The shoe label has just lifted the scaffolding on its street level boutique in Westfield Sydney in the city's CBD. Florsheim Australia president David Venner said the store, designed by Paris-based architect Eric Carlson, is “a billboard for the brand”.
It was a conscious choice to hire Carlson, who has created stores for the likes of Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer.
“We have become more contemporary over the last three years particularly in our styling... we're still in a phase of letting the market know,” Venner said. “It was time with this opportunity to make a real bang. This site is located on the highest pedestrian traffic flow corner of Australia. From our point of view it was a great opportunity to say 'here we are, come and have a look', and get more people to understand where we're at.”
The boutique illuminates Florsheim's 119-year heritage via details such as the Florsheim crest atop the store's entryway and photos of the first Florsheim stores in the US.
“To me the store shows that it's an international brand and that was important from our point of view,” Venner said.
In addition to debuting a new look retail model the Florsheim Sydney flagship will also house the Florsheim by Duckie Brown line for the first time. The “more fashionable” line is an ongoing collaboration between Florsheim's American head office and US menswear brand Duckie Brown and “is a visual of where the brand is going”, Venner said.
Also unveiled over the past month has been Florsheim Australia's new website and e-store.
“The build and the format of the site is being done in the US, even for our site now. The intention is to have the format globally being driven by the back end in the US so you can click on a Florsheim site anywhere and it will look like your Florsheim site,” Venner said.
Of additional growth plans, Venner said he believed there was potential for another five Florsheim stores in Australia in addition to the brand's existing 25 retail doors. The label also has extensive wholesale operations with stockists including David Jones, Myer and independents.
Florsheim Australia is a joint venture between David Venner and Florsheim's parent company in the US, Weyco Group. The latter owns a 60 per cent stake in the Australian operations.
Florsheim was founded in 1892 and has operations in the US, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Erin O'Loughlin