Many designers of women's fashion boots don't always appear to make boots for their public. I notice that the simple elegant lines of the Isaac Mizrahi Saxton boot make it impossible to keep in stock. The only way to explain why the primitive looking short classic Ugg Australia boot can be difficult to find in many women's sizes must be its unencumbered look greatly appeals to people. Time and time again it's not the ornate boot designs that sell out to the masses. You can get those in all sizes at any online boot dealer. It's the basic models that disappear so quickly. So why do boot designers continue to offer the public so many models covered in belts, buckles, fringe, odd toes or little pieces of fur? Why detract from a perfectly good design by choking the boot? Dothese styles actually sell? Well I believe I learned the truth in a round about way.
I once worked for a surf-clothing manufacturer. And while we didn't make boots, the experience made me realize the factors of why some products sell out and others do not.
I was always shocked that our main designer would design what I considered daffy styles that had little hope of selling. And many of them didn't. It made no sense to me because time and time again our best sellers were basic but elegant styles. Our biggest selling surf trunk was an all black nylon trunk. It had classic lines and killer triple stitching but it wasn't amazing. The public sure loved it though. We sold thousands of them. I was in charge of inventory so I saw what sold.
In another example, at one point we couldn't move very many hats. I remember suggesting the designer also design a simple black hat with a small white logo on it. He fought against my idea. "It's boring," he said but finally relented. The hat became our biggest seller.
So why do designers and manufacturers defiantly continues to try to produce what does not sell? I believe there are several factors that enter into this.
One reason I feel this happens is due partly to ego. Many artists have this trait and designers of boots, shoes and clothing are no different. Especially in the expensive high-end women's fashion boots. Boot designers like most creative people just want to do what they want to do without so much regard to the business end of things. It's about their art and being fabulous. It'sabout topping themselves season after season. It's not about what the public likes until the designer loses his job for being out of touch with what the public wants. Then things change.
It's an old argument between artists and business people. For a fine example of what often happens when art and business butt heads, look at Isaac Mizrahi. He mainly designed fabulous clothing, shoes and fashion boots for his friends and models. Each 6 months he would try to top his previous line with something more wild and crazy. Then when his company would hit a style the public continued to clamor for, he's stop producing it because he got bored designing it. In the end he and his company lost steam. (Happily he is now reinvigorated with a new deal he signed with Target and appears to see the business light. Now he designs for the masses and enjoys the strong sale numbers of simple well designed products.)
So while ego is likely one reason in some cases, the rest has to do with merchandising, marketing, branding and retail store buying. The general idea for boot and shoe manufacturers is to get as many styles out on the market that they can. They want to offer lots of different looks to hopefully get more merchandise in the stores. Designers are just creating as much stuff as they can to see what sticks. But ultimately the store buyers will pick out what they think the public will buy and they stock those styles. The funny thing is no one really knows what will sell. They think they know but mostly they guess. So if the store buyers guess wrong, those styles sit on the racks. Hence a lot of ugly women's boots are still available or soon going on sale.
Now of course the crazy designs can get press and are sometimes designed just for that reason. At the surf clothing company I worked we offered a surf trunk that retailed for 0. This was the first of its kind since most surf trunks retailed around . No one had ever done this before. It was outlandish. The trunk had tons of bells and whistles on it including numerous pockets, a stay dry container and a compass. The designer and marketing director actually designed it together thinking it wouldn't can't sell more than 30 units. It was more about garnering press for our little company than anything else. Funny thing happened was it actually sold several hundred units and wewere forced to make a production run of it. Who knew that would happen? In the process we did get tons of press and became known for this extravagant trunk as well as our basic best sellers. Mission accomplished.
This is the very reason I believe Harley Davidson puts out so many men and women's motorcycle boots that are adorned in crap. No other boot manufacturer has more variations of the bizarre and wild motorcycle boot than Harley does. Their boots are known for this, which continues to build their brand recognition. I can't imagine they sell some of those gaudy models. Harley also brands their products louder than all other boot makers by placing huge logos on nearly every style. Again it seems funny to me that many of the more outlandish models are easy to find but try to find a plain Harley Davidson engineer boot and you'll be hard pressed.
So from all this we can deduce that while ego plays a small part in the reason why more simpler women's fashion boot designs aren't available on the market, more of the reason lies in merchandising, marketing, and branding practices of boot manufacturers as well as the buying efforts on the part of retail store buyers.
