Years ago I launched a website called The Shoe Snob Marketplace. The problem is that it was not the Marketplace I had originally envisioned. Its idea was there but it ended up becoming more of an eBay-style site than anything else. That is not what I wanted though. As the site was also stylistically never what I wanted, I simply let it run its course as people were happily selling their shoes. But I never turned that site into ‘The Marketplace’ I had envisioned as I needed a far more professional-looking platform. So, it finally came time to put an end to that site and create what I always wanted: a place where respectable shoe brands could get rid of their undesirables and customers could get shoes at a lower rate than typical retail.
My vision was sort of a ‘Sample Sale’ style site where brands would sell off their odds and ends that either sat on shelves collecting dust or lived forever on the unvisited web pages of the internet. The fact of the matter is that every brand in the world creates stock that is either made in error, becomes unsellable at a full retail price due to being tried on/returned, etc, is made as a second-grade quality and/or simply becomes dead stock (old models not relevant to the current collection). Many brands do not want to list that stock on their website or represent it in their shop. So they either have physical sample sales periodically in the hopes of getting rid of it or somehow sell it all off in bulk to other companies that sell that type of product. The worst-case scenario is that they never get rid of it and it just collects dust. That is essentially wasted money and no one wants that.
The plan was, therefore, to allow these brands to showcase on a site dedicated to shoe lovers where they could offer these odds-and-ends models at unbeatable pricing in the hopes of creating a win-win for both the brand who gets rid of undesirable stock and the customer who gets great pricing for shoes they might not otherwise ever find. And in the end, everyone is happy. So we did just that and created The New Shoe Snob Marketplace.
We are starting it off small to get the ball rolling, but I plan to add many brands that I know have this exact type of stock. For now, you can find my brand J.FitzPatrick Footwear, Berwick loafers, Enzo Bonafe, Barker, and Cheaney. While only really having stock of five brands, you will note there are a lot of SKUs available and some really cool styles. Not to mention, at prices that you will be challenged to find elsewhere.
The downside is that due to logistic complications in tax/shipping etc, this site is currently only available to US residents (read: US addresses). If you are outside of the US, try to find a forwarding company that can re-route your parcel to your country of residence as we are only able to ship to US addresses for the time being. Please also note, that each vendor is its own entity and will have different return policies, and will ship from different places. Make sure to read all of the info before purchasing.
And there are no shipping fees!
Happy Shopping!
Start Here: https://theshoesnobmarketplace.com/
