Time for some new shoes – Church’s Leeds delivers
Decent, honest customer service is becoming rare these days. Also, the fact of actually buying something in the flesh rather than using the web. Shoes are VERY important. You wear them every day, they are what you wear to walk / run in and they say a lot about you. As the legendary @Opotopo (Mr Kelly) said
Life is too short for crap gear
And I heartily agree. So, it was a great pleasure to buy a new pair of shoes from Paul and Patrick at Church’s Leeds yesterday. They helped me choose, helped with the fitting and made sure I felt like a special customer. The upshot is that good old WOM, or Word of Mouth comes in. Anyone who asks me where to buy shoes from, and I am going to recommend them without hesitation.
A HUGE thanks chaps and here to further embarrass you, some photos! 
Toms Shoes – a unique marketing success story
I’ve just picked this up via my morning feeds and I am SO impressed.
Toms Shoes are a company who have been around for only 2 years. They have a very simple message:
Buy a pair of our shoes, and we give a pair to someone who really needs a pair.
The company was set up by Blake Mycoskie. He was a former contestant of “The Amazing Race” who was inspired by the low-cost alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes) during a trip to Argentina, where he saw people who could not even afford the very basic shoes.
Why has Toms Shoes impressed me?
Number one – a superb cause – people really do take this to heart, and what a great way to promote and sell a product when you know you are doing some good in the world too.
Number two – a quality product, a fun one, and not just one style, many styles (so more purchases!).
Number 3 – great brand, which is telling a story – people LOVE stories.
Number 4 – great marketing – lots of viral potential, loads of evangelists who spread the word, and the big one.
Being unique. Standing out and being noticed, doing something different, which also happens to be great.
I wonder if they sell them in the Uk yet? Time to hit up cuil, or maybe I will just stick with Google!
