Shoe Salon

DESIGNERCHAT TANISE HILL • GLORY GOLD

TANISE HILL DREAMED of becoming a shoe designer as a kid. But in order to achieve that dream she knew it had to begin with a solid foundation. Thus, her earning degrees in fashion and footwear design from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising followed by years of honing her skills at Restricted Shoes—a brand known for its trend-setting fashions. It’s there that Hill developed her design intuition, a gut instinct on what the key materials, colors and silhouettes will be for a season.

“I’ve grown to sense what will work and what won’t, especially when working with the factories,” Hill says. “I know the best fit, what’s comfortable, what looks good and what women want.”

Hill long held another dream: her own label, which came true with the launch of Glory Gold in 2013. The name harks back to her days of dreaming to be a designer. “Glory Gold promotes positivity for women to be inspired and confident,” she says. “Give all of yourself to your purpose and, despite any obstacles, keep the faith, persevere and you’ll achieve your goals. Give all the glory and you’ll achieve the gold.”

That positivity theme translates into an overall design aesthetic that, Hill describes, as “elegant, distinct lines and intentional patterns that flatter the foot.” Think versatile styles “suitable from the boardroom to the red carpet,” she says. An example is the Deluxe high heel mule pump (SRP: $269) that features an instep strap. “It’s my modernized spin on the slingback, but the strap holds your ankle in the front,” Hill explains. “The sleek, elegant design can be worn at work and effortlessly paired with evening attire.” She adds, “I like to create unique patterns, new seams and functional closures to make something original—like the use of curved buckles and our signature royal blue insole.”

That story continues for Spring/Summer ’22 with a mixed media minimalism themed sandals collection. “It’s all about letting the texture shine,” Hill says. “I like to mix materials in a simplistic yet beautiful ways, like a sharply designed modern home.” Key colors span shades of red, orange and blue with plenty of woven textures, block heels and sculptured wedges.

Ever the entrepreneur, Hill recently opened a flagship in the Oak Park Mall near her base in Overland Park, KS. In addition to expanding Glory Gold’s following, the store serves as a design laboratory. “Women are specific about their footwear based on the occasion, and I’m learning exactly what they’re looking for each of these occasions,” Hill says, adding that the store presents custom design opportunities as well as serves an events space. “I’m also gaining knowledge about sizing and noticing the frequency in requests,” she adds.

Hill’s goal going forward: to continue to develop deep connections with customers and gain broader distribution. Meanwhile, she is living out her childhood dream. “There’s a void in the market for a brand that resonates with a broad range of diverse women like myself and my peers,” she says. “A brand that offers versatile, comfortable, timeless and seasonless styles.”

Who is the Glory Gold woman? She’s a professional from all walks of life, classically styled in American sportswear or evening wear. She seeks footwear that feels good in timeless silhouettes with unique designs to add elegant flair to her outfit.

Are high heels part of the new normal?

Variety makes fashion fun. If the new normal takes away variety, then there will be no fun. So while women may be wearing flats more of late, heels are a classic, feminine alternative that will come back.

Bella-Vita

Think! Naot

L’Artiste

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT…

Mary Janes. The iconic school girl silhouette scores high marks.

the casual/loungewear mood and how to infuse that into classic looks. That said, my designs are always created with versatility to dress up or down, so there hasn’t been a huge shift in my overall approach.

Who are some designers you admire?

Sergio Rossi was influential when I first developed my interest in designing shoes. I admired his fun, vivid style. His designs always displayed creativity and individuality. I admire the effort it takes to be different, which I aim to do in all of my designs.

What was the best design advice you ever received? To find art in everyday objects. Use your imagination to turn the world around you into your canvas of creation.

What do you love most about designing

shoes? I love how my designs have a positive impact on the way my customers feel about themselves. I’m honored to know that my efforts make women feel confident and empowered. It’s a privilege to create designs women love.

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add-in to the box. Their subscribers—75 percent of whom are women—are right in our demographic wheelhouse. We also want to tie it into our one tree planted with every pair sold campaign and have it timed around Earth Day. We’ll also send an email to our customers and engage them possibly with a giveaway for a box subscription. So, ideally, our customers will subscribe and their customers will buy shoes. It’s a win-win. Bigger picture: We need to think outside the box to expand our business where we have opportunities to do so and that make sense. To that end, we have to look at new categories and customers to build our business. We’re confident we can achieve that.

Why is Tamaris a good fit for the portfolio?

First of all, it’s one of the biggest shoe brands in Europe. They sell about 30 million pairs annually in that market. You see its presence on pretty much any street corner. It’s also a step above of what we do in the comfort space and it has a little more of a fashion twist to it. So, we see Tamaris as a great opportunity to build business in some better distribution channels where we can’t take Earth Origins. And Tamaris is excited about the partnership because they tried to enter the U.S. market about five years ago but struggled to gain traction. Like a lot of Euro comfort brands that have tried to break into this market and failed, you have to have boots on the ground. We have all the infrastructure already in place. Our distribution center in South Haven, MS, is about 200,000 square feet. It’s not third-party run. We can drop-ship roughly 12,000 pairs a day. That’s a lot. Another great thing about the Tamaris deal: We don’t have to do any development. We just merchandise the collection on what we think is best for the U.S. So, all in all, Tamaris is very excited about what we bring to the table and the opportunity it brings for us both. We are too.

How has the reaction been to Tamaris’ fall collection from retailers?

Phenomenal. Although, we were late, not surprisingly, delivering shoes. Nordstrom was our first customer. They’ve done well. We just need more inventory. I’m sick of saying that, but it’s the truth.

Do you see supply chain problems improving anytime soon?

We thought last spring that this fall would be much better. But it’s gotten worse, unfortunately. I think next spring will still be difficult. I keep asking our COO (Al Gervais), who I worked with at Mark Fisher for years, how do we hedge our bets pricing shoes and predicting deliveries with lead times so much further out than normal? Before, you could turn something around in 90 days. That’s not even remotely possible now. So, to answer your question, I think it will get a little better, but it won’t be until Fall ’22 that we see a light at the end of the tunnel. Then again, who really knows? It’s so unpredictable right now.

It’s hard enough to predict what a consumer might want 90 days in advance. How do you have any idea if the lead time is more than double?

You don’t know. You have to take a lot of risks. You have to gamble. The only thing going for everyone right now is that there’s just not a lot of inventory available, so retailers have to buy something. Fortunately for us, we have a long history and we have a very good idea what our consumer wants and is likely to buy from us. We’re a commodity-based business. We’re about comfort, fit and

“OUR DISTRIBUTION value. So it’s probably a little easier for us than for some other brands to predict CENTER IN SOUTH HAVEN, what will sell.

MS, IS ABOUT 200,000 How much is Earth Shoes still producing in China?

SQUARE FEET. IT’S NOT We still have a lot of development there. You just can’t just walk away from it that

THIRD-PARTY RUN. WE easily and ramp up production elsewhere. CAN DROP-SHIP ROUGHLY That said, we’re sourcing in Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, although the 12,000 PAIRS A DAY. latter was a disaster with the coup. We had 250,000 pairs sitting in trucks, but

THAT’S A LOT.” they never made it onto a boat because the government seized everything. Every wholesaler will tell you similar horror stories. I mean, look at Nike. Because of Vietnam’s issues, Nike won’t be able to make 160 million pairs. And that drives up prices for everyone because Nike will take over other factories trying to make up for the shortfall as much as possible. It’s just gotten out of control and every vendor is frustrated.

Care to share an example of frustration?

I heard about one vendor that had an Aug. 1 delivery date for a national chain.

A sport sandal from The date has already been pushed out a

Earth Origins’ new Trail collection for few times, and now the shipment isn’t Spring ’22. expected until November. Normally that retailer would have just cancelled the order. But now they initially asked for a 20 percent discount followed by 15 percent and 10 percent. They were rebuffed each time until they said they’ll take the shoes. The have little choice, because another retailer will snap them up at that initial price. Worse, if they cancelled the order, they may have empty shelves. Everyone is struggling to find inventory. That’s why the industry is so upside down right now. And that’s why everyone is looking at other countries to source. For example, we recently took a couple of shoes to Mexico where the speed to market plus NAFTA outweighs the higher factory costs, which is a little more expensive than Asian countries. The lower logistics costs and duties alone will offset whatever those factory increases are. If that works, that could be a great opportunity for us. We’re also looking at going back to Brazil.

What is the main goal for the rest of this year?

Real simple: deliver shoes and fulfill every order that we possibly can. Everyone is feeling that pinch now. A year ago, some discount majors had the pick of the litter, buying tons of inventory at ridiculous prices. Now the tables have turned. They can’t get inventory, and there are no close-outs, which means they’ve got to make up shoes. We can do that for them, but we’re not going to compromise