Plans at J.FitzPatrick Footwear
For those that might not know, on top of being ‘The Shoe Snob’, I also own a shoe brand, called J.FitzPatrick Footwear. This post is written as the brand co-owner, which I am, in case there is any confusion.
It’s been a heck of a year, to say the least. Prior to the shutdown, we had huge plans for 2020, all of which were eitherput on pauseor drastically understateddue to the world situation. But the beauty of the hard times wasthat it allowed us to take our time, focus, and really hone in on all that we wanted to get done for our brand. Slow times allowed us to actually put more effort into these up-and-coming plans/changes. And thanks to all of you who kept the brand alive through your support, we survived and are coming back bigger than ever! (P.S. thanks to our landlords too!)
So, you must be curious about all of the plans we have in place. There are many and I will dedicate a section to each, so do make sure to read the entirety of this email to be up-to-date.
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J.FitzPatrick Line Upgrade and Price Hike
With the introduction of the JF line, our ‘entry level’ line, we knew that we really needed to be able to explain the difference between what is typically referred to as a ‘benchgrade line’ and ‘handgrade line’. Prior to our upgrades, admittedly our J.FitzPatrick Line was not quite fully ‘handgrade’ so to speak. It was halfway there and I have been working hard to get it pretty much there. But of course, with upgrades in quality and details comes a price hike as well. So what did we change and what we will raise prices to?
1. Pitched Heels – This has come on our new S/S 2021 models and will soon be available for all stock going forward. This subtle yet profound change really gives shape to the overall look of the shoe and provides a line that you often only see in handmade shoes. See the photo above, as well as thefeature photo to see the new pitched heels.
2. Morestitches per inch on the welt/sole. Starting in Autumn, all shoes will have 10 stitches per inch on the sole stitch, providing a more refined and elegant look. Currently, they are at 7 spi. See the photo. below
3. Elongation of our beveled waist. In the attempts to make the shoe more and more refined, I have wanted to elongate the length of the bevel on the waist. For those that do not know exactly what that means, it is the part of the solethat is rounded, on both the inner arch and outer arch. Extending the bevel makes the shoe look more refined and gives it better shape as the bevel follows the contours of the last. This will come on all new and incomingstock shoes from A/W onward.
4. Sevennails in the toe instead of 5. Those extra two, simply help to protect the tip of the sole that much more.This will come on allnew andincomingstock shoes from A/W onward.
With these 4 features, we will be able to proudly represent a ‘Handgrade’ title (not to be confused with Handmade) on the J.FitzPatrick Line, as the refined details will all be there.
Naturally, this will incur a price hike as more handwork will be done on the shoes than was done before. Please see the changes below:
Low shoes – $30-$40 price increase
Boots – $40-$50
That being now is your chance to grab these prices while you can! Prices to go up in September.
Use code ‘FREETREE’ to get a free pair of shoe trees on all non-sale J.FitzPatrick Collection Purchases(does not include MTO, JF Line or Patina project). You must add the shoe trees to the cart for the discount to work.
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Reseller Expansion
Currently, we have two stockists outside of our NYC shop and online store.
One in Nanjing, China –Fu Pei (http://fupei.net/)
Another in Seoul, South Korea – Tannery Shoes (http://tanneryshoes.com/)
We also have a new one coming very soon in Switzerland, who should have his shoes in a few weeks.
And we are in talks with two shops, one in Wales (a new UK distributor, for all of our UK clients) as well as a very well known menswear atelier in SE Asia, who I won’t mention as of yet.
With our move out of London, it made itharder to acquire our shoes for those of you in the EU, UK or Asia. We have not forgotten about you and we hope that these new outlets will help you come back to the J.FitzPatrick brand without fear of high import duties imposed by your country.
Do keep up to date with these new stockists to get a J.FitzPatrick pair near you 🙂
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Collaborations
Believe it or not, we are doing something we have never done before and that is teaming up with a friend and personal style consultant, Martel B. Francois, to launch a capsule collection this A/W. We are starting with 2 models and will let the rest do the talking. Martel is one of the sharpest guys we know, a great friend and we are excited to start shaking the ground of NYC with this collaboration.
If you have not yet heard of Martel, make sure to check him out at the links below
1. His Instagram –https://www.instagram.com/
2. His Website –https://martelfrancoisnyc.
Stay Tuned for this one!
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The NYC Shop
It’s like a movie script with our timing on our very first J.FitzPatrick street-level shop, leased signed for March 1st of 2020. Thankfully with good landlords and loyal clients, we are still here and stronger than ever, with our doors open and eager to meet many of you in/around the NYC area or soon coming for a visit.
In the beautiful and quaint side of Soho, we have sat patiently in our little shop waiting for life to come back around and the wonderful people of NYC to start coming out again, people to start traveling again, and lastly, for eager shoe enthusiasts looking to revamp their collection. And those days are soon upon us.
We never got to have a launch party. Yet we will intend to. And naturally, we missed one year of Sample Sales. That is soon coming, too.
If you are NYC-based and purchase a pair of shoes, we also have a ‘pick-up’ feature at check out which gives the perfect opportunity for you to come say hello.
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The New App
We have recently launched the app that we have been slowly working on for the last 1.5 years. This was one of our big projects we had that really got overshadowed by the Pandemic and really putting it on the back-burner as we worked on what we needed to keep the business moving forward during those tough times. But it’s here, it’s live and it’s ready for you all to download it.
The app will be a great way to stay up to date with the small things like new model re-stocks, exclusive discounts, more minor notifications that do not require an entire newsletter email.
Available in both the Apple and Play Store, we hope that you enjoy this new feature. See the links below.
https://apps.apple.com/au/app/j-fitzpatrick/id1555120633
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jfitzpatrickshoesus.android.app
