-and-improved Beautiisoles launched in January of this year. The debut season, Schreiber reports, has been a huge success. Thanks, in part to Hanna’s input and connections, an experienced sales team and improved designs from a new sourcing partner in Italy, Beautiisoles has landed in hundreds of boutiques nationwide, as well as in Nordstrom and

Lord & Taylor. “It’s been a very good beginning,” she says. “We now have stores reaching out to us.” What retailers like, Schreiber says, is Beautiisoles’ wow factor. “There’s a genuine femininity and eye for detail,” she says. “Attention to detail is critically important, and that includes stitching colors, lasts, ornamentations, the exact placement of those ornaments, fit, comfort (Beautiisoles shoes feature six millimeters of padding), heel shapes, colors of soles and sockliners, etc.” Schreiber adds, “Everything about each shoe involves hours of conversation, and when someone tries on one of our shoes, they feel instant comfort. They look up immediately and say, ‘Wow.’” The wow for Spring/Summer ’23 starts with a gorgeous color palette, reports Schreiber. “There’s Beautiisoles cooks up style and comfort, a.k.a. lots of mint, gorgeous lilac, beige and lemon,” she says. “We also have lots of elegant gold chain its “wow” factor. ornamentations and crystals, floral embroideries, stunning heel shapes and classy textured pumps that are like burlap.” Schreiber says the broad collection is aimed at Beautiisoles’ equally broad target audience. “We are for every woman—from twentysomethings to 60-year-olds,” she says. “We have flats, wedges, kitten heels and higher heels. We have conservative, office-friendly block heels and gorgeous shoes for a night out.” What Beautiisoles doesn’t have is basic black shoes. “Everything has that extra oomph,” Schreiber explains. “Like ballroom dancing, you can follow the steps, but can you really evoke what you’re trying to do with the dance? Our shoes do.” Ever the multitasker, Schreiber plans to continue doing both jobs, as well as dance. A typical day sees her meeting with national accounts in the snack foods industry, overseeing new product launches and dealing with supply chain issues. There are also zoom meetings with Beautiisoles’ sales and design teams, as well as with retailers. Then, most evenings, she’s off to the studio, ballroom dancing for two to four hours. It’s a heavy lift, but the exec wouldn’t have it any other way. “I just do it,” Schreiber says. “I make things happen.” She also credits her “phenomenal” teams at both Robyn Schreiber, founder, Beautiisoles companies for making it happen. “Everything starts with a sale,” she says. “You can have the best product, but it will sit on a shelf if you can’t sell it. We have a very dynamic sales team that’s extremely hands-on and great at outreaching and following up.” As for Beautiisoles’ next steps, Schreiber says the approach will be strategic. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, which is how my father built our snack foods company,” she says. “We started with one product and now manufacture over 10,000.” Schreiber envisions, in three years, targeted brand extensions for Beautiisoles. “We won’t be making dishes,” she says. “But handbags and other accessories are a definite possibility.”

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which is primarily every day, do-it-yourself type guys. We’re developing better-grade Goodyear basic hikers and work boots for key customers. We’re targeting the $90 to $120 price point with a few more specialized products up to $140. The air gets pretty thin over $120 for work boots. Orders become scare above that price.

Few brands possess the recognition of Goodyear, not to mention the tremendous visibility provided by the Goodyear blimp and its iconic logo.

Joe: We saw that potential when we first signed the license in 2012. It’s also why we’ve renewed the license three times. However, I’m not going to lie to you, it took us a while to convince retailers of what this brand could be. Fortunately, once we got shoes to retail, they’ve done a lot of the talking. Buyers are happy. It’s good product. And while brand recognition is key, it still all comes down to product and value. Like I mentioned earlier, product is king. As long as we deliver on that equation, we should continue to be successful.

Does NASA have similar brand attributes as Goodyear?

Joe: Actually, the beauty of a brand like NASA is that there are no specific core basics we have to adhere to. It gives us a lot of leeway to build the brand across a range of styles, be they cupsole sneakers, sandals and slippers. It’s basically playing Potato Head: what uppers do we want to put on those core constructions. What materials make sense for the brand. For example, we have a cupsole sneaker that features all-over 3M reflective material. That’s a fit with the NASA brand. It’s also got great shelf appeal.

Ten employees managing eight brands is a lot of responsibility. How do you guys pull it off?

Joe: We all wear multiple hats. But we are looking to expand our team where we can as we’ve grown fast over the last few years. That aside, there are some days when I get home from work and need to take a breather and get my equilibrium back. Going from brand to brand, category to category, shoe to shoe and retailer to retailer can be a real challenge. It can get confusing and stressful at times. But it’s also part of the thrill. I love building shoe brands. It’s a craft that we’re passionate about it. Passion ignites fire. We get fired up about this business. There’s nothing better than launching a brand and seeing it mature at retail.

What do you love most about your job?

Daniel: Meeting great, genuine, honest people. I’ve made amazing friends in this business along the way. Some of them aren’t even in the business anymore yet they are still among my best friends. There’s nothing more valuable than a genuine friendship. I also love this business because you can make a footprint, pun intended. Relatively, there’s not a lot of people in this industry overall and, if you come up with something really unique, you can be in the history books. Joe: I love the build. I love building shoes and brands, as well as then building them at retail. I love getting that call after we’ve delivered our shipments and the buyer says our shoes are doing great. That’s my ultimate thrill.

Is there a fifth generation in the wings?

Joe: I have two sons so, God willing, at least one of them will follow in my footsteps. And Danny will soon have a few in the pipeline, God willing. For us, it’s all about building SCL Footwear into something for our family’s future. Daniel and I are the pioneers of this company. We’re doing the heavy lifting. We want the 10th generation of our family to run this company one day. In the meantime, it’s fun to build SCL Footwear from the ground up. We wouldn’t want it any other way. •

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necessary. I could go to a higher level.” Daher concedes that “there’s certainly some tweaking to do in the future.” But overall, the response to his store has been stellar.

“We get so many comments about the taste level, asking how we found these brands that aren’t seen elsewhere,” he says. “I’m just blown away by that emotional response—that they see the fashion within our collection and my brand in these brands.”

Based on the positive feedback, he envisions adding an online shopping component by next fall. “We’ve had multiple requests from our tourists,” he reports. “Shoebox and Co. is a brand for them wherever they may be.”

JUST GETTING STARTED It took just 90 days to get store No. 1 from lease signing to open for business. And Daher is already in the early planning stages of two more Shoebox and Co. outposts, set to open by next summer, most likely in nearby resort towns for logistical purposes. He believes the capsule concept can work in most resort towns because the target demographic is already strolling through the various independent bookstores, gift shops and ice cream parlors nearby.

The customer base spans a broad age range, which surprised Daher initially. “We have young people come in looking for Birkenstocks and, while they can just as easily buy them online, they’re having a great experience trying them on and interacting with our staff,” he says. “I think there’s a yearning out there to reexperience the shopping experience that we call brick-and-mortar. People want to reconnect in a way where they can learn something, and it’s not just a bunch of merchandise stacked out there. That’s especially true for more personal items like shoes.”

Opening additional Shoebox and Co. locations is also a way to give back to the industry and pump much-needed new blood into it. “I would love to mentor young people into this business,” Daher says. “I think there’s such an opportunity here. People used to come up organically through Nordstrom and independent stores, but there is so little of that now. I believe this is a viable opportunity to mentor younger folks into this business.”

Managing one very busy Shoebox and Co. store is a full-time job, so potentially managing three will be a challenge. It helps that Daher is a 66-year-old who feels “like I’m 36,” reinvigorated by working in retail again. “It’s a lot of work, but I thrive on that,” he says. “My mother was a tough cookie. I grew up in a family where all my siblings became entrepreneurs. I was the black sheep who went to the corporate side. Now I’ve done a total 360, and I’m back to my roots and so energized that I don’t see an end at this point. I love the shoe industry, and before I leave this planet, I want to add value to it for people and brands.”

In the meantime, Daher is living the dream. “This store is my baby. I’m there every day, if possible,” he says. “I’m having the time of my life.”

Being in the store every day means Daher’s vacation home has become his primary residence. That wasn’t the plan, but duty calls. “I haven’t been back to Boston since we opened,” he says. “I hear fall is very popular here, and I’m excited to bring in seasonal footwear. There are so many interesting items that could intrigue my customers.”

Daher plans to stay open through January, then close for February and March before reopening. “That’s the beauty of a store in a resort location—you can take a break,” he says. Of course, his always-working M.O. means he’ll spend those months getting the new Shoe Box and Co. locations rolling. But it’s not work if you truly love it.

And Daher does. His days are filled with doing what he enjoys most: running a shoe store and interacting with customers. “It feels like a party in the store all the time—the music, the bubbles, the wine, the shoes all work together,” he says. “It’s just so invigorating to engage with customers who appreciate what we are trying to do. It’s like being with friends all day.” •