Grant Stone is a US welted shoe brand which has gained great reputation in the community and been praised by US consumers. This reputation did not come easily as the shoes are made in China (the city Xiamen in Southeast China) and targeted US customers and the brand never hid this information and even promoted it. In the end, the shoes and quality speak and we also see Grant Stone has more and more following and it is never a shadow of anyone (if you know this brand for a time, you know which brand I am talking about.)
The founder Wyatt Gilmore married a Chinese girl and works in China time to time, it is very happy to run an interview with him to see the challenge, the achievement, the excitement and the plan.
If you draw a line to present the business progress of Grant Stone from the beginning, what would it look like?
We started off with just the shoemakers and myself so it technically couldn’t have been much smaller. This has felt like a good place to start because there is only one way to go from there and you learn every aspect of the business from the ground up.
We had experience with shoes, but not direct to consumer e-commerce.
Pandemic has been prevailing for more than three years, and Grant Stone touches both China and the world, which have very different controlling methods and situations, how does it impact your business? Especially this year, the Shanghai lockdown may significantly harm your production and logistics.
Having a relatively small business has probably been beneficial during the last couple of years. You can be more flexible along the way. That being said, it feels like it’s still not over and everything has been disrupted from each component to the ability for people to work and of course shipping.
Grant Stone’s birth has many links to Alden which you never hide, and it is great to see Grant Stone is not cheaper Alden but with its own style. How do you balance people’s love to Alden and your signature.
Over the last few years this has become less of a topic and it’s really not something we hear anymore. If anything, I just try to implement what my Grandfather taught me through his time at Alden which is focusing on the lasts and components. Maybe even more than that, stay consistent and don’t stray too far from the plan.
I cannot find the answer by myself, so it is great to have the opportunity to ask an American, why Americans love Longwing so much and even pair it with serious suits which is your cornerstone of Grant Stone?
The longwing was made famous by Florsheim.
There was a time (I wasn’t alive) they were considered the GYW king by many in the US. The longwing is a classic pattern that most recognize from those days. That being said, it doesn’t seem to have the same traction as it once did, now that things continue to become more casual. Some say this will come back around.
Besides casual shoes and boots, Grant Stone also offers dressier shoes like cap toe oxford and penny loafer, how do you please people from two communities design-wise?
In our experience, this has been mostly the same customer. The person who wears an Oxford during the week wears a boot or loafer in the evening or weekends. It’s a rather natural transition because they are both GYW construction and use most of the same components/leathers.
Our customer tends to be someone who wears loafers and boots most often and wears an Oxford for the occasional event such as meetings, interviews or weddings.
Like another Spanish company making shoes in Shanghai, they don’t sell to Chinese customers from China, but Spain, Grant Stone is the same, ship the shoes out to US and ship them back to Chinese customer. why is this? Chinese people complain you are charging us for very unnecessary costs!
This is just the product of small business. As of today, we have 5 people in our office.
Three years ago, we only had two full time people, including myself. We simply aren’t there yet. If we were to sell shoes direct in China, we would essentially need to double our current team and start a new company, along with doubling the inventory. This is a serious undertaking requiring extensive resources that we are just not ready for. We are still trying to build a solid base and manage our team here, hopefully making it through these next few years with all of the unknowns.
Also, I can’t stress enough the importance of warehousing which includes customer service and inspecting shoes.
It took us 6 years to build our current operation and I would expect something similar if we were to do it in China or any other area. I do love the idea but knowing what I know now, it sounds absolutely terrifying to take on! Although, I sure wouldn’t mind living in Shanghai for a few years…
How are you building your customer community as when people who own and wear your shoes share the content, it influeces more poeple and gains higher trust than brand own’s promotion.
It’s really our customer. They have a deep interest in the products and dive into the details.
Forums like Style Forum attract these discerning customers and it creates a snowball effect. Luckily, we have the product to allow this. This has truly been the game changer for us.
I believe you have extensive knowledge about supply chain in China, all your leathers are imported, have you ever investigated Chinese tanneries? Which quality of leather is most focused in Grant Stone. Maybe you know the customers of workboots and dress shoes demand very different leather quality, such as finer crease, Do you cut leather intentionally different?
These are very different markets. Most tanneries in Asia tend to focus on completely different businesses, mainly being volume programs. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a different category.
To be frank, we barely meet the minimums of these smaller, boutique tanneries, so buying from a large tannery group wouldn’t even be an option. To clarify, there could be smaller boutique tanneries in China, but to my knowledge, few that focus on tannages we utilize or our market specifically.
We currently buy leather from CFStead, Horween, Badalassi (just to name a few) which are small tanneries that naturally can support little programs. They also have each identified their niche. We buy suede from CFStead because this is their specialty.
Likewise, Horween for their shell cordovan and hot-stuffed chrome leather (chromexcel).
And badalassi for their incredibly rich vegetable tannage.
We tend to focus on more robust leathers that have a lot of character and change over time. We do have some French calf from Annonay which is more of a cleaner dress category, but it’s a smaller portion of our collection.
You mentioned that in US market, it is not very crowded of high quality welted shoes which is true that only Alden and Allen Edmonds may count, but if you think of Spanish and English shoemakers, the market is super crowded. How do you compete with them?
I suppose I shouldn’t say it’s not crowded, it’s just a very small market in general. Also, I think people would be surprised at how few GYW shoes are actually out on the street. The Spanish and English GYW brands make beautiful shoes (I wear some), but the reality is they are not as easy to purchase here in the US when comparing to the likes of a Allen Edmonds. A small percentage of our customers wear these international brands because of this. At this point, even Allen Edmonds stores aren’t necessarily that common. Very few stores carry GYW, let alone large collections of European brands. Maybe in NY, but far and few everywhere else. I imagine this will slowly change as cross-boarder purchasing becomes easier and the larger brands will have more extensive warehousing in the US.
More importantly, I truly don’t think we should be concerned with competing against other GYW brands. This market is tiny and most of our customers own multiple brands to enjoy a range of patterns, materials and fit.
We will focus more on introducing GYW footwear to people who don’t have any experience with it and primarily wear sneakers. After all, that is the overwhelming majority.
How about your global customer base?
As we touched on above, any big changes will require extensive resources, and we are just not there yet. I still feel we are in our infancy and have much to learn with our current business. However, we do have a lot of international customers and continue to ship internationally everyday.
Australia has been a good example of a country we ship to often and our customers there find the process relatively painless. They have few options so buying direct to consumer with quick ship times is already a step in the right direction.
What is the plan for Grant Stone for the next 3-5 years?
We are going to continue growing our collection of patterns and leathers. Moreover, continue to expanding styles into all three widths, D, E, EEE.
We have many customers who wear our EEE lasts who tell us they cannot readily find any shoes in the likes of kudu or certain shell colors, and they have found that with us.