The last shoe store standing

Sneakers to Boots is a landmark around these parts, demarcating the serpentine stretch of road between New York and New Jersey. But take us back. How did you get into the footwear business? Well I managed a store down in Jersey for 12 years. We sold hockey equipment, cross-country ski equipment; it was an import-export business, also. So I had a background. And actually the very first footwear job I had was with Fayva Shoes [in Caldwell, NJ]. Sort of a funny way of getting started was I answered an ad that said ‘sports-minded.’ But it was for a shoe store, you know. Just a way to get people to apply.

Did you know what kind of job it was? Well, yeah, I just thought maybe it was going to be a more sports-related job. But at the time, I needed a job.

If you could go back in time, would you want to change anything?Would I have liked to have been other things? Yeah, I would like to be a pro basketball player. I gave it my best shot, and it didn’t happen.

Did you play ball in college? Yeah, at Susquehanna. I played guard in high school but I grew a lot my senior year in high school and freshman year in college, so I ended up playing a little forward.

What made you decide to launch out on your own in the shoe business? It’s always an awkward conversation: if you got fired, or laid off? But that was the case. Had a house, two kids, and this was what I knew. So fortunately, Warwick was a growing area. It looked like an opportunity to start a business.

Do you think the era when someone could make a living with a brick and mortar shop like yours is coming to a close? Somebody could still do it, but I do feel like it is coming to a close. I mean, I feel like the milkman in many ways. This is not how you buy shoes anymore. But there are still people who want to support a local store, they want to see the product, and they want to see a familiar face.

Since opening in 1990, you must have served multiple generations of families. Yeah, and it’s sort of a shock to see somebody come in and say, you know, I was a kid when I came here, and now they have their own kids. It’s sort of nice, but it’s sort of shocked me, that I’m this far down the road.

What have you liked about this job? It’s very rewarding, you know, if you have a good day, that it clicked, that it worked. Certainly having the store in Warwick, I can ride my bike to work, which is a great way to start and end the day. And I think the fact that I have an understanding of all the different phases of the business. I’m not just doing sales, I’m not just doing accounting or whatever. I like the decision-making aspect of the store.

I’ve seen you biking to work. Do you always do that? Well sometimes I’ll bike to work, and then it’s pouring rain so Kim [his wife] will have to pick me up. I don’t know, I’ve gotten so used to it. I don’t like to use the car. It’s a long day at the store so I feel like I need some sort of physical activity, whether it’s lap swimming, biking, something, just to balance it out a little bit.

What are your sports interest these days? Probably tennis and golf, as far as playing.

Any other plans, post-retirement? I’d like to try and coach basketball. We’ll see. Pretty much any level. Just, I think I have something to offer.

And I have a grandson now. Max [Ralph’s son] just moved to New Hampshire so they’re a lot closer. Kim has an apartment in New Hampshire so she goes back and forth, so I’ll probably do a little bit of that.

You’re closing the shop May 1. How will the community change with the closing of your store? You lose a little of the community spirit when you don’t have local stores. Certainly, convenience – on a Saturday morning you need a pair of soccer cleats or you forgot something or you’re on a hike or whatever, there’s the convenience of having a store nearby. Obviously, you’re going to have a more personal experience. If there’s an issue, you’re going to deal with a person rather than sending emails back and forth. It can be a hassle, just takes a lot of time to get things resolved. Whereas when you’re seeing somebody face to face you can get things accomplished a lot quicker.

What are you not going to miss about coming to work every day? I guess there’s an angst each day that things are not going to go well or you’re not going to make any sales that day. I certainly won’t miss that. It is a little bit like gambling: you’re buying product and hoping that you have the right product. So there’s a lot of pressure on it. You know, as time went on a little bit of that is taken off. You get to know the rhythm, you know, the sky isn’t going to fall as much as you think it is each day. But there’s still that worry. My family has sacrificed a lot by the amount of hours I’ve spent here. There’s a lot of worry that you take home each night, unfortunately, that you can’t shake. It’s not like I can come here every day and it’s going to work out. It doesn’t automatically work.

It’ll be different not to have that looming over you. One of things I do like is the problem-solving. Every day is a different problem, and as much as a headache as it is, when you resolve it, it’s satisfying.

Running an independent shoe store must have gotten harder in recent years. Let’s say 20-30 years ago, basically you just had shoe stores. Then the idea of an athletic shoe store started, and the idea that’s that all you would sell was sort of unique: you had your Foot Lockers, individual stores, and that took off. Then all of a sudden you had these big boxes come in, the Dicks of the world. Then a lot of the companies said, you know, we don’t really have to deal with the independents anymore, we can just deal with the big boxes and sell it ourselves. And now it’s gone another step where now not only do you have your Amazon, but you have the companies themselves selling the product. And they can sell a zillion styles and a zillion colors, and the younger generation’s on the phone all the time so that’s the way they know how to buy the product.

Nike and New Balance – they make more money selling it direct than selling it to me wholesale.

So now the name brands won’t supply product to independent stores like you anymore, after decades of working together? Even before that, they sort of take away the best products, you know. Adidas, for example, they have the Originals and the Superstars – you can’t have those, or it’s limited. So it’s like you’re a Nike account but you’re not really a Nike account. The pandemic just sort of accelerated the whole process. They didn’t have enough product to give to everybody, so they just sort of said well, we’ll get rid of the smaller guys.

Is there a brand that’s been a notably good partner? Red Wing. And part of the reason is they have their own stores. They are the only ones that don’t sell online. That gives me an advantage, in that if you want a Red Wing boot or something, you might find it online but they’re pretty good about telling people no, we want it just sold through our distributors.

Anything you wish you’d known, that you had to learn the hard way? When I was thinking about opening a store in Warwick back in the early 80s, at that time there was Knight’s Sporting Goods and Warwick Monagramming, and everybody opened right at the same time. My idea, having this sort of athletic background, is I’m competing with these other two guys. So my wife Kim goes, well why don’t you go down and talk to [the owner of] Warwick Monogramming, and maybe you can work it out where you’ll just do the footwear and he’ll do the jackets and all that sort of thing? And as it ends up, [the owner] goes, well why don’t you rent the place next to me and we’ll work together? So I was thinking more competition, and my wife is a little bit more open-minded. Cooperation is a better way to do it.