While some people may be bogged down by the Mayan calendar,
2012 for all of us at Allen Edmonds brings a great celebration as we mark our
company’s 90th Anniversary.
Yes, for 90 years non-stop – in direct contrast to prevailing industry
trends toward off-shoring – our shoemakers have been making men’s shoes right
here in the U.S.A.!
We’ve planned several exciting ways throughout the year to
celebrate our 90th with our customers, employees, suppliers,
communities and friends. The first event
in the line-up is a Shoe Design Competition among some of the best design
students in the world.
Specifically, to honor our Made in USA heritage and support
design education, we’ve partnered with the premier American art and design
school – The Parsons New School for Design in New York City – and challenged
students there to reinterpret today’s classic American men’s street shoe. Other than explaining our 90 year history and
our great American heritage, we encouraged them to be as creative with style,
materials, textures and details as they wanted to be. We’re offering three scholarship prizes to
the winners of the contest, so we’ve had amazing participation among the
student body. And “fun” doesn’t do enough
justice to the invigorating experience we’ve had working with the passionate students
and their leadership at Parsons!
Now, here’s where we could really use your insight and participation… The six designs that made the cut
into the semi-finals are online now and waiting for your vote! Please go to our voting page at www.allenedmonds.com/parsons to pick
your favorites among the six. On March 1st,
we’ll tally the votes and along with an expert panel of judges -- including Nick
Sullivan the men’s fashion guru of Esquire Magazine, Simon Collins, the
Dean of The School of Fashion at Parsons, and Noel Traum our own young shoe designer
who graduated from the Milwaukee School of Fine Arts – we’ll narrow the field
down to three finalists. Those three finalists
will work with our shoe craftspeople to turn their designs into actual
prototypes. The prototypes will again be
on-line for your final voting starting March 26th with a winner
selected during the first week of May.
Please join me in voting for your favorite designs before
the end of the month, and watch the styles move from idea, to CAD drawing to
prototype over the next few weeks. Your
input will be key to the contest’s success, so thanks very much!
Best wishes,
Paul D. Grangaard
