Shoecast December 17 2024

Stitchdown Shoecast with Schuyler Mowe of Nicks and Brett Viberg of Viberg giving each other questions

Notes

• Nicks
  • Mowe doesn’t think much about being online constantly or energy into marketing, since that’s his strength and background
  • transparency doesn’t distract from their product focus, it is their focus
• Nicks
  • team tends to put off harder-to-make boots
  • Schuyler has to walk the floor and find them
  • hard to cross-train people to make Brandle
  • feels production slowness may have squandered launch enthusiasm
• Viberg
  • no longer doing industrial shoes
  • have local guys wearing industry-style boots, but casually
  • “If he does the work boots first, he will fuck up all the cordovan.”
• Nicks
  • have cells on the floor that focus on harder boots
  • “Do industrial guys care about SPI?” a perennial question
  • working on boots and different price points requires different mindset
• Viberg
  • guy who boxes boots more important than the maker
  • unboxing impression is immediate, whether the boots last 20 years takes time
• possible US tariffs on Viberg
  • reminds of Japan tariff situation
    • 28-30% leather footwear
    • can get quota to drop to 24%
    • now down to 5% because of CIPP
  • set up a subsidiary in-country
  • sell B2B at or below cost
  • but money stays in the country
  • Viberg USA for store in NYC
  • tariff can’t last long
  • no way to absorb 25% increase
• Nicks
  • heritage the biggest opportunity
  • “bigger pool of dollars”
  • also more fickle
  • see heritage and work as linked
  • “work benefits heritage”, not the other way around
  • work is the branding opportunity
  • confers legitimacy
  • boot they make not going to appeal to everyone
  • Viberg gets complaints for being heavier than Lobb, and Nicks is heavier than Viberg
  • hard to make women’s and sell a lot
  • no “pint it and shrink it” at Nicks
  • foreign markets: running behind others
  • decent chance in Europe
  • late to party in Asia
  • few wholesale accounts, hard from a margin standpoint, with overhead for marketing and customer service
  • Wesco does lots of wholesale
  • “trading margin”
  • South Korea experiment coming in January, but mostly direct-sale
  • need agent in-country
• Viberg
  • sells in USD because pays for all inputs in USD
  • essentially takes them out of the Canadian market
• Mowe
  • lead times are 3-4 months now
  • not too busy, looking for sales!
  • just did renovation expanding shop
• Viberg
  • no, doesn’t consider Viberg a Pacific Northwest company
  • father probably would have, because mindset was industrial boots
  • share some techniques
  • if it can be made stitchdown, they do it that way, but do lots of others
  • trying to be different
  • market super saturated
  • resistance to change
• Mowe
  • would also say Viberg isn’t a PNW company
  • work boots
• Viberg:
  • PNW = 55 last
• Mowe
  • stand on a ladder
  • 4 years ago, companies in Spokane were largely the same
  • now more differentiated
  • logger boots won’t sell forever
  • annoyed to come up as one of five options
• Viberg
  • $400 welted is hard price point to penetrate
  • if built in First World, has to be upscale
  • doesn’t know if they’ll go even more upscale, toward Lobb
  • lifestyle pivots change everything
  • used to be Alden, them between $400 and Lobb, nobody else
  • “people want the brand … I fucking hate it … don’t care about what goes into it”
  • “I’m not a brand whore.”
  • really irritating
• Mowe: that’s what makes Viberg Viberg